Another week, another loss for the Indiana football team Saturday, falling to Illinois at home 41-20.
The Hoosiers played great out of the gun, as true-freshman Shane Wynn ran the kick-off back 99-yards for the first score of the game. The defense held the Ilini, and IU kicked a 44-yard field goal on the next drive. After that, Illinois came up with big plays as IU broke down on both sides of the ball.
Indiana punter Adam Pines punted seven times for a total of 303 yards…one more yard than Indiana’s total offense. It was that kind of day.
“In the first half, they got 21 points off of three plays,” Kevin Wilson said. “One’s a busted coverage, guy blitzes that shouldn’t, just one of the young guys made a mistake and that’s going to happen some, but we let the guy go free. Another one is on the scoop and score where we busted the maximum protection with the guy making an error, just messed up, shouldn’t have, but did. The last one, they make a nice competitive one-on-one play to a good receiver on a guy that’s playing good for us. That’s 21 in the first half.”
The quarterback carousel has continued but needs to be stopped. Edward Wright-Baker started the first four games and Dusty Kiel has started the last two but Tre Roberson finished against Illinois. Where’s the consistency? It seems like Wright-Baker has the edge but according to Coach Wilson, he wasn’t healthy to play against Illinois.
“Ed did practice and he probably could have went, but we think he’s 90-95 percent and knew we had to scramble and run around, so our thought was instead we’re going to go with Dusty.”
Kiel played considerable minutes and struggled. He had a couple solid drives but didn’t get into the end zone. Dusty finished 6-of-19 for 71 yards and loss 19 yards rushing on 9 carries. Terrible numbers that warranted a change.
(Note: The Hoosiers are feeling the loss of Ben Chappell…a veteran quarterback would help ease this coaching transition much more easily).
Initially Indiana put true-freshman Tre Roberson in for a few plays at a time, switching with Kiel. Finally in the second half, Roberson got his first consistent minutes where he directed the entire drive. He finished 11-of-19 through the air for 148 yards, one interception and 36 yards rushing and a touchdown. Like Kiel, some of his throws were weak but it was hard for him to get in any real rhythm until too late.
The offense struggled most of the game to produce. It took until late in the fourth quarter for IU to score their first offensive touchdown of the game when Tre Roberson ran the ball in. Kevin Wilson wasn’t happy with the side of the football that is his specialty.
“I think maybe a little bit of our offensive issues were some guy pressing, trying a little too much, didn’t trust themselves, didn’t trust the scheme, didn’t trust the guy besides them. When you’re a little out of sync, and you’re a competitor and you’re getting a little antsy, you’re playing outside the framework of the offense.”
Guys are trying to do too much because well, they’re desperate for a win. Non-conference season, where they are suppose to get wins, is over and they sit 1-5. A second will be hard to come by, and may come down to the Old Oaken Bucket contest on November 26th against Purdue.
It’s going to take time for Kevin Wilson to build the team how he likes and take full advantage of his offensive scheme. Coach Wilson wants the best players on the field and so he hasn’t been focused on redshirting freshman like previous coaching staffs. They are the ones that are proving to be most effective on the field, even if they make a few mistakes now and then.
I’m still a believer in this program because I see small glimpses every so often that keeps me confident. Wilson is doing his best to “win today,” with the players he was dealt and while making a few rookie coaching mistakes along the way. He has changed the attitude, focus and mindset of the program. Fans obviously want immediate results but it’s not that simple. There are definitely a couple games Wilson would like to have back and should be wins, Ball State and North Texas for example. It’s tough to wait but IU football is headed up.
On this day, too many big plays were given up and the Hoosiers were unable to catch up with the 19th ranked Illini and it doesn’t get any easier playing at No. 4 Wisconsin next week.
Coach Wilson put it best, “Good team, tough loss, same story.”
Watch the player reactions below: