Report Card: Hoosiers' Offense Brings New Meaning to Pass/Fail Grades
COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a season of firsts for Indiana football, we had plenty more on Saturday in that wild showdown of unbeatens between Indiana and Ohio State. The Buckeyes won, 42-35, but the Hoosiers made them earn it with a wild second-half rally.
Because it was such a crazy game, the Hoosiers did a lot of great things, most notably the suddenly best-in-country passing combination of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and wide receiver Ty Fryfogle.
But there were also a lot of very concerning trends, too, and that makes doling out grades pretty hard. It wasn't as tough during the Hoosiers' first four wins, but Saturday's effort definitely provides some challenges in making out this final report card.
Agree to disagree, if you please, but here we go.
Pass Offense: A-minus
It's not a stretch to say that Michael Penix Jr. had the greatest passing day in Indiana football history on Saturday. He threw for 491 yards and five touchdowns, and had it not been for lost yardage on the final frantic lateral play, he would have topped Richard Lagow's mark of 496 yards in 2016.
Penix was spectacular, striking downfield often on big plays, 68 yards to Miles Marshall, 51 yards to David Ellis and two big tosses to Ty Fryfogle for 63 and 56 yards — all in one game.
And he did all of that despite being under constant pressure from the Ohio State pass rush. When you're breaking records set by MVP and Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, you know you're doing something right. Penix was that good.
Fryfogle finished with 218 yards on seven catches, and became the first player in Big Ten history to top 200 yards in back-to-back games. He leads the country with 560 yards in the past three games.
"I was moving around everywhere today,'' Fryfogle said. "The coaches put me in great spots to make plays, but that does not matter when you lose. It is just disappointing."
The only thing that stops this grade from being an A-plus were a couple of critical drops, including another one from tight end Peyton Hendershot on the final drive, and Penix's interception on an ill-advised out-route that was returned for a touchdown by All-American Shaun Wade.
When you lost by seven and give up a pick-six, it has to be a bit of a ding on the grade.
Rush Offense: F
The bad student knows that F is for failure, and Indiana's running game failed miserably on Saturday.
Counting the two sacks, Indiana had 16 plays for minus-1 yard total. Starter Stevie Scott had seven carries for 6 yards, and backup Sampson James had just 10 yards on three carries. There was, quite literally, no successful running plays at all the entire game. And that's a huge problem.
“It’s something we have to make a major priority,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said. “We have to get a whole lot better up front and do a better job running the football to take some pressure off our pass game.”
There has to be some long-and-hard analysis on this running game. Sure, the key to a sound running game is execution, but they have to look at scheme and play design, too. Interior runs are going nowhere, and there still seems to be very little effort to attack the edges. Where are the jet sweeps, the draws, the runs off tackle? Where is the creativity?
How bad was it? A D-minus wasn't even considered.
Pass Defense: B
In Justin Fields' first 17 games at Ohio State, he had thrown only three interceptions in 437 attempts. On Saturday, Indiana forced three picks in one game. Indiana's defense has been thriving off of turnovers, and it was more of the same against the Buckeyes.
What was different this time is that they didn't get turned into points like the Hoosiers had done during the first month of the season, and that's not normally something you can blame on the defense, outside of Jamar Johnson fumbling and losing the ball on his second interception.
Fields still wound up passing for 300 yards and the Hoosiers had a hard time containing wide receiver Garrett Wilson, who had 168 reception yards, including a big 65-yard catch on the first play of the game that set an ominous tone.
The pass rush was good, but somewhat inconsistent. They had five sacks, which was great, but let Fields escape to make big plays far too often.
Ohio State tight end Luke Farrell (89) misses a pass under pressure from Indiana defensive back Jamar Johnson (22) during the first quarter. (Joshua Bickel/Columbus Dispatch)
Rush Defense: C-minus
When you allow 307 yards rushing, you're usually going to have a bad day, and that was certainly true for Indiana's rush defense. Ohio State's physicality came into play in a big way, and it wasn't just from the big guys up front. Fields and running backs Master Teague and Trey Sermon and tough to bring down, too.
Still, it was no excuse for the poor tackling, something that hasn't been much of an issue this season. It was on Saturday.
"The tackling was pretty apparent. I thought it wasn't good,'' Allen said. "A lot of the missed tackles were on Justin Fields. He is so strong and quick, and some of our best players consistently could not get him on the ground, which is disappointing, and frustrating. We need to be better at wrapping up.''
Teague had 169 yards rushing on 26 carries, including a 41-yard touchdown run. Sermon added 60 yards, and Fields had 78 yards himself on 15 carries. That's all too much.
The grade could have been worse, but the Hoosiers were much better in the second half, and they made enough stops to let the offense get back in the game. That was good to see.
Special Teams: A
Wasn't much to see here. Charles Campbell made all five of his extra points and didn't have any field goal attempts. Punter Hayden Whitehead averaged 43.2 yards on six punts and there was no news in either team's return games. Hard to be critical of anything.
Coaching: B-minus
I'll give this group plenty of credit, from Tom Allen on down, for getting these guys to play hard for 60 minutes. That philosophy is firmly engrained in this program now, and it was nice to see Indiana battle back from a 35-7 deficit. The players kept believing, and that comes from coaches pushing them to keep grinding.
Still, it's hard to give higher marks when a defense gets scorched for 607 yards. That's an area code (western New York), not a yardage total. Even worse, offensive seems clueless when it comes to running the ball right now. There's still much more work to be done going forward. I have total belief in this coaching staff, and I'm looking forward to seeing immediate improvement. Saturday was a difficult day, which you'd expect when you're playing the No. 3-ranked team in the country, but it needed to be better.
Indiana coach Tom Allen embraces Devon Matthews prior to Saturday's game with Ohio State. (Joseph Maiorana/USA TODAY Sports)
Intangibles: A-minus
We talked over the weekend about how there is no such thing as a moral victory, but what this Indiana team proved on Saturday is that they truly can compete with the best teams in the country. The Hoosiers didn't win, but they proved they belonged. That's saying something from a confidence level — and a learning level — going forward.
“We’re putting ourselves in position to go toe-to-toe with the best in the country,” Allen said. “That’s called growth, that’s called progress, and we’re not going to stop.”
What's interesting now is to see how the Hoosiers respond to their first loss of the season. There are three games left on the schedule, plus a fourth "Championship Week'' game. There are opportunities there for the taking to still make this a special season.
Related stories on Indiana football
- GAME TIME SET: Indiana will play Maryland at Noon ET on Saturday in Bloomington as the Hoosiers look to bounce back into the win column. CLICK HERE
- AP POLL: Indiana drops from No. 9 to No. 12 after the 42-35 loss to No. 3 Ohio State. It is the fifth-straight week that the Hoosiers have been ranked. CLICK HERE
- INDIANA LOSS SHOWS MORE ABOUT TEAM: Tom Brew writes we learned more about Indiana after than loss than any of its wins so far. CLICK HERE
- OHIO STATE OUTLASTS INDIANA: It was a battle of the Big Ten's best this past Saturday, and Ohio State hung on in a tight victory. CLICK HERE
