With 13 minutes remaining in the ranked matchup between No. 7 Indiana football and No. 3 Oregon, the Hoosiers led 20-13 and held the ball –– poised to close out a statement win.
On a 3rd and two play, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza dropped back to pass. However, multiple Oregon defenders converged upon the redshirt junior, who launched the ball into the air off his back foot while under duress.
The ball landed short of the intended target and sixth-year senior wide receiver E.J. Williams Jr. Instead, the ball fell into the hands of Oregon freshman defensive back Brandon Finney Jr, who ran 35 yards down the sideline and into the endzone. The extra point that followed evened the game at 20 points.
This would be Oregon’s last score of the game.
Meanwhile, the Hoosiers went on to add ten more points, notching a 30-20 upset victory over the Ducks in Eugene, Oregon. The win marked their first on the road against an Associated Press top-five team in school history.
Before kickoff, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti took the field for an interview.
“You gotta go in with great belief, and indomitable will, a resiliency about yourself,” he said. “Because there’s gonna be adversity hit that you’re gonna have to overcome. And when it hits, you can’t doubt, you can’t flinch. You just keep playing. Then you gotta make the plays at the end.”
Redshirt senior offensive lineman Pat Coogan hyped up members of the Indiana offense in the pregame tunnel. The team, he said, had "no fear."
Cignetti and Coogan’s messages echoed through the Indiana sideline throughout the fourth quarter, as the Hoosiers continued to fight after Mendoza’s pick-six.
Despite the potentially game-defining mistake on the previous drive, Mendoza shook it off and returned to the field with confidence on the next possession. The Miami native connected with senior wide receiver Elijah Sarratt on a 29-yard completion to set the Hoosiers up at Oregon’s eight-yard line. Three plays later, the duo connected again. This time, it was an eight-yard touchdown to cap off a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive led by Mendoza.
“That's resiliency right there,” Cignetti said postgame. “That's like being a rubber ball, right? If you're not resilient, you don't want to be like the crystal chandelier. When you drop it, it breaks into a million pieces. You want to be like a rubber ball. It bounces it right back into your hand. That's what he did after he threw the interception on third and two.”
After Mendoza set the resilient tone and granted the Hoosiers a 27-20 lead, the Indiana defense responded with firepower of their own.
On the Ducks’ ensuing drive, Indiana senior defensive lineman Stephen Daley tipped a pass at the line of scrimmage. After the ball hung in the air briefly, sixth-year senior defensive back Louis Moore secured the interception –– his fourth of the season. This interception came with 6:04 remaining in the fourth quarter and set the Hoosiers up inside Oregon territory.
Indiana’s offensive unit continued to display its toughness against a hostile and rambunctious yellow-out crowd at Autzen Stadium. The Cream and Crimson burned nearly four minutes off the clock with seven rushing plays before redshirt sophomore kicker Nico Radicic converted a 22-yard field goal to extend their lead.
While the Indiana defense failed to record a turnover through the first three quarters, it forced two interceptions in key moments of the game of the final frame. The second interception, secured by redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Jones, ended Oregon’s comeback hopes in the final minutes.
“When the offense was on the field and we needed a game-winning drive we did it,” Mendoza said postgame. “When the defense needed a stop, we did it.”
Prior to the loss, the Ducks had won 18 consecutive home games –– the longest active streak in the nation. Oregon was 7.5 point-favorites heading into the game, according to ESPNBET. All the College GameDay crew except Pat McAfee picked Oregon to win Saturday. But the continued fight and collective team-effort of the Cream and Crimson solidified the end of the Ducks’ unbeaten Big Ten home-record and silenced underdog narratives.
“We knew that there's going to be resilience in this game, they’re the number three team in the nation,” Mendoza said. “And we knew that we had to overcome resiliency and adversity at some point. And I think we showcased that perfectly.”
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
