No need to worry for the Hoosiers
By TC Malik
Indiana lost on Saturday to Wake Forest, a team they were expected to beat by more than a touchdown. Indiana was looking to head into conference play undefeated for the second straight season, however they fell short mainly due to turnovers. IU is now heading into conference play 2-1 – not the start Kevin Wilson was looking for heading into the grueling month of October. With that said, there’s no need to overreact just because of one game. Lets look at three reasons why there’s no need to panic for IU football fans.
1)Injuries to Fenney and Camiel hurt the offense
Many know of the concussion injury to Dan Feeney, but Camiel’s injury was unknown prior to game-time on Saturday. The offense suffered because of these injuries, especially Devine Redding and the run game. Devine Redding’s 5-game streak of rushing over 100 yards ended when two of the best lineman in the country didn’t play.
Overall, the Hoosiers were held to 115 yards rushing against Wake Forest, much less than their yards in the previous two contests where they averaged 216.5 yards on the ground. They were bottled up all day by the Demon Deacon defense, which to their credit, ranks in the top ten nationally.
Without Feeney and Camiel, the holes for the running backs were non-existent and the backs were unable to get going, therefore stressing the need on the passing game even more. Because of this gameplan, Lagow threw for the most yards in Indiana football history, but also threw five picks in the process.
While these two lineman might not be the most popular players on the team, they clearly mean the most because they set the pace for offense.
2) Lagow threw for the most yards in IU football history
Richard Lagow threw for 496 yards – the kid can sling it. All he needs to do from now on is not be as risky. He tried to force some throws into tight windows that didn’t end up in his favor and ended up being intercepted. However, some weren’t necessarily all his fault.
Two of the picks came off deflections of Luke Timian’s and Nick Westbrook’s hands and unwillingly fell in the arms of Demon Deacons. While these picks weren’t Lagow’s fault, he still takes the blame for them as his wide outs should’ve been able to haul them in.
The other three were solely on Lagow’s shoulders, and he might have thrown a sixth one if he didn’t make a heads up play and bat the ball away from the defensive lineman.
For a JuCo transfer making the transition into the Big 10, there are expected to be some speed bumps, but Hoosier fans thought Lagow had moved past those assumptions after the first two games. Prior to the Wake Forest game he hadn’t turned the ball over, and now all of a sudden fans were calling for Zander Diamont.
It says a lot about coach Wilson’s faith in Lagow to keep him in after throwing five picks while fans were cheering for Diamont to replace him. It shows that Wilson believes they have a better chance to win with Lagow than Diamont. After this game, the gap between Lagow and Diamont may be wider than fans ever expected.
3) IU gained just less than twice as many yards as Wake Forest
IU tallied 611 total yards, mostly coming from the air, and Wake Forest only able to muster 352. The Hoosiers almost doubled up Wake Forest in total yards and still lost the game mainly because of turnovers.
The Hoosiers have the offensive firepower to compete with anybody in the Big 10, they just need to learn to take care of the football. They lost the turnover battle 5-0 as their defense wasn’t able to muster any takeaways for the first time this season.
If the Hoosiers simply take care of the ball on offense and force a few takeaways, they should be sitting pretty come the end of the game. If it weren’t for a pick-6, and a blocked kick, IU could be sitting at 3-0 going into the conference slate.
Wrap-Up
Something IU fans may have also noticed were the amount of penalties against IU, specifically on the defense. They racked up 9 penalties for 84 yards, more than double of Wake Forest during the game.
Some of those came on a key drive in the 4th quarter where IU was only down one score, and it seemed like the Hoosiers forced Wake Forest into 4th down multiple times. However, due to facemasks, hands to the face, and holding calls, Wake Forest was able to finish the drive and score a touchdown to put the game out of reach.
Hopefully the coaching staff will get on the players about cleaning up their play style going into next week against #17 Michigan State. More importantly they need to clean up their play going into October because the Hoosiers have to play Michigan State, Ohio State and Nebraska all in the same month.
There’s no need to panic just yet for IU fans. As Aaron Rodgers once said, “R-E-L-A-X” its the beginning of the season and the coaching staff will sort everything out. We’re going to be just fine.
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