Indiana football: Grades for game with Ohio State would be a student’s nightmare

The Hoosiers were disappointments in every area during their 51-10 loss to No. 6-ranked Ohio State.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Grades were easy to dole out last week when Indiana won by 52 points against Eastern Illinois. And it was just as easy to be harsh this weekend in the ugly 51-10 loss to Ohio State. If a kid came home with these marks, he'd be grounded for a few weeks — and forced to watch the replay of this game over and over.

The Hoosiers were that bad, all across the board. 

Here’s how the Hoosiers graded out in my third Report Card of the season:

Rushing offense: D-minus

Three weeks into the season and it’s become very clear that Indiana can’t run the ball effectively at all. It was a difficult day for sure against Ohio State’s talented defense. Sophomore running back Stevie Scott, who rushed for 1,137 yards a year ago, has been unable to get untracked.

Scott had only 12 yards on six carries, and there’s just nowhere for him to run. There’s plenty of blame to go around between Scott, the offensive line and the scheme. It’s got to get better. In three games, Indiana’s four running backs have gained a grand total of 163 yards on 50 carries.

Passing offense: D

Michael Penix Jr. couldn’t play because of an injury, so Peyton Ramsey got the call at quarterback. He didn’t have much success, missing open receivers on deep balls and failing to get into the end zone. The only Indiana touchdown came on a trick play, a 49-yard pass from wide receiver Donovan Hale to tight end Peyton Hendershot, who was wide open downfield.

Ramsey has started 17 games before, so he should have been better. Heck, he threw for only 162 yards on 33 attempts, which wasn’t good, but he also was under constant pressure from the Ohio State pass rush. The offensive line, horrible in the run game, was just as bad with pass blocking. Penix was clearly missed.

Rush defense: F

Ohio State had its way with Indiana in the run game, rolling up 314 yards on the ground. The Buckeyes thought they could dominate up front, and that’s exactly what they did. J.K Dobbins rushed for 193 yards and his backup, Master Teague, had 103. What was most frustrating was that they broke a lot of long runs after missed tackles by the Hoosiers.

“Some of those were because of missed tackles. So yeah, it's just we've got to keep working on it,’’ Allen said. “I know we've got a lot of young guys on defense, but those young guys are a year older than they were a year ago and they've got to rise up and tackle those big strong backs like they had today. Just very, very disappointing.’’

Pass defense: D

Ohio State redshirt freshman Justin Fields didn’t put up huge numbers against Indiana, but he didn’t have to with the running game being so good. Still, when he had to throw, he was able to locate open receivers. He was 14 of 24 passing for 199 yards and three touchdowns.

Coverage wasn’t tight enough, and there were a few breakdowns. Tackling was very poor from this group, too. It needs to get better for sure. Indiana’s defensive backs can be playing at a higher level this season. They’ve been something of a disappointment so far.

Special teams: C-minus

Special teams had been great for Indiana the first two weeks, but Saturday was a disaster. There was a blocked punt that led to a safety, an shanked punt that went only 12 yards and a kickoff return where two guys ran into each other.

“One of our guys in the shield blocked the interior guy in the A-gap and wasn't supposed to and let his guy go. And to me, blocked punts — they just make me sick because you don't win many games when you get a punt blocked. You can go back and look at the history; it’s very rare that that happens. So a huge mistake by our special teams unit, and then he got flustered and then he shanked the next punt, which was not like him.

“I was just really frustrated with those. You get a punt blocked, that's like a cardinal sin in special teams play, so I'm going to be ticked about that one for a while, but once again, I'm responsible for everything. So we've got to make sure that never happens again. Those are big.’’

Coaching: D-minus

When you lose 51-10, there’s plenty of blame to go around and the coaching staff will have to take their share of it as well. It’s bad when you have a game where not a single player stood out and execution of the game plan was an epic fail.

Allen took a lot of the heat in his postgame press conference, but there’s a whole trickle-down effect in the coaching rooms, too. Offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer needs to find a better way for this team to run the ball. Defense coordinator Kane Wommack needs to shore up a lot of things, but mostly the atrocious tackling that’s gone on the first three weeks. Special teams deserve criticism as well, which is tough considering how great William Inge’s units were the first two weeks. Back to the drawing board, guys.

Intangibles: F

What can you really say about a game like this? I was stunned to hear tight end Peyton Hendershot say he thought they were complacent coming into the game after beating Eastern Illinois 52-0 last week.

Are you kidding me? That made me sick just hearing that. This Indiana team is trying to rebuild and work its way up in the Big Ten. To feel that good about yourself after a win over an FCS school is wrong, especially when you use those feelings to think you’re ready for Ohio State when you clearly aren’t is an issue.

Flush this one and move on.