IOWA CITY, Iowa — No. 11 Indiana football’s offense wasn’t looking itself.
After scoring a touchdown on its second play from scrimmage, the Hoosiers stumbled. Gone were the effortless throws. Gone were the easily broken tackles. Gone was the near perfect pass protection.
Still, Indiana stood a yard into plus territory, facing third and 10 tied at 13 against Iowa with under two minutes remaining. It was crunch time — an incompletion would’ve led to a punt while a conversion would’ve kept the drive alive.
Phil Parker dialed up Cover Zero blitzes for the duration of Indiana’s possession. The 14th-year Iowa defensive coordinator sent one more defender than Indiana could block. Parker’s unit had told the Hoosiers they weren’t going to successfully throw the ball against the look, Mendoza said.
Sarratt reminded Indiana’s receiving corps to be ready for Cover Zero throughout the game. Teams “like to do that to us,” he said. Then, with 1:41 left in the final quarter, Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan reused an earlier unsuccessful play call — Sarratt didn’t break free on his slant that time.
Now, Sarratt saw the Hawkeyes’ safety moving toward the line of scrimmage to blitz Mendoza. The Stafford, Virginia, native said he knew he needed to speed up his route and flatten it off.
Mendoza — who threw his first interception of the season on the prior possession — caught the snap, stood in the pocket and made a perfect throw to Sarratt, the latter said. On his sixth reception of the day, Sarratt broke an arm tackle and scored a 49-yard touchdown.
Sarratt was “hyped,” he said, and was ready to yell before he had even reached the end zone. Redshirt senior center Pat Coogan embraced Mendoza and thanked Jesus. It was the play Cignetti said he’ll remember from the Hoosiers’ first road game of the season.
But senior linebacker Aiden Fisher wasn’t surprised.
“Nothing shocked me about (the play),” Fisher said postgame. “When I saw the ball in his hands, I was like, ‘Yeah, that's probably the game right there.’”
On a sunny, 85-degree day at a place in which top teams have “gone to die,” former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said in 2016, Indiana escaped Kinnick Stadium with a 20-15 win to improve to 5-0 for the second consecutive season.
This season, the Cream and Crimson had yet to make a fourth-quarter comeback before Saturday. They didn’t need to. After the Hoosiers’ 13-point win in the season opener, they had defeated their opponents by 47, 73 and 53 points.
Saturday was different.
The offense wasn’t clicking on nearly all cylinders. Mendoza had more incompletions than touchdowns, which he hadn’t done since Sept. 6 against Kennesaw State University. The Hoosiers’ rushing attack gained a measly 14 yards (excluding Mendoza’s intentional safety) compared to the 308.8 they averaged over their first four games.
The Hawkeyes’ defense — which has been a highlight in 27th-year head coach Kirk Ferentz’s tenure — made life difficult for the second-ranked offense in the country.
Mendoza didn’t put together a near perfect performance, unlike against then-No. 9 Illinois on Sept. 20, when he nitpicked at his two incompletions. Instead, he described his showing as “subpar.”
“I need to get the receivers the ball more accurately,” Mendoza said. “And I just got to be more accurate with the ball and make better decisions and on time. I kind of retracted to some old habits.”
Cignetti noticed Mendoza lowered his eyes while he stood in the pocket a couple of times in the third quarter — Mendoza went just 2 for 5 for 8 yards passing in that period.
On the final play of the third quarter, Indiana faced a third and 15. Mendoza evaded the rush and scrambled near the first-down marker. However, Iowa senior defensive back Xavier Nwankpa drilled Mendoza as he was heading out of bounds.
The play, which was deemed a legal hit despite the Hoosiers’ pleas for a penalty, “really kind of pulled our guys together,” Cignetti said.
“I'm never going to slide,” Mendoza said. “I'm always going to take that shot. And it's because of the guys, like Elijah next to me, that would never give up. And so that's my way to show the team that, ‘Hey, I'm never going to give up.’”
Mendoza completed just five of his 10 passes for 132 yards passing in the fourth quarter. He threw the game-winning touchdown and an interception that could’ve cost the Hoosiers.
But Mendoza connected with Sarratt in the clutch. The latter finished the contest with six receptions for 132 yards and a score.
The game-winning connection was a “big sense of relief” for Mendoza, he said. After Sarratt crossed the goal line, Mendoza clasped his palms together, pointed and looked toward the sky.
“I mean, it was kind of like thanking God, just cause I always, before the game, I ask Jesus and God to play through me,” Mendoza said. “And I think that was the moment that he came and basically helped me get back in the game, maintain good poise, to be able to deliver the ball to Elijah.”
Mendoza finished the contest 13 for 23 for 233 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.
Coogan deemed Mendoza, who stood in the pocket and absorbed hit after hit, a “tough S.O.B.” after the game.
“He's someone that, as an offensive lineman, you're like, ‘That's my guy,’ ‘cause he'll just do whatever it takes to win,” Coogan said. “And so proud of him, and just the way he continues the battle.”
Indiana now enters its first bye week of the season at 5-0. The Hoosiers have two weeks to prepare for a trip Oct. 11 to No. 2 Oregon, which defeated then-No. 2 Penn State on the road Saturday . Moving forward, Coogan said the Cream and Crimson’s offensive line must protect Mendoza at an increased level.
Mendoza entered Saturday as the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. After Saturday’s slate of games, he sits with the sixth-best odds at +1400, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Still, Mendoza “passed the test because he made the key play,” Cignetti said, in his first road game as a Hoosier.
“The kid is uber talented, and we got to let him shine; that's our job,” Coogan said. “But for him to just battle and show the balls that he's got and the guts that he's got, it's huge for this football team, and it's awesome.”
The ever-clutch Sarratt said to play Mendoza’s position, “you got to be a dog.”
“And he's an example of a quarterback,” Sarratt said. “And there’s no other quarterback I would want to be throwing me the ball.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
