Indiana vs Ball State Game Thread (9/10 - 4:00PM - ESPNNews)

[Bobman1]

How long do we think Simmie and Dan are out for ?


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[lucel15]

How long do we think Simmie and Dan are out for ?


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Simmie is probably done for season it sounds like. And feens is concussion so until he passes his test

[Miller'sTheMan]

4 hours ago, Gahoosierfan said:

I am very disappointed. There were a lot of negatives. Wilson got way too conservative on offense after going up 30-0. Gideon showed no urgency in getting punts off. Lagow has a long way to go. He is not a B10 QB at this point. Offensive play calling is pretty bad at times. I wasn't concerned about Wake before but I am now. I am down right afraid of what happens when MSU comes to town.

I really disagree with this, does Lagow need work? Yeah, especially on his deep balls but the guy has 506 yards, 4 TD's, and 0 int's through the first 2 games. Those are pretty good numbers, especially for an offense that is mostly going to rely on its rushing attack.

Coupled that with the defense playing the best I can remember it playing, and I'm pretty damn excited! Sure, it's frustrating watching the team take their foot off the gas, but we had a 30-0 lead. Every coach in the country is going to take their foot off the gas there. The outcome of the game was never in any serious doubt, and for 3 quarters we were absolutely dominating Ball State. Not making excuses, but one team moving the ball and looking good once the game is basically decided isn't exactly a shocking concept. It happens quite a bit actually.

As for Simmie Cobbs, it sucks to hear that he is out for the year most likely, but Westbrook has looked great filling in for him. 203 yards and 2 TD's through 2 games.

[Crimson and Cream]

I can't really take anything away from this game seeing as how I only saw the last quarter and a half. When I got home we were just kicking a FG to go up 30-0. Defense had apparently forced several fumbles and had an INT and it looks like Lagow had been lighting it up. All I saw was a team playing "not to lose" instead of to continue doing what they had done. Can't do that. All in all, the win is all that matters and a win next week would keep us right on track for another bowl. Losing Cobbs hurts, but I think our depth at receiver can overcome that. But if Feeney is out for a while we are in big trouble. Line looked real bad without him.

[akhosrof]

I agree with Lucel and Crean'sTheMan, some of the criticism of Lagow isn't fair. Yes, his awareness was off at times. But the conservative play calling led to many third and long situations. I think we all forget that Sudfeld had accuracy problems and at times went through cold streaks.

At the same time it's hard to fault the play calling. We have the best offensive line in the B1G, our defense is playing tough, we should be able to run over a G5 team no problem at all. Take away the blocked punt TD and this game looks much better for our play calling. Although, it is concerning because not staying aggressive in the fourth quarter is a common criticism of CKW's play calling.

The bye week will help. Lagow will get better with experience. And honestly, I expect the same game plan versus Wake Forest in two weeks. We will run the ball and slowly open up the playbook. Wake has an anemic offense, we shouldn't need to do anything too fancy to beat them.

[lucel15]

Also if there's any students on here. Keep your butts in the stands. Period. Stay and root on your team. Yeah you wanna go drink I was at that point two years ago, but come on you fill your 4 sections and then leave yeah it's 30-0 but the whole stadium changed once you all left at one time. As coach hep said it, Fans Help Win games. Take 3-4 hrs out of your day and not drink. You have all Saturday night

[bhaggard89]

Once we got up 30-0 pretty sure CKW kept it really vanilla. Don't want to put anything special on game tape for future opponents. The Cobbs injury sucks a big one, but it's got to be next man up. Timian seems to be able to get open, so I'm not overly concerned about the receiving corps. Feels good to be 2-0!


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[RBB89]

This comes up every year with every game but...why do so many of our fans leave early?

Because we have a lot of stupid fans. Watch the OSU game last year and look at how much smaller the crowd was as the game went on. UM game too. And those were amazing games.

I mean, I've had to listen to our fans rant and rave at Wilson before about why we weren't stopping the other team...and we were on offense.

[RBB89]

I agree with Lucel and Crean'sTheMan, some of the criticism of Lagow isn't fair. Yes, his awareness was off at times. But the conservative play calling led to many third and long situations. I think we all forget that Sudfeld had accuracy problems and at times went through cold streaks.

At the same time it's hard to fault the play calling. We have the best offensive line in the B1G, our defense is playing tough, we should be able to run over a G5 team no problem at all. Take away the blocked punt TD and this game looks much better for our play calling. Although, it is concerning because not staying aggressive in the fourth quarter is a common criticism of CKW's play calling.

The bye week will help. Lagow will get better with experience. And honestly, I expect the same game plan versus Wake Forest in two weeks. We will run the ball and slowly open up the playbook. Wake has an anemic offense, we shouldn't need to do anything too fancy to beat them.

People keep talking about how much more accurate Nate was...

Completion % by year:

62

60

60

60

His first two games last year he went 19-32 (59%) and 19-33 (58%) along with an INT.

Lagow has gone 18-27 (67%) and 17-27 (63%) with 4 TD, 1 rush TD, and 0 TO. He completed 65% in JUCO. For a guy making his first two starts, he's doing fine.

Nate is in the NFL for a reason, as he could make a lot of tough throws, but he had some accuracy issues.

[lucel15]

People keep talking about how much more accurate Nate was...

Completion % by year:

62

60

60

60

His first two games last year he went 19-32 (59%) and 19-33 (58%) along with an INT.

Lagow has gone 18-27 (67%) and 17-27 (63%) with 4 TD, 1 rush TD, and 0 TO. He completed 65% in JUCO. For a guy making his first two starts, he's doing fine.

Nate is in the NFL for a reason, as he could make a lot of tough throws, but he had some accuracy issues.

Yup and that's what I said.

[akhosrof]

Good post, RBB89. Good to see the facts back up the observations. Yep, Lagow is doing just fine.

[RBB89]

Yup and that's what I said.

I know I was trying to back you up. Sorry I didn't mean to come after you.

[lucel15]

I know I was trying to back you up. Sorry I didn't mean to come after you.

It's all good man. No worries

[lucel15]

IU moved up to 8 in big then power rankings on espn

[RBB89]

IU moved up to 8 in big then power rankings on espn

I assume PU is 15th, after the University of Chicago?

[bleedhoosier]

I wouldn't worry about IU letting the foot off the gas nor do I agree that we should have just ran up to 60-0. Not that I care about sportsmanship. Rather, when you get that type of cushion, you start to work on things/plays/combos/routes with real game experience. There is a long season coming up and the team needs to work on so much.

I'd say kudos to the team and staff for finding and exposing ball states weak points for most of the game.

Not saying any of this is accurate, just my takeaway and feelings after the game.

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[HoosierAloha]

IU moved up to 8 in big then power rankings on espn

This begs the question... Will IU win more than 6 regular season games?

IU has 5 games against opponents lower in the power rankings (3 at home and 2 on the road against lowest ranked B1G teams). Also get Neb at home too. It could get really interesting.

[akhosrof]

Lots of winnable games on the schedule. In addition to Purdon't, Rutgers and Maryland, Northwestern and Penn State look very beatable this season.

[Crimson and Cream]

1 hour ago, akhosrof said:

Lots of winnable games on the schedule. In addition to Purdon't, Rutgers and Maryland, Northwestern and Penn State look very beatable this season.

Northwestern has been a joke thus far

[GnarlyNormEllenberger]

A couple of days late, but I figure I'll still add my two cents...

-Let's start with the defense. 3 takeaways. Only gave up 371 yards of offense. One TD allowed. Very good numbers for a traditionally bad defense. As a whole, this defense has only allowed two TDs in two games. I don't care that it was against FIU and Ball State. I'm very pleased with the overall effort of this unit. I'm not saying we're a great defense, but we're no longer "bad." Still need to get more consistent pressure on the QB and clean up a few things here and there. But I'm impressed with the overall improvement. Guys like Scales, Ball, Fant and Crawford are good Big Ten players that could play for anyone in the conference.

-I thought Lagow looked better this game. Had a nice stat line. Probably would have had better numbers, but I think that Wilson/Johns called a vanilla game in the second half which limited what Lagow could do. He still needs more in-game reps to develop chemistry with receivers, but he's going to be fine as our QB. I liked how he and Paige connected quite a bit early in the game. Good to see Westbrook breaking out as a big-play threat. It would be nice if Ricky Jones could get going again, especially since we may be without Cobbs for the long haul.

-Disappointed in our O-Line play against Ball State. Not that they played poorly, but they weren't dominant like I thought they could be. Gave up 3 sacks. Camiel killed us with a personal foul on that first drive. A couple of guys (LT?) got beat repeatedly which put Lagow under more pressure. Then again, I didn't realize Feeney left the game in the first half, so I suppose that made a difference. As long as we get him back soon, I think we'll be fine. Just didn't play our best here, in my opinion.

-Punting game. I like Gideon's leg, but that blocked punt was a long time coming. They almost got to him a couple more times earlier in the game. We just can't have that in a close game later in the year. But, it's fixable.

-A couple more odds and ends... Played really good football for 2.5 quarters. Good to see Oakes back in good form. That 49-yarder with the crazy wind before halftime was impressive... I'm becoming more impressed with our backup RBs. Majette and Williams both looked legit. Interested to see where Patrick fits once he returns from injury... Danny Friend is a good TE. Hope he stays healthy. Good blocker and can also catch a pass... I'd like to see us cut down the number of penalties, but it's still early in the season... I'm also curious to see how much of the playbook Wilson has revealed. I'm guessing (and hoping) not much... We only have 5 offensive TDs in two games, so we can certainly improve on that number.