Indiana Football: As Big Ten play awaits, consistency is biggest kryptonite for Hoosiers

As Tom Allen gets the Indiana football program ready for Big Ten play, it is consistency that could haunt the Hoosiers down the stretch.

The Hoosiers sit at 3-1 after wrapping up non-conference play the past weekend, and as the Indiana football program heads into Big Ten action, getting consistent play is the biggest worry for a program trying to reach the first bowl game under Tom Allen.

Indiana’s 2019 season has been summed up in one word; inconsistency. While Indiana has outscored two of its opponents by a score of 90-3, those blowouts came around a third blowout, this time on the opposite side of things, with a 41-point loss. The blowout losses aren’t something new to Indiana, as they have had eight of the last 10 seasons include at least two losses by 25 or more points, but never have outscored opponents by the margin they have this season in wins.

With Big Ten play kicking into full gear this week, could the only thing holding Indiana back from a bowl game be the inconsistent play?

As it currently stands, Indiana has a 95 percent chance of reaching the six win mark, and sees the highest probability of wins coming between 7-8, according to ESPN’s newest projections.

According to the projections, the Hoosiers are favored over Rutgers, Northwestern, and Purdue to finish the season, but have tossup games against Michigan, Maryland and Nebraska still on the calendar. Though favored against Purdue on the road, it’s a rivalry game and all records and past accomplishments go out the window in that setting. So now breaking that down even more, the Hoosiers have four games left this year that could go either way, putting a ton of pressure on the team to perform like they can.

While the inconsistent play is alarming, we still don’t know exactly who this Indiana team is. Are they the team that put the clamps on Eastern Illinois and UConn, or the team that looked incredibly outmatched against Ohio State? With the playing field leveling off now, with only Big Ten teams remaining on the schedule, we will find out quickly which team they are.

Looking at the next four games on the schedule for IU, three come on the road, two are against “tossup” opponents, and one is against a ranked team. If the inconsistent team shows up, the Hoosiers could easily come out of that four-game span 1-3, with their bowl hopes all but shattered. If they play up to the level they are capable of however, they could go into the final part of the season sitting at 6-2 with three wins in conference already, looking to hit a home run in the final month of the season.

Traveling to East Lansing this week, we will get a good feeling of which team will show up for Big Ten play and whether or not IU is the team we thought they were heading into 2019.