Curt Cignetti seemed to want to diffuse the situation before anyone could ask any questions about his team’s 27-14 win over Old Dominion on Saturday in front of 47,109 fans at Memorial Stadium.
“1-0. But I guarantee you, everybody in this organization realizes we didn’t play as well as we wanted to. That’s just a flat out fact,” he said. … “I’m not pleased with the way we played. So I can’t be any more clear than that.”
WE’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE
Indiana was equally uninspiring during week one a year ago.
After pulling out to an early 21-0 lead against FIU last year, the IU offense sputtered the rest of the way, especially the passing game. There were mistakes, especially nine Indiana penalties for 80 yards. The running game was much more effective than the passing game.
On Saturday IU got off to a slow start before ripping off a 27-0 run. Once again, there were plenty of mistakes, and the passing game was less than stellar.
A year ago Kurtis Rourke was 15-of-24 for 180 yards against FIU with one touchdown. On Saturday Fernando Mendoza was 18-of-31 for 193 yards. You know how things went from there for Rourke.
All was forgotten when IU dismantled Western Illinois 77-3 the next weekend, and then went out to UCLA and put the country on notice.
OFFENSE LEFT POINTS OFF THE BOARD
Indiana had no trouble marching up and down the field.
502 yards of total offense, but just 20 points scored by that unit? That’s difficult to process.
Here’s the why.
Indiana’s first drive stalled at the ODU 1. Their second resulted in a fumble at the ODU 20. That theme continued throughout the game. Indiana’s red zone execution left a lot to be desired.
“I’d start with a plan,” Cignetti said. “And I’m sure I’ll put the tape on, the execution isn’t very good.”
Indiana seemed intent on running between the tackles when they got inside the 5-yard line, despite ODU often having 10 players in the box. 10-on-8 blocking typically doesn’t go well. Mendoza missed a couple one-on-one balls when the Hoosiers did decide to throw the ball from close range.
The Hoosiers saw eight drives get at least to the ODU 20-yard-line, and they produced just the 20 points — two touchdowns and a field goal — on those drives.
Indiana was penalized just three times for 25 yards, and just one was on the offense. So that wasn’t the issue this year. What else held IU back beyond the red zone struggles?
Omar Cooper, Jr. dropped a sure TD on a beautifully thrown deep ball from Mendoza. Freshman Lebron Bond and Mendoza just missed on another deep ball that hit the young receiver’s fingertips near the end zone.
There was also a missed field goal that hit the crossbar from 52 yards out just before halftime.
Yes, Indiana struggled to score on Saturday, and they’ve got plenty to clean up. But don’t lose sight of the 502 yards. They had just 414 a year ago vs. FIU.
DEFENSE WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD, BUT….
On the first play of the game Saturday, it was hard to not think about the last time we saw Indiana play in 2024.
ODU quarterback Colton Joseph found a big opening and stormed down the field untouched as D’Angelo Ponds gave everything he had to try to chase him down. It was Ponds who was IU’s last line of defense as Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love ran free for 98 yards — also after an IU defender missed an assignment.
The scenario played out a second time on ODU’s final drive of the game as Joseph ran free for a 78-yard score. The Monarchs produced 153 yards on the two Joseph runs.
The shock of the first play, and the final taste of the last play makes it easy to ignore everything that happened in between.
On the nine ODU drives bookended by the Joseph runs, the Monarchs turned it over three times and punted the other six. They never ran more than seven plays on those nine drives, and they never gained more than 34 yards. They produced just a total 161 yards on those nine drives (3.7 yards per play) that spanned three-and-a-half quarters of the game. In fact, the Monarchs never snapped the football in IU territory the entire game.
“They didn’t get much done except for two missed assignments which led to big plays,” Cignetti said.
Yes, big plays can often be the difference between wins and losses, and it was especially concerning to see ODU find success with the one aspect of their offensive attack that was concerning.
“There are definitely a lot of things to clean up, definitely a lot of things for us to get better at,” safety Amare Ferrell said. “That goes for coaches, players, everybody.”
But those Joseph runs, along with the offensive struggles, will all soon be forgotten if the Hoosiers can quickly prove week one was an anomaly.
Just like they did last year.
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