EUGENE, Ore. — Up 20-13 early in the fourth quarter, Indiana had the ball and appeared to be in prime position to pull off a stunner in Eugene over No. 2 Oregon.
But in a back-and-forth, evenly played contest, it still seemed like one big play was going to swing the game for either team.
And then it happened.
On 3rd-on-2 from their own 22, IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza had three rushers in his face and threw a hurried pass to E.J. Williams. Mendoza didn’t get enough on the ball. IU coach Curt Cignetti thought perhaps Williams should have cut off his route.
It didn’t matter much whose fault it was as Oregon’s Brandon Finney intercepted the pass and raced the other way for a game-tying touchdown.
The Autzen Stadium crowd hadn’t seen a home loss in three yeas and had seemed to be growing uncomfortable. It was the moment they were waiting for. Now the Oregon faithful were determined to make Indiana feel why many believe they have the best home field advantage in the nation.
Meanwhile, Mendoza and his offensive teammates had just a couple minutes to regroup, and go right back on the field.
And all they did was orchestrate what was perhaps the best drive in Indiana football history.
“Coach Cig in the locker room before the game told us we were going to have adversity and we were going to have to fight through it to get a win,” IU running back Roman Hemby said. “After that pick-six we knew they were all riled up and hyped, but we had a game plan and mission to go finish.”
Mendoza led Indiana on a 12-play, 75-yard drive scoring drive that consumed 6:19 off the fourth quarter clock. When Mendoza found Elijah Sarratt in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown to give IU a 27-20 lead with 6:23 left in the game, Autzen fell silent for good. The Hoosiers went on to win 30-20.
It was the second game in a row Mendoza responded to a fourth quarter interception on the road with a game-winning touchdown drive.
“That’s resiliency right there,” Cignetti said of his quarterback. “It’s like being the rubber ball. If you’re not resilient, you don’t want to be like a crystal chandelier where you drop it and it breaks into a million pieces, you want to be like a rubber ball, it bounces right back in your hands.”
With Autzen at full throat, IU had two false start penalties on the drive. But as things progressed down the field, a sense of inevitability emerged. IU ran it five times and passed seven. They picked up three third downs. There weren’t many big plays as the Hoosiers moved surgically down the field — until Mendoza found Sarratt for 29 yards on a screen to the Oregon 8.
Mendoza said his teammates were encouraging him as he headed to the sidelines following his momentum changing interception.
“I don’t want to throw a pick-six. It happens,” Mendoza said. “All the leaders, everyone on the team came up to me and said ‘We’re behind you, we got your back.’ That can be very frustrating for a defense who played so well the entire game and the offense allows a touchdown.
“There was no panic. We knew we’d have to show resiliency at some point and we showcased that perfectly.
“To have everyone have belief in our offense that we’d be able to go down and have that drive with all the boys, to score the game-winning touchdown was phenomenal.”
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