Keys to the Old Brass Spittoon

This week is another huge game for the Hoosiers. Of Indiana's seven remaining opponents, Michigan State, Minnesota, Illinois, and Purdue figure to be the most winnable games. For the math aficionados out there, Indiana has to win three of those four to go bowling. Here is what Indiana will have to do to start the B1G season 2-0 for the first time since 1991:

#1 Humble the MSU Defense

The Spartan fans, sports writers, team moms, etc. will tell you their defense is good. Number one defense in the country good. Statistically, they lead the NCAA in overall defense, rushing defense, and passing efficiency defense.

Slow your roll Spartan faithful and breathe easy Hoosier crazies.

Let’s take a closer look at the team's MSU has earned that #1 ranking against. South Florida is 1-4, ranked 116 in scoring offense and lost to McNeese State. Western Michigan is 0-6 and is ranked 121 out of 123 teams in scoring offense. Youngstown State isn’t even an FBS school. Notre Dame is 4-2 but ranked 83 in scoring offense. Iowa is the best offensive team MSU has played, and they are ranked a lowly 68 in scoring offense. How’s that for a cup of humble juice?

If you’re going to claim to have the top defensive unit in the country, you better back that up against some good offenses. The Spartans will have a chance to do just that against the #11 scoring offense in the country this week. The Hoosiers put up 44 points on a top 15 defense last week, and if they can produce anything near those results in this weeks game, things may not even be close as Michigan State’s offense isn’t nearly as prolific as Penn State’s.

#2 Win 1-on-1 Battles with the Spartan DBs

One of the more intriguing matchups between the #11 offense and “#1” defense will feature the IU receivers and MSU defensive backs. MSU plays a 4-3 defense and isolates their DBs on the edges with man-to-man press coverage. As Kofi Hughes stated, "It's going to be a lot of one-on-one challenges. It will come down to, who's better?"

Cody Latimer added that the matchup will "be a big challenge...as receivers we're excited." Fans should be excited too. Michigan State has the conference's 2^nd ranked secondary, and Indiana has the conferences top ranked receiving corps. This should be a fun duel to watch all afternoon as long as IU can..

#3 Protect the QB

We saw in the Missouri game what happens to the Hoosier offense when Nate Sudfeld isn’t given time to throw. Yikes. It is worth noting that Missouri is now up to the #4 team in the Fremeau Efficiency Index behind Stanford, Oklahoma, and Alabama, but the fact remains the same: the offensive line has to give Sudfeld time to throw.

This will be perhaps the greatest challenge MSU will present to the Hoosier offense. As Coach Kevin Wilson warned earlier this week: "They're really strong with their blitz package of when they blitz and how they blitz."

Michigan State has been excellent up front with pressuring quarterbacks, highlighted by the play of stud defensive end Shilique Calhoun.

The Indiana offensive line has struggled at times, and the injury bug continues to take its toll. This week it was announced that starting guard David Kaminski is out for the year with an ACL tear, leaving Indiana with only two pre-season projected starters remaining. Indiana’s success on offense, or lack thereof, will be a result off the line's play up front.

#4 Show up on the Road

Yes this will be Indiana’s first game away from Memorial Stadium. Yes they have an atrocious road record under Kevin Wilson (1-7) and no, that’s nothing new for the Hoosiers (7-45 since 2000). Yet, apparently none of that matters to this Indiana team. Both the players and coaches claim to prefer road games, and those peculiar claims are actually backed up statistically.

Last year, the Hoosiers were a better football team on the road. On offense, they scored an average of 2.5 more points and allowed 4.1 fewer points on defense. Michigan State was quite the opposite going 0-4 in East Lansing.

I feel like once we get out there, it's us against them because it's a fun crowd when they're not on your side. Playing at home is great, but being able to quiet that crowd is great too.



Cody Latimer

Me and a lot of the guys love being on the road. We love going to other stadiums, especially in the Big Ten. The environment is really hostile and there's so much more energy playing there than at Memorial Stadium. That's no offense to our fans, but you go to Michigan State or (Ohio State) and you feel that. We thrive on that.



Kofi Hughes

Indiana will certainly get that hostile crowd they are looking for, as 75,000 will be packed into the stands Saturday celebrating not only homecoming, but also the 500^th game at Spartan Stadium.

#5 Play “Violent” Defense

Last week’s article foreshadowed the sudden emergence of the Indiana defense: four turnovers-on-downs, four forced punts, multiple forced intentional grounding penalties, 6 tackles for a loss, 12 pass breakups, and two forced fumbles. When is the last time an Indiana defense had stat line like that? The big question is, are those results repeatable or a fluke? We will see this week.

The good news is the Michigan State offense is bad. Like, 103^rd in the nation bad. First year quarterback Connor Cook and the rest of the Spartan offense has struggled to put up points this year, and this should be the perfect matchup for the Hoosier defense to continue to build their confidence. Connor Cook’s play has had MSU fans clamoring for a replacement (he’s no Christian Hackenberg), they don’t have a single top ten B1G receiver in the conference (no Allen Robinsons), nor do they have a running back who ranks in the top ten of the league.

We didn't put much new stuff in, we just got back to what we were doing at the beginning of the season but with a more violent mindset.



Defensive lineman John Laihenen

If the defense can hold an offense with top talent like Penn State’s to 24 points, there is no reason they can’t hold MSU to a minimal amount of scoring...if they again play violently.

Prediction

I've been (rightly) accused of some displaying bias in my predictions, so let's just look at facts. Indiana’s 11^th ranked offense against Michigan State’s 1^st ranked defense leaves a -10 deficit for the Hoosiers. Michigan State’s 103^rd ranked offense against Indiana’s 88^th ranked defense results in a +15 margin in favor of Indiana.

Let's also take into consideration the team's that those statistics were developed against. Michigan State’s FBS opponents thus far are a combined 9-14 (.391) while Indiana’s are 16-4 (.800). If the stats are skewed in any way based on opponents, it is drastically in favor of Indiana.

The offense won’t put up 40+ points again, but neither will the defense surrender 24 points.

HOOSIERS 24 SPARTANS 17

Here's to the Old Brass Spittoon!

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