Report Card: This One's So Bad, They Should Be Grounded for 2 Weeks With No Dessert
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Back in the day when corporal punishment was sort of accepted, a horrible report full of ugly grades usually meant a grounding, maybe a swat or two with the belt and — worst of all — a week or two without dessert.
That's really harsh. No ice cream? No pie? No chocolate? Ouch, babe.
Indiana's report card from Saturday night's 54-7 loss to No. 5-ranked Ohio State is loaded up with poor marks. There is literally nothing good on the card at all, which isn't surprising in that kind of outcome.
No sense in dilly-(bar)-dallying now — see, I've got dessert on my mind — so let's get to the grades. No need sticking this one on the refrigerator, that's for sure.
Passing offense: D
If it wasn't for a very impressive first drive led by Jack Tuttle that led to a touchdown, this would have been an F for sure. Tuttle got hurt on that drive, apparently injuring his lower leg on the touchdown pass to tight end Peyton Hendershot. It was Indiana's best drive of the Big Ten season.
Once he went out, though, it was awful. Donaven McCulley, the true freshman, just doesn't look comfortable in the passing game. He was just 1-for-6 passing. The one completion, 30 yards to Ty Fryfogle, was nice, but there were a lot of other overthrows. He felt so uncomfortable that the Hoosiers decided to go to walk-on Grant Gremel, who was 3-for-4 passing, but for only 9 yards.
A lot of the struggles of the quarterbacks have to do with Indiana's pass blocking. It's been poor all year, but Ohio State really picked on them, getting five sacks and 14 tackles for loss. Still just totally unacceptable from that group.
Rushing offense: D-minus
Even when you take out the sack yardage, the Indiana running game did nothing on Saturday night. The biggest run of the night came from McCulley, a 15-yard scamper on the first scoring drive.
Starter Stephen Carr never really got much of an opportunity. He had 10 carries for just 13 yards, and that included a 10-yard run. He went met in the backfield on the majority of his runs, that's how much push the Ohio State defensive line was getting.
You're not going to run the ball a lot when you're so far behind, but the Hoosiers' lack of success is real problem. Going with young quarterbacks, you really need your running game to step up. It's just not happening.
Rush defense: D-minus
There's no doubt in my mind that Ohio State's TreVeyon Henderson is the best freshman running back in the country. He had 81 yards and two touchdowns on just 9 carries on Saturday night, and the Buckeyes rushed for 187 yards, averaging 5.8 yards per carry.
For the first time all year, Indiana's tackling was really sub-par. "I was most disappointed in our tackling in the first half,'' Indiana coach Tom Allen said. "To me, that was really what I didn't expect at all out of our run defense.''
The Hoosiers have been mostly good on defense this season, and held Michigan State to half of their scoring average and run totals a week earlier. But they were not good Saturday, allowing Ohio State to score touchdowns on their first six possessions.
Pass defense: D
Ohio State has so many weapons that Indiana's coaches knew they couldn't take it all away from them. And with cornerbacks Tiawan Mullen and Reese Taylor out, they decided to protect the secondary on deep balls and keep everything front of them. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was 21-for-28 passing and was very accurate. He took what the Hoosiers gave him.
Tackling was an issue too, with receivers breaking tackles after the short catches. You simply can't give up 44 points in a half against anyone.
"I was concerned not having Reese and Tiawan, I would say it makes a major difference in our defense, especially against those receivers and we really modified the way we felt like we had to play,'' Allen said. "Without a doubt, that has a major impact on what you do schematically against these guys. It just really compounded the problem, in my opinion.
"You try to adjust and adapt to your guys and give them a chance to be successful. But it really came down to not getting pressure on (Stroud). That's really what kind of caused the biggest issues. And you try to do different types of ways of creating that and try to do some just other things we felt like would give us a chance. But they picked a lot of those things up. And they did a good job of that. Those guys are a big part of our defense, there's no question about it. We missed them.''
Special teams: C-minus
Charles Campbell made his one extra point, but James Evans struggled early again with his punts. His first one went only 32 yards and gave Ohio State a short field. The Hoosiers switched to Jared Smolar on the second punt, and he mishandled a high snap in the end zone that led to an Ohio State safety.
Those kind of mistakes keep happening far too often with this group. It seems like it's something every week.
Coaching: D-minus
I know Nick Sheridan's hands were tied with the quarterback injury issues, but there's really nothing good that can be said about what the Hoosiers did with the ball on Saturday night after that first drive. It was ugly, really ugly.
It's easy to rip on the play-caller, and I get that, but I still think he's hamstrung a bit by the fact that the offensive line just isn't getting it done. Indiana can't run the ball well enough, and they gave up five sacks on Saturday. It's the old chicken-and-egg thing, I suppose, but I still lean more on a lack of execution than poorly called plays. This entire offense needs work.
On defense, I get the coaching decision to protect Indiana's backup corners considering that Ohio State probably has the best collection of receivers in the country. But if you're going to let them catch balls in front of you, then you have to make tackles. C.J. Stroud is a brilliant young quarterback, and he's very accurate. Indiana guessed wrong on what might work best. They played cautious instead of aggressive, and that's no way to go.
Intangibles: D
I said it all week that this brutal schedule of five games against teams all ranked in the top-eight in the country was catching up to the Hoosiers, and I thought Ohio State would be the best of the five. I wasn't wrong.
What hurts the worst is that blowout is sucking all the positive vibes of this fan base. Beating Ohio State was always going to be tough, because, after all, the Hoosiers have lost 27 straight games to the Buckeyes now, dating all the way back to 1988.
The Hoosiers are really down right now, but they need to go to Maryland and find a way to win. Let's see what happens.
Watch Tom Allen's entire postgame interview
Related stories on Indiana football
- TOM BREW COLUMN: Indiana was brutal in every way possible on Saturday in the 54-7 loss to Ohio State, and it goes far beyond the decimated quarterbacks room. The defense failed to show too, and that was even more disappointing. Flush it, and move on. CLICK HERE
- QUARTERBACK CAROUSEL: When you're playing a top-ranked team, it's never a good thing to literally run out of scholarship quarterbacks. But that happened to Indiana on Saturday night against No. 5 Ohio State, when walk-on Grant Gremel had to take several snaps — and make several throws — during the Hoosiers' 54-7 loss. Injuries have decimated Indiana's quarterbacks room. CLICK HERE
- GAME STORY: Ohio State scores touchdowns on its first six possessions and rolled to an easy 54-7 win over Indiana, giving the Hoosiers their fifth straight loss this season against a ranked team. CLICK HERE
- TAILGATE TALES: HoosiersNow.com video director Haley Jordan hit the parking lots during pregame fun to catch up with Indiana tailgaters prior to the game with Ohio State. Here's her video story.
- LIVE BLOG: Here is how Indiana's 54-7 loss to Ohio State played out in real time, with our live blog from the game with all the news and views. CLICK HERE
- ESPN GAMEDAY COMMENTS: Here's what Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and the guys said about Indiana, Ohio State and the Big Ten during Saturday morning's College GameDay pregame show. CLICK HERE
