Statistics can be misleading.
In Saturday's matchup between No. 3 Ohio State and Indiana, Team A ran 92 offensive plays for 442 yards, 24 first downs and held the ball for 34:12.
Team B ran 56 offensive plays for 471 yards, 22 first downs and held the ball for 25:48.
Team A is the Indiana Hoosiers, who became the 23rd consecutive opponent to be defeated by Ohio State, after the Buckeyes topped the Hoosiers 42-14 in Columbus, Ohio.
"It looked a little close except for the scoreboard," IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. "and that's the one that counts."
Wilson said the difference in the game was Ohio State's ability to run the ball and IU's inability to move the ball on the ground.
The Hoosiers ran for 122 yards, which was slightly more than one-third of the Buckeyes' rushing yards (311).
Wilson described the difference between the two spread offenses simply, saying, "Their players made the plays."
For the second consecutive game, IU was held scoreless in the first half. The Hoosiers found themselves down 28-0 against Ohio State one week after No. 22 Wisconsin led the Hoosiers 27-0 after the first two quarters.
Despite IU going pound for pound with Ohio State in total offensive statistics on paper, Wilson described the Hoosier offense as "anemic" in the first half.
"We go a couple quarters and a half before we really get anything going offensively," Wilson said. "When we did, we broke down in the scoring zone."
Senior wide receiver Kofi Hughes said IU's defense did everything for which the team could have asked.
"(The defense) created turnovers, created some stops and gave us great field position all day," he said. "My only thing is that if you're ever on the 4-yard line or 2- or 1-yard line and you can't run the ball in the end zone, I feel that's just our want to. It's not scheme or anything like that."
"That's me versus you and we're going to run it down your throat....and it didn't happen."
Junior running back D'Angelo Roberts, who made his first start of the season in lieu of the injured Tevin Coleman, said the Hoosiers didn't come out of the gate with as much focus as they needed.
"We go three-and-out, we don't score, we go to the goal line and we don't score again, it's going to hurt us as a team," Roberts said.
The Hoosiers had two potential scoring drives end in missed field goals. Before Saturday, redshirt senior kicker Mitch Ewald was perfect--46-of-46 on PATs and 9-of-9 on field goal attempts--this season.
Ewald hit the right cross bar from 42 yards out in the first quarter, then the left cross bar on a 41-yard attempt on the same end of the field in the third quarter.
"I told Mitch Ewald 'Those are two great kicks in tough weather and it hit the bar,'" Wilson said. "I mean come on now, they were good swings; first one (he) went and pushed it, next one he placed a push and it doesn't push."
Wilson said the difference between the two teams was in the "conversion game."
"Their ability to convert in the scoring zone and make plays, the blocked punt turnover, that's the difference in the ball game," he said.
