Game Thread. Maryland @ Indiana 3:30 ESPNU

[Hoosier116 318]

I'm seeing "shake n bacon" on peegs and Twitter. I love it

[bhaggard89 869]

I'm going to go ahead and throw "Hollywood and Swine" into the ring.


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[akhosrof 1,168]

Feeling good this morning, it makes my weekend when IUFB wins!

I felt CKW responded really well to the offensive problems we've been having. The switching of QBs wasn't forced or desperate, CKW utilized his offensive players to their best talents and did not put either Zander or Lagow into low probability of success situations.

What I mean by that is Lagow can't pass the ball 40+ times a game or consistently faced with third and longs, he needs the run game to be working. Zander is part of that solution. Zander and Natee have excellent chemistry in the backfield together. Many RBs aren't comfortable taking a direct snap or playing the role of an option man, but it's smart that CKW is utilizing Natee's talents as a former HS QB. Both Zander and Natee were impressive in their decision making and really stuck the ball in on the fakes to make it tough on the defense.

The best part is I think this offense is just warming up. We saw Zander throw the ball once and the defense was caught completely off guard (a beautiful throw at that). I'm sure we'll build upon that.

Offensive line did a fabulous job of opening holes. Obviously Feeney back helps tremendously, but I think the line does a better job with the zone blocking scheme in the option offense, and letting the runner decide where the hole is, as opposed to the man on man blocking we've seen the past few weeks.

When the running game works Lagow is under much less pressure and is much more efficient in his passing.

On defense: going into this week we knew it was going to be tough stopping UMD's rushing attack. Defensive line depth is currently our weak spot, and at times we did looked tired out. However, the gameplan was to keep everything in front of us, which we did for the most part aside from the 65 yard TD run and the last drive before the half. UMD worked for every yard in the second half.

The main thing to work on this week is the penalties and keeping emotions in check. Also, our kicking game is extremely concerning.

I cannot wait for Rutgers next week! We cannot let ourselves be their first B1G win of the year, much less fall to 0-3 against them.

[lucel15 3,052]

Nothing but positives even if our defense gave up a lot of points. We knew Maryland was capable of huge plays and they got some. I believe they had 3 players averaging 8.5 yds or more per carry. Also going into mid third or even start of second half they had 200 yards rushing. We only allowed 69 more the rest of the game. Great job by the offense to create open lanes for running and passing. Zander great job on his passes and running vision


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[Hovadipo 55,172]

I'm with you, of all the reasonable bowls we could make, I would definitely want the Music City bowl. Pits us against a solid SEC/ACC team and it's in Nashville. A short drive for many IU fans.


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I go every year and have been waiting for us to be there forever. Seems like the most possible year for it.


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[akhosrof 1,168]

I go every year and have been waiting for us to be there forever. Seems like the most possible year for it.


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Correct me if I'm wrong but there hasn't been a B1G school in the Music City Bowl since 2005. I know there's a chance of a B1G team getting in but I'm not sure what would have to occur.

Regardless, I would love to see IU and UK play in Nashville

[Hovadipo 55,172]

Correct me if I'm wrong but there hasn't been a B1G school in the Music City Bowl since 2005. I know there's a chance of a B1G team getting in but I'm not sure what would have to occur.

Regardless, I would love to see IU and UK play in Nashville

Yeah Minnesota in 05. Not sure what has to happen either, but a boy can dream. I would assume they'd like to get IU there with it being close, but idk if that's a part of the criteria or not. The matchup is usually good regardless. Notre Dame LSU a couple years ago was a blast.


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[lucel15 3,052]

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[akhosrof 1,168]

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So you're saying there's a chance!?

If both IU and UK are bowl eligible then placing these two teams in the Music City Bowl is a NO BRAINER. A rivalry game that hasn't been played in over a decade between two bowl starved programs within near equal proximity to Nashville; attendance could realistically exceed 60K. UK went to the game 2006-2007 and attendance was sold out both years (they beat Clemson and FSU).

I would definitely go.

[GnarlyTimGarl 1,433]

A few late thoughts on the Maryland game...

- Probably the best offensive game plan we have had all season. Really liked the Diamont/Big Bacon package. Not sure if I have ever seen a backup QB come in, call the play at the line of scrimmage and then line up as a tailback in the backfield. But it worked. Big Bacon looks more comfortable taking the direct snap as opposed to being a traditional RB at this point and he was able to find the gaps he wanted on the O-Line. And we were able to utilize Diamont's speed on the outside. Perhaps most important was the fact that we took the pressure off of Lagow, which was huge. I hope we're able to expand the Diamont/Big Bacon package and continue to use it throughout the year, but we'll have to continue to be more creative as teams will start to prepare for it.

- The O-Line returned to form. And it allowed the running game to flourish. They opened up some massive holes for us to run through. And again, it took a lot of pressure off of Lagow. If we continue to bring forth that effort, our offense will be extremely potent once again. Good to see Redding have some success again, too.

- WAYYYY too many missed tackles. I'm interested to look at the chart to see how many we actually had. Maryland's running game was pretty tricky to defend and they have a couple of good backs, but we just flat-out did a poor job of tackling as a whole. Defense still made a few crucial plays in the game, though. Still love the total improvement we've seen from that unit this season.

- The personal foul/unsportsmanlike conduct penalties need to stop. They absolutely kill drives on offense and give up way too much yardage on defense. I understand that players are running high on emotion, but you have to be more disciplined than that.

- Some others have mentioned this, but the decisions to kick the PAT/go for two were questionable, at best. We did the same thing last week at Northwestern. I think I read somewhere that Wilson goes by a probability chart for those decisions. I think he needs to just trust his intuition as a head football coach of a Big Ten school and quit referring to generic probability charts that may not accurately represent the flow of the game or how the team is playing. But that's my opinion and I'm not the coach.

- Special teams play was not good. A botched PAT, a missed field goal and two kickoffs out of bounds.

All in all, I am pleased with how we competed and fought hard to win the game. Maryland is much improved from last season. For bowl purposes, it was very important we win this one. And we did. Gives us back some confidence as a football team and provides us a little more wiggle room for the remainder of the season.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,012]

Osterman:  Marcus Oliver, Tyler Natee pick up Big Ten weekly honors. Oliver IU's first defensive honoree in 11(!!) years.

 

[bhaggard89 869]

So you're saying there's a chance!?

If both IU and UK are bowl eligible then placing these two teams in the Music City Bowl is a NO BRAINER. A rivalry game that hasn't been played in over a decade between two bowl starved programs within near equal proximity to Nashville; attendance could realistically exceed 60K. UK went to the game 2006-2007 and attendance was sold out both years (they beat Clemson and FSU).

I would definitely go.

I'm in Little Rock and would love for us to play a bowl game in Nashville. I'll definitely be there if it happens. Also holding out hope for a bowl game in Texas.


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[Hovadipo 55,172]

Natee + Zander = The Bacon and Legs Package


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[Hovadipo 55,172]

@MikeMillerHT: Someone earlier suggested Bacon N Legs. I like Bacon N Legs.

Whodunnit

Edit: Nevermind. Hoosier Huddle had it before me. I am crushed.

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[OliviaPope40 6,449]

Buckley and Fisch called it Wildcat on the radio.

[ThompsonHoosier 3,414]

Buddy suggested Shake N Bacon!

[lucel15 3,052]

I forget what thread it was in, but I was thinking about the comment of keeping Tom here in Btown. I think glass antes up and pays the man. I think we can keep him around and especially with the recruiting of talent I've seen so far in this class. I think glass values that and I think he values his enthusiasm. It would take a big power 5 team come in and say hey we want you and they would have to way over bid us.


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[WayneFleekHoosier 47,969]

This is rich.
Wilson says one of the reasons he went to the Natee/Diamont formation was a conversation with Tom Crean: bit.ly/2fe76hr #iufb



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[KB0 827]

Is there a thread for the game this weekend?

[ThompsonHoosier 3,414]

2 hours ago, KB0 said:

Is there a thread for the game this weekend?

Now there is!