Graham Column: Hoosiers Roll in Shutout Victory
11/18/2017 8:00:00 PM | Football
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Neither wind, nor rain, nor certainly Rutgers, could keep Indiana from its appointed rounds Saturday.
The host Hoosiers posted their best total performance all season in a 41-0 romp, putting themselves in position to battle for a bowl bid in the upcoming Old Oaken Bucket showdown at Purdue.
The Boilermakers definitely held up their end of the bargain, too. Purdue also enters the week 5-6 and with massive momentum after a mightily impressive 24-15 win at Iowa.
How much better was IU than Rutgers in every facet Saturday? Let us count the ways.
Indiana:
· Ran the ball right down the Scarlet Knights' collective throat – even when score and weather conditions meant Rutgers' defense knew the run was coming – closing out the game with 24 straight runs (and scoring 14 points in the process).
· Threw the ball successfully, via fifth-year senior quarterback Richard Lagow's sharp performance, when weather conditions were certainly not conducive.
· Pitched a shutout, its first over a league opponent since a 10-0 win vs. No. 22 Michigan State in 1993, with reserves on the field preserving it down the stretch. "Chalk it up as a bonus, a big bonus, and it means a lot to our team and program," said senior defensive end Greg Gooch.
· Booted the ball great, both in terms of placement-kicks and punts, and covered kicks well. Rashard Fant's recovery of a muffed punt set up IU's first touchdown just 3:48 into the game and the Hoosiers were off to the races.
The only thing that slowed the Hoosiers down even temporarily was a lightning delay that stretched from 2:19 till 4:06 p.m. IU already had a comfortable 34-0 cushion at that juncture.
And the Hoosiers came back out sharp after the long delay, not the easiest thing to do under the circumstances.
But then Indiana made everything look pretty easy.
The defensive dominance wasn't really a surprise. That unit has played well for the bulk of the season. But IU's running game has struggled much of the way. Not Saturday.
Rutgers entered 4-6 and had played decent run defense this season, allowing 4.6 yards per carry and 170.6 per game. Indiana had already exceeded those numbers when the lightning delay commenced at 2:31 of the third quarter, having amassed 173 rushing yards with a 5.4 average.
The Hoosiers finished with 271 net rushing yards on 48 attempts (5.6). That is a very good sign for an IU team that entered ranked 12th among Big Ten rushing attacks.
IU also showed fine balance by adding 236 passing yards for 507 total while holding Rutgers to 190 total.
Lagow, who lost the starting job in the season's fourth game to redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey but regained it when subbing for an injured Ramsey at Maryland, has shined down the season's crucial stretch run.
"Just so happy for Rich, to see him persevere and come back and play so well when we needed him to," IU coach Tom Allen said.
As well as Lagow threw the ball on an excessively windy and ultimately very wet day, perhaps his play of the day was corralling a slick shotgun snap that briefly popped into the air. Lagow calmly snagged the ball, then scooted around right end to convert a 2nd-and-7 into a first down.
"I just think his poise, his confidence – you can see it," Allen said of Lagow. "The bottom line is he has responded exactly how you want him to.
"I feel like he's being rewarded for being a quality, quality person that handled adversity like a man and learned from it and did nothing but be a great teammate all along the way … Rich Lagow is a guy I have a ton of respect for, and always will."
???????Lagow's day Saturday was certainly made easier by IU's robust running game.
IU's final two TDs were emblematic. True freshman back Morgan Ellison scored from the 1 capping a third quarter drive that went 80 yards in 11 plays, all on the ground, and ate up 5:10 on the clock.
???????Redshirt freshman back Cole Gest's 8-yard TD run with 8:27 to play created the final score and marked IU's 23rd straight run. Ellison finished with a game-high 149 rushing yards and Gest added 104, marking the first time all season the Hoosiers have had two 100-yard rushers in a game.
"The O-line blocked their tails off all day long and the running backs had a field day running the ball," Lagow said. "They did a heck of a job."
???????Lagow appreciated his teammates on the other side of the ball, too.
"The defense played amazing today," Lagow said. "The goose egg was huge, especially when they are in the red zone on fourth down (toward the end, with safety Zeke Walker getting a pass breakup). I think that was one of the more exciting times (for me) in the game."
Allen clearly was pumped about that, too. Even by his exalted standards, set while turning around IU's defensive play the past two seasons, he knows recording a Big Ten shutout while holding the foe to under 200 yards is an accomplishment.
"That's pretty special," Allen said. "That's really hard to do, now, really hard to do. I would just say it's very fitting … the guys that were out there today were really the core of the guys that were responsible for the turnaround.
"Getting a shutout in a Big Ten game was very, very appropriate for that group of young men."
Allen led his post-game comments off by paying special homage to his seniors playing their final home game Saturday. Eight of them started on his defense.
???????Lagow is also a senior. And immediately after Saturday's result went final, he already knew it was time to refocus.
"We've got a big one this Saturday," Lagow said.
It will mark Allen's first Old Oaken Bucket game as a head coach. But he's a New Castle native. He knows what it means.
"And so now you get to the final game, and you can understand what's at stake," Allen said. "So I don't think I have to make a big deal about that – they understand how huge it is.
"At the same time, it's Purdue. Nothing else needs to be said."
The forecast for that one?
Fun.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Neither wind, nor rain, nor certainly Rutgers, could keep Indiana from its appointed rounds Saturday.
The host Hoosiers posted their best total performance all season in a 41-0 romp, putting themselves in position to battle for a bowl bid in the upcoming Old Oaken Bucket showdown at Purdue.
The Boilermakers definitely held up their end of the bargain, too. Purdue also enters the week 5-6 and with massive momentum after a mightily impressive 24-15 win at Iowa.
How much better was IU than Rutgers in every facet Saturday? Let us count the ways.
Indiana:
· Ran the ball right down the Scarlet Knights' collective throat – even when score and weather conditions meant Rutgers' defense knew the run was coming – closing out the game with 24 straight runs (and scoring 14 points in the process).
· Threw the ball successfully, via fifth-year senior quarterback Richard Lagow's sharp performance, when weather conditions were certainly not conducive.
· Pitched a shutout, its first over a league opponent since a 10-0 win vs. No. 22 Michigan State in 1993, with reserves on the field preserving it down the stretch. "Chalk it up as a bonus, a big bonus, and it means a lot to our team and program," said senior defensive end Greg Gooch.
· Booted the ball great, both in terms of placement-kicks and punts, and covered kicks well. Rashard Fant's recovery of a muffed punt set up IU's first touchdown just 3:48 into the game and the Hoosiers were off to the races.
The only thing that slowed the Hoosiers down even temporarily was a lightning delay that stretched from 2:19 till 4:06 p.m. IU already had a comfortable 34-0 cushion at that juncture.
And the Hoosiers came back out sharp after the long delay, not the easiest thing to do under the circumstances.
But then Indiana made everything look pretty easy.
The defensive dominance wasn't really a surprise. That unit has played well for the bulk of the season. But IU's running game has struggled much of the way. Not Saturday.
Rutgers entered 4-6 and had played decent run defense this season, allowing 4.6 yards per carry and 170.6 per game. Indiana had already exceeded those numbers when the lightning delay commenced at 2:31 of the third quarter, having amassed 173 rushing yards with a 5.4 average.
The Hoosiers finished with 271 net rushing yards on 48 attempts (5.6). That is a very good sign for an IU team that entered ranked 12th among Big Ten rushing attacks.
IU also showed fine balance by adding 236 passing yards for 507 total while holding Rutgers to 190 total.
Lagow, who lost the starting job in the season's fourth game to redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey but regained it when subbing for an injured Ramsey at Maryland, has shined down the season's crucial stretch run.
"Just so happy for Rich, to see him persevere and come back and play so well when we needed him to," IU coach Tom Allen said.
As well as Lagow threw the ball on an excessively windy and ultimately very wet day, perhaps his play of the day was corralling a slick shotgun snap that briefly popped into the air. Lagow calmly snagged the ball, then scooted around right end to convert a 2nd-and-7 into a first down.
"I just think his poise, his confidence – you can see it," Allen said of Lagow. "The bottom line is he has responded exactly how you want him to.
"I feel like he's being rewarded for being a quality, quality person that handled adversity like a man and learned from it and did nothing but be a great teammate all along the way … Rich Lagow is a guy I have a ton of respect for, and always will."
???????Lagow's day Saturday was certainly made easier by IU's robust running game.
IU's final two TDs were emblematic. True freshman back Morgan Ellison scored from the 1 capping a third quarter drive that went 80 yards in 11 plays, all on the ground, and ate up 5:10 on the clock.
???????Redshirt freshman back Cole Gest's 8-yard TD run with 8:27 to play created the final score and marked IU's 23rd straight run. Ellison finished with a game-high 149 rushing yards and Gest added 104, marking the first time all season the Hoosiers have had two 100-yard rushers in a game.
"The O-line blocked their tails off all day long and the running backs had a field day running the ball," Lagow said. "They did a heck of a job."
???????Lagow appreciated his teammates on the other side of the ball, too.
"The defense played amazing today," Lagow said. "The goose egg was huge, especially when they are in the red zone on fourth down (toward the end, with safety Zeke Walker getting a pass breakup). I think that was one of the more exciting times (for me) in the game."
Allen clearly was pumped about that, too. Even by his exalted standards, set while turning around IU's defensive play the past two seasons, he knows recording a Big Ten shutout while holding the foe to under 200 yards is an accomplishment.
"That's pretty special," Allen said. "That's really hard to do, now, really hard to do. I would just say it's very fitting … the guys that were out there today were really the core of the guys that were responsible for the turnaround.
"Getting a shutout in a Big Ten game was very, very appropriate for that group of young men."
Allen led his post-game comments off by paying special homage to his seniors playing their final home game Saturday. Eight of them started on his defense.
???????Lagow is also a senior. And immediately after Saturday's result went final, he already knew it was time to refocus.
"We've got a big one this Saturday," Lagow said.
It will mark Allen's first Old Oaken Bucket game as a head coach. But he's a New Castle native. He knows what it means.
"And so now you get to the final game, and you can understand what's at stake," Allen said. "So I don't think I have to make a big deal about that – they understand how huge it is.
"At the same time, it's Purdue. Nothing else needs to be said."
The forecast for that one?
Fun.
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