Indiana football just won the game of the season. It’s hard to argue against that. Redshirt junior wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr.'s acrobatic toe-tapping touchdown grab in the final minute to stun Penn State is already being labeled “catch of the year” on social media.
As much as the Hoosiers’ 27-24 win over the Nittany Lions was an incredible viewing experience for college football fans, it served another purpose for head coach Curt Cignetti’s team. It reminded Indiana what it's like to be tested.
“It’s a game of inches, it truly is,” Cignetti said postgame. “It was the most improbable victory I’ve ever been a part of.”
Since the Hoosiers beat then-No. 3 Oregon 30-20 on Oct. 11, they haven’t met much adversity. That changed in Happey Valley in front of a hostile Beaver Stadium crowd.
Despite holding a 20-7 lead early in the third quarter, Indiana allowed Penn State to claw back and score 17 unanswered points to take a late lead. While redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza ultimately led an 80-yard game-winning drive to avoid an upset to the Nittany Lions, that stretch raises major alarms for the Hoosiers moving forward.
Before I continue, it's important to note that Penn State is, in fact, a good football team. Yes, this loss moves its record to 3-6. Yes, the Nittany Lions fired their head coach midway through the season and lost their starting quarterback to a season-ending injury.
It’s easy to look at those factors and disregard the elite talent on Penn State’s roster. Instead, I think the Hoosiers just beat the second-most talented team they’ve faced this season. That’s not me trying to make an excuse for Indiana’s second-half struggles. In fact, it's quite the opposite — it’s the reason I have concerns for the Hoosiers moving forward.
The most glaring issue was a partially injured offensive line that allowed eight tackles for loss. With starting left guard redshirt junior Drew Evans out, Indiana was routinely overwhelmed by the Nittany Lions’ pass rush.
“I think we were getting whipped up front and the quarterback got off rhythm,” Cignetti said. “It’s hard to play quarterback when you don’t have very good protection.”
Mendoza, who finished 19 for 30 for 218 yards, a touchdown and an interception, rarely had time to work through his progressions and was sacked three times.
Defensively, it wasn’t much better at the point of attack. The Hoosiers’ front seven, one that had frankly dominated the first half, was out-toughed in the second. Penn State leaned on senior running back Nick Singleton and a veteran offensive line to lead the way in its momentum-swinging stretch to take the lead.
“It came down to winning in one-on-ones, and we didn’t execute at a high level today,” senior linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “A lot of us just didn’t feel like we were on the same page today.”
It’s easy to sit back and critique the weaknesses Indiana showed and ignore the final result. After all, negative things stick in your brain more than positive ones. I was once told that “losing $5 brings an equal amount of sadness as finding $20 brings happiness.” While I’m unsure whether that’s true, I do know something that is.
Indiana just had a wake-up call.
Looking ahead, the Hoosiers won’t face this level of competition for the remainder of the regular season. With their remaining matchups against Wisconsin and Purdue — teams with a combined 1-12 record in conference play — they won’t get a chance to prove themselves against a highly-touted opponent until the Big Ten Championship.
It seems more likely a trip to the conference championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis means a date with the reigning national champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes. The thing is, Ohio State isn’t necessarily the ideal companion for a night out on the town.
While the star power of redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin and sophomore receiver Jeremiah Smith grab headlines, the Buckeyes’ real strength is — and has always been — in the trenches. Physicality up front is the driving force behind year-to-year consistency for blue-blood college football programs. Ohio State is no different.
After witnessing the way Indiana fared in the second half against Penn State, that’s a major concern. The Hoosiers could cover up their shortcomings in the trenches against Ethan Grunkemeyer, a redshirt freshman backup quarterback making just his third collegiate start. However, they won’t have that luxury against the Buckeyes or any of college football’s premier teams for that matter.
At the end of the day, Indiana escaped one of college football’s toughest atmospheres with a win that people in Bloomington will talk about for years to come. I’m not discrediting just how difficult that achievement is. What I am saying is this: the Hoosiers have a problem — one that must be solved if they want any chance of making a run in the quickly approaching College Football Playoff.
It took a miracle completion from Mendoza to Cooper for Indiana to escape Penn State. It’ll take a whole lot more than that for the Hoosiers to compete for a national title. For Indiana, things need to change. It starts up front.
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.
