What Tom Allen Said After Indiana's 29-27 4-Overtime Win Over Akron
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – It took four overtimes, but Indiana somehow pulled off a 29-27 win over Akron on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.
It was far from a promising showing from the Hoosiers, whose coach, Tom Allen, expressed plenty of concern in his team following the game.
Here's everything Allen said in the postgame press conference.
Opening statement
Allen: "Opening statement. It's about midnight and you guys are still here, so congratulations. I appreciate your perseverance and grit you're showing, and as ugly as it was, we found a way to win. So really, really frustrating in a lot of ways, but proud of our defense to just keep us in the game – three takeaways, defensive score was obviously a difference in the game. Offense was really, really out of sync and really performed poorly. But found a way to win, proud of our guys. Even offensively, find a way to get that final two-point conversion, that was a great call. But yeah, just not a lot to be too fired up about on that side of the football. But obviously when you find a way, you've got a bunch of players that believe and they just battle and they fight and they claw and they scratch and find a way to win a game. Winning's hard, and just a good chance to learn from it and get ready for the next one. Questions."
Q: Coach, on Monday of this week you mentioned you'd like to see your team come out with confidence for 60 minutes and come out with a certain mindset. It seemed like the same thing this week except it kind of carried over into the entire game. Where is the concern level and what can you do four games into the season to change this?
Allen: "Yeah, so obviously maybe look at changing some things we're doing with our schedule, maybe change some personnel, you just find a way to make some changes to get a different result. Obviously didn't prepare poorly this week, but at the same time did have to remind them in an emotional way on Thursday about who this team is and who we can be and don't look at the record and other things of the past because I knew just from watching the film how hard [Akron was] going to play and how much talent they had at some key positions. Thought I got their attention from that, but obviously not to the extent that we needed to. So obviously need to look at that and make some changes."
Q: Tom, to follow up on that, did you sense that your locker room was struggling not to look past Akron a little bit? What's the battle a coach fights in a situation like that where it's easy to sort of say it, but to get a whole group of people to keep that focus?
Allen: "It's huge. I was looking for opportunities and did not like at all how we practiced. We actually restarted some things on Thursday, from what you're just saying right there, I just sensed a lack of really understanding who we were playing and their ability to beat you, which is mind blowing because we don't have any right to think that at this point, but did sense it for sure. I didn't like what I was seeing, but at the same time didn't effectively get their attention for sure, especially not with certain areas of the game. It's a matter of adjusting it and making whatever change we've got to make to get us, after four games, to get us right out of the gate playing at a high level."
Q: Tom, third down and fourth down, 3-for-16 combined on both tonight. I know you need to watch the film, but what do you want to see unlocked in terms of trying to get that done, because a lot of those were short-yardage as well?
Allen: Yeah, up front didn't block well at all. Probably our worst performance of the season on the offensive line as far as running the football. It's more than just them that's tied in, as far as tight ends and the quarterbacks and the reads and the different things we do. But obviously not near good enough. At the goal line, you've got to score touchdowns and not kick field goals. Obviously we got stopped on the one before we chose to kick a field goal from inside the one. But yeah, to me it starts up front and got to block better. If we have to make changes up front personnel wise, we'll do what we've got to do to get that fixed, but that kind of starts – to me, that's where it begins. And then it puts a lot of pressure on third downs and a young quarterback that had a tough night, just call it what it is. But at the same time, we've got to do some things to help him, as well. Obviously we've got to go back and evaluate everything we're doing on offense."
Q: You mentioned Tayven, he settles down with the last two-point conversion, but what did you see from him? He kind of missed some throws high, what did you get a sense from sort of his demeanor? I know you've said a lot about his moxie, but where was he at in the second half when he continued to struggle?
Allen: Yeah, it was a tough night. He definitely wasn't his best, and we didn't do a good job protecting him. There were guys in his face all night long. Our running backs did not do a good job blocking at all, as well as our offensive line, so both of those groups really added to some of those issues which caused maybe some high throws. But we had some open receivers that we didn't hit. We had three critical drops, one that would have been a touchdown early on, which is just a lack of focus. Just call it what it is. So those three drops hurt us, then just not being able to execute. So just growing pains without question, but got to look at it very thoroughly and look at it and what we need to do to get those things fixed because we've got a really good team coming up here in a week.
Q: Coach, just one offensive touchdown through four quarters against a team that gave up 35 last week. Obvious question, is that play calling that needs adjusting? Is it execution? Is it both? Is it many things? What do you see and how would you grade the offensive production tonight through three quarters?
Allen: Yeah, not good enough. Not even close. Below the standard. Below what's acceptable for sure. Need to go back and watch the film to be able to evaluate the execution piece, and obviously I can see the things I mentioned as far as the drops and not doing a good job and obviously just evaluate what we're calling. I think there's no question that some of those leading up to it causes you to be a little more careful in some of those situations not to create a takeaway and put you in an even worse situation because the defense was playing well and doing a lot of good things. So that's even why we chose to kick a field goal from the one-yard line, just because, hey, give us a seven-point lead and would really love to have a double, a two-score lead, which is frustrating, but at the same time played that one just to get enough points, which proved to be a critical decision to give us a chance to go to overtime. So just looking at it live like you all saw, very frustrating and not good enough. That's all I'm going to say."
Q: Coach, you mentioned you need to make some changes in that process. I imagine it's extensive, but how deep is that process, what all goes into that process?
Allen: Well you just go through and we'll go through and evaluate, okay, all the times that we broke down that you go through, okay, why was it? Was it technique? Was it skill? From the talent of a person being able to make that, whatever it is we're asking them to do and just be able to make sure, okay, is it the call and what position we're putting guys in? And so that to me is the evaluation. We did some things on defense that we didn't execute in critical times, and that hurt us. That long run at the end was inexcusable to me. And so, shouldn't have even been to overtime. Should have been – defensively we did a lot of great things, but we can't give up that long run. It was a wrong fit by one of our linebackers, who's one of our better players, and it cannot happen. But offensively, it is a thorough process. It'll start here in a few hours. It'll be a short night to be able to get back to work and figure out what we need to do because we're playing again real soon."
Q: Coach, the quarterback Irons had 141 yards rushing. What do you think led to his success, whether it was designed runs or him scrambling?
Allen: They do a lot of things that put you in conflict with your eyes, so man is a better answer than playing zone. The negative of that is if your front doesn't contain him, then when he does break free, there's no eyes on him. So which happened on that last run I thought that kind of put us in the second overtime there when we had them on a situation to get the quarterback and so I thought that was part of it. Didn't think we had good edges at times, defensively. He's a very dangerous guy without question, but just once again even though the defense was on the field way too much, which they were, that puts a lot of pressure on, but at the same time felt like we didn't do a great job containing a really dangerous quarterback who we knew going in was a really good athlete who could beat you with his legs, so it's just that fine line between getting enough pressure on him and also having eyes on him so you can make sure when he does break free you can him on the ground. So we were successful at it a lot of the time, but not all the time. Not enough.
Related stories on Indiana football
- GAME STORY: In one of the craziest games of the Tom Allen era, Indiana escaped Memorial Stadium with a 29-27 win over coach Joe Moorhead and the Akron Zips in four overtimes. CLICK HERE
- WHAT TAYVEN JACKSON SAID: Indiana quarterback Tayven Jackson spoke to media following the Hoosiers' 29-27, quadruple-overtime win over Akron. Here's everything he had to say. CLICK HERE
