Indiana football struck first in its primetime matchup with then-No. 9 Illinois on Sept. 20 thanks to junior defensive back D’Angelo Ponds’ blocked punt touchdown.
But the Hoosiers allowed the Fighting Illini to knot the game at 7 on their ensuing drive, as redshirt senior quarterback Luke Altmyer found sophomore receiver Collin Dixon for a 59-yard touchdown.
Ponds went step-for-step with Dixon until he sagged off to cover a crossing route, appearing to believe he had junior safety Amare Ferrell’s help behind him. Ponds explained postgame the Hoosiers were running Cover 3 and he passed the post off to Ferrell, the midfield safety, but he “kind of took the wrong route.”
Indiana went on to score 56 of the next 59 points in a 63-10 thrashing over Illinois, but Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti wasn’t pleased with the safeties’ showing.
“Look, we have some egregious mistakes on the back end, particularly at safety,” Cignetti said in a press conference Monday. “We have about five of them in that game. And we only got exposed once because of them.”
Sixth-year senior safety Louis Moore leads the team in total tackles with 23, while Ferrell has a team-high three pass deflections. Sixth-year senior Devan Boykin has two pass deflections and 12 tackles.
In terms of statistics, the trio is by no means having a bad start to the season. But Cignetti still isn’t satisfied with what he’s seeing when he watches the performances back.
“You can't play Tampa 2 coverage with a safety that's supposed to be on the right and he's on the left and no one is on No. 2 to the field,” Cignetti said in a response to a question about Ferrell. “That's not necessarily him, okay?”
The Hoosiers sacked Altmyer seven times while notching 10 tackles for loss. After the 59-yard touchdown on one of the five Hoosier breakdowns, Altmyer threw for just 89 yards.
Senior linebacker Aiden Fisher, who had two tackles, said postgame the Hoosiers’ defensive line made his job easy throughout the game.
“Didn't really get to see a ball a lot cause I had the D-line just having a day,” Fisher said. “But just dominant and physical, and just elite at the point of attack.”
Fisher said the reason Indiana dominated the way it did was because of its preparation and self-belief. Cignetti said the former is going to be crucial for the safeties to improve upon.
“All three of those guys, we just need them to do what they're supposed to do consistently,” Cignetti said. “Prepare a little better, see what's going on, make the proper adjustments, communicate quicker and be where they're supposed to be.”
Monday isn’t the first time Cignetti has singled out the backend of his defense. After defeating Kennesaw State in Week 2, he said his squad needed to get better at safety Sept. 8 in areas such as pre-snap alignment, communication and attention to detail in preparation.
Still, the second-year Hoosiers head coach said the trio can play great football, as they have “in spurts,” but he needs to see consistency moving forward. Although Indiana sits at 4-0, its next two contests are on the road against Iowa on Saturday and No. 6 Oregon on Oct. 11.
As a unit, Indiana’s defense is fifth in points allowed per game (8.3), third in yards allowed per game (205.8) and tied for second in sacks (15) among all Football Bowl Subdivision schools.
But for all the defensive success the Hoosiers have had so far, they can’t continue their struggles at safety.
“If we don't clean those up, we're going to get fractured,” Cignetti said. “And you can't put that stuff on tape.”
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.
