Buy or Sell: Are the Indiana Hoosiers for real?
Indiana football looked like they’d pull off an early season upset against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Will the Hoosiers be a threat in 2017? Or was this just noise?
The Indiana Hoosiers started Week One off with a bang, or they almost did. It looked like first-year head coach Tom Allen and quarterback Richard Lagow were on their way to leading the Hoosiers to an upset victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes but it was all for naught.
Lagow, himself, passed for 410 passing yards and three passing touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions. The Buckeyes seemed to wake up eventually in the second half after trailing 14-13 at halftime. With the score 20-21, they put up 29-straight points in a route.
Still, the Hoosiers looked like they weren’t terrible, at least from a defensive standpoint. They held quarterback J.T. Barrett to 95 passing yards in the first half. They didn’t force any turnovers but holding the Buckeyes to 8-of-19 on third-down efficiency is nothing to scoff at.
The Indiana Hoosiers almost pulled off the upset, but Ohio State pulled off some big plays in the second half. The Hoosiers ended up allowing 596 yards of offense.
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Most of the Hoosiers’ troubles came on the offensive end of the ball. The offense ended the game with three turnovers. They were 9-of-21 on third-down efficiency and the run-game was all but nonexistent.
The Hoosiers finished with 437 total yards in the game. 420 of those yards were passing yards and 17 of those yards were rushing.
As a team, the Indiana Hoosiers attempted to run the ball just 27 times. For perspective, the Buckeyes ran the ball 51 times for 292 rushing yards.
Richard Lagow didn’t have a terrible game at quarterback, either. He threw the ball 65 times in a pass-heavy attack, but the imbalance on offense was the Hoosiers’ eventual downfall.
Indiana still finished with 25 first downs and a ton of positive takeaways but getting outscored 36-7 in the second half is never going to win you a whole lot of games.
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Final verdict: Buy
For now, we’re buying what the Hoosiers are selling. They did some good things on offense against a very good Ohio State defense. Simmie Cobbs Jr. had 11 catches for 149 receiving yards and a touchdown. Luke Timian had 10 catches for 72 receiving yards. Ian Thomas had five catches for 53 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
The Hoosiers offense showed that they can compete with a top-tier Big Ten team. They should get a few unexpected victories this season. Head coach Tom Allen is off to a good start in year one.