Here are a few things I took from Indiana’s 36-22 victory over Florida International Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.
· If the Indiana defense can hold opponents to 22 points or less the Hoosiers will win a vast majority of those games.
· Jordan Howard is so much fun to watch. You have to love how hard he hits a hole and what he does after an initial hit. And here’s a factoid I like as well: Howard has carried the ball 47 times and gained 304 yards and two games. More importantly, he has only lost 1 yard total in two games.
· Indiana has never been known as a turnover creating defense in recent years but the three Florida International miscues Saturday night resulted in 20 Indiana points.
· Nate Sudfeld has had a couple of near picks this year but for the most part he’s making great decisions with the ball. His inside fake to Howard at the goal line that resulted in him walking in for a 1 yard TD was a thing of beauty.
· If you want to talk about Jameel Cook’s 96-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter you had better talk about the pass deflection that Dawson Fletcher made in the back of the end zone on the play before. One play set up the other.
· How about Marcus Oliver’s game on Saturday night? He led the Hoosiers with seven tackles, had a big fumble recovery and pancaked FIU quarterback Alex McGough after that pick 6 play.
· Through three quarters Indiana had run 70 offensive plays. It finished with 85.
· Indiana has outscored its first two opponents 23-0 in the second quarter.
· IU has now trailed at halftime in both games and rallied from at least an eight-point deficit in each game.
· Mitchell Paige’s spin move on his 16-yard touchdown catch may not get the same attention that Braxton Miller’s did but I’m looking forward to watching the replay of the game just to play that back a few times. Ricky Jones had a nice downfield block on that play, too.
· Some of Indiana’s tackling in the first half in particular left a lot to be desired. IU’s young secondary in particular has to be better in that area.
· Eleven penalties for 110 yards is just too much. I know it was getting chippie out there but the five off sides penalties on Indiana in particular were hard to watch. The pass interference calls were close, and at least one of the roughing the passer calls were questionable, too.
· I must admit I didn’t expect to hear a referee say into his live microphone during a game, Bob Knight’s favorite word. Looking forward to that on the replay, too.
· Indiana had 205 net yards rushing against a defense that only allowed 46 yards rushing a week ago.
· The defense played much better than it did a week ago, and having Ralph Green III and Darius Latham inside was significant. Looking forward to seeing what Tegray Scales does next week when he returns to the lineup.
· You had to love seeing the tight end position get involved in the IU offense Saturday night. Michael Cooper had three catches for 66 yards and Anthony Corsaro also had a catch.
· It was good to see Griffin Oakes bounce back to hit his third field goal of the night (that one from 40 yards) after badly hooking one wide left from 44 yards out two quarters before.
Those are some free flowing thoughts off the top of my head. I’m sure there are many other topics to discuss, too. What have you got? I’d like to hear from you the ones you think I missed.
Stay tuned to a couple of more stories today and in the morning as Ryan Palencer was also on hand with me at Memorial Stadium Saturday night.
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