One And Oh No

I will start by saying that a win is better than a loss anytime. Bill Lynch said in his press conference that it is easier to learn from your mistakes after a win that it is after a loss. I completely agree. That being said, IU's season-opening 19-13 victory was about as hollow a win as you will find. Indiana was debuting the renovated Memorial Stadium on a beautiful Thursday night in front of their largest opening day crowd since 1997 (over 36,000 people). They were playing a team from the FCS (formerly 1-AA) that was breaking in a new quarterback. I predicted a 35-17 Indiana victory and after the first half I was feeling pretty good about the way IU had played. The defense had forced a safety and had gotten pressure on Eastern Kentucky's quarterback. Ben Chappell was throwing the ball well, Nick Freeland nailed a nice 38-yard field goal and Tandon Doss was looking like a superstar. They were up 19-7 at the half and I expected them to take control in the third quarter and come away with a comfortable win.

However, the comfortable lead that we expected to see was never built. IU's offense fell apart in the second half and the Hoosiers needed a pass to be broken up in the endzone to hang on for the 19-13 win. The only positive in the second half was the 12-play drive the Hoosiers used to put EKU in a desperate situation at the end of the game. Indiana milked the clock down to 36 seconds before they had to punt the ball. That drive was pretty much the only time IU was able to run the ball effectively as McCray had two runs of ten yards.
Positives
-Ben Chappell looked very good throwing the football and leading the offense for the majority of the game. He threw for a career-high 326 yards. He had two bad passes that were picked off: one woefully under thrown ball to Demarlo Belcher and one overthrown ball to Belcher. If you take those two picks away, Chappell had a very nice game. Of course, you can't take those away but I could see Chappell averaging 275 yards a game this season.

-The wide receivers looked excellent. I really liked the way Doss, Turner, Belcher and Evans played. This is clearly the strongest position for the Hoosiers. Doss had 125 yards on 8 catches, most of it in the first half. The receivers did a great job with the ball after the catch. They look strong and capable of breaking a few tackles to make a play.

-I think the defense played okay. They were not facing an offensive juggernaut but I thought they got some pressure and I was pleased they were blitzing more. Matt Mayberry's forced fumble in the fourth quarter saved the game. The Hoosiers defense really only gave up ten points because one of the field goals came from a possession that was started 14 yards from the endzone. A fairly solid performance from the defense.

-Nick Freeland did exactly what you would want a freshman kicker to do. He made his extra points, did not put any kickoffs out of bounds and nailed a 38-yard field goal right down the middle. He looked really good.

Negatives
I will try and keep this fairly short because there are a ton of negatives.
-The lack of running game should not come as a shock but I was really disappointed. We have heard all offseason about how much better the offensive line looked and how good the running backs were and how the pistol would help them run. That was simply not the case on Thursday night. Indiana ran the ball for 73 yards on 31 carries. If you do the math, that works out to 2.4 yards per carry. A far cry from the 4 yards a carry needed to have a decent running game. If they can't run the ball against an FCS school how are they supposed to against Penn State or Iowa (or anyone else on the schedule)?

-The offensive line was missing two starters but they have talked about their depth as a real strength. It did not look like it last night as the offensive line had four false starts, an illegal motion penalty and a holding penalty. Way too many mistakes.

-The entire third quarter was a negative. The Colonels dominated nearly every aspect of the quarter. EKU had the ball for 10:48 of the quarter, absolutely ridiculous.

-I was really disappointed with the punt returns. Nick Polk started and Ray Fisher took over in the second half. Neither one of them looked like they had ever seen a rugby style punt. They were indecisive about when to pick up the ball and they were lucky it did not cost IU a turnover.

I am glad they won and they have eight days to get things corrected before Western Michigan comes to Bloomington. We will get a good look at the Broncos on Saturday (at Michigan, 3:30 on ABC). I can tell you there quarterback, Tim Hiller, is an NFL prospect and WMU can score. Their defense is very suspect but if IU doesn't fix some of their problems in a hurry, they will fall to 1-1 and probably be starting a long losing streak. Enjoy Saturday's action everyone, be vigilant and God Bless America.