Indiana University Athletics
Wilson: “We Need To Do Better”
10/26/2015 1:34:00 PM | Football
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Kevin Wilson was blunt. His team needs to play better. It's not much more complicated than that.
There was no underlying secret behind Indiana's 52-26 loss to No. 7 Michigan State, Indiana's head coach said. The Hoosiers competed toe-to-toe with the Spartans for three quarters before Michigan State became the third team in the last month to pull away in the fourth quarter with 24 unanswered points.
"The key to winning is we need to do better," Wilson said Monday. "We've gotten better, we're competing, but it's not good enough. So we need to continue to push down the stretch."
There were certainly things Wilson liked about the way Indiana (4-4, 0-4) played Michigan State heading into this week's bye.
He made a point of mentioning the team's four sacks, 10 quarterback hits and 13 tackles for loss. Of Michigan State's 96 plays, 35 went for either zero yards or a loss. On the other side, 16 of Indiana's 60 own offensive plays went for more than 10 yards.
But when the game hung in the balance, Michigan State made the winning plays while Indiana could not.
"We battled well until the last four or five minutes," Wilson said.
The most notable problem Wilson will work to address is his team's third-down defense. Michigan State converted 13-of-20 third-down tries and scored four of its touchdowns on third-and-medium opportunities, including four deep in IU territory in what Wilson called "the fringe area."
Had Indiana made the stops deep in its own territory, the tone of Wilson's Monday press conference would have been much different.
Wilson put some of the blame on the team's poor play late on tired players, especially in his young secondary. He said the bye week should be an opportunity to focus on self-improvement while freshening up tired minds and bodies that may have gotten exposed too much against Michigan State.
"Our kids battled really, really hard," Wilson said. "We're very impressed with their effort. If you're wore out, you're wore out. Bottom line, they made a couple plays at the end. We got sloppy. We'll get it fixed up."
There was no underlying secret behind Indiana's 52-26 loss to No. 7 Michigan State, Indiana's head coach said. The Hoosiers competed toe-to-toe with the Spartans for three quarters before Michigan State became the third team in the last month to pull away in the fourth quarter with 24 unanswered points.
"The key to winning is we need to do better," Wilson said Monday. "We've gotten better, we're competing, but it's not good enough. So we need to continue to push down the stretch."
There were certainly things Wilson liked about the way Indiana (4-4, 0-4) played Michigan State heading into this week's bye.
He made a point of mentioning the team's four sacks, 10 quarterback hits and 13 tackles for loss. Of Michigan State's 96 plays, 35 went for either zero yards or a loss. On the other side, 16 of Indiana's 60 own offensive plays went for more than 10 yards.
But when the game hung in the balance, Michigan State made the winning plays while Indiana could not.
"We battled well until the last four or five minutes," Wilson said.
The most notable problem Wilson will work to address is his team's third-down defense. Michigan State converted 13-of-20 third-down tries and scored four of its touchdowns on third-and-medium opportunities, including four deep in IU territory in what Wilson called "the fringe area."
Had Indiana made the stops deep in its own territory, the tone of Wilson's Monday press conference would have been much different.
Wilson put some of the blame on the team's poor play late on tired players, especially in his young secondary. He said the bye week should be an opportunity to focus on self-improvement while freshening up tired minds and bodies that may have gotten exposed too much against Michigan State.
"Our kids battled really, really hard," Wilson said. "We're very impressed with their effort. If you're wore out, you're wore out. Bottom line, they made a couple plays at the end. We got sloppy. We'll get it fixed up."
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