Indiana University Athletics
Graham Notebook: There is Always Next Time
9/25/2018 8:43:00 PM | Football
By Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Even a sturdy offensive line, upon occasion, will get clocked.
In which case its team tends not to have a very good time.
Indiana lost the trench warfare to Michigan State's talented defensive front Saturday night, an abiding factor in IU's 35-21 setback.
"Well, I think we didn't block as well as we had expected," IU offensive coordinator Mike DeBord acknowledged Monday. "And we didn't play as well up front as we thought we were going to. I thought that had quite a bit to do with it.
"And I have to give (the Spartans) credit. They're good. I mean, they'll probably be a top 10 defense. But, we still moved the ball at times and we had things going, and we just hurt ourselves."
Michigan State leads the nation in rush defense and allowed the host Hoosiers a mere 29 rushing yards (at 0.9 yards per attempt) Saturday night. MSU dropped IU's average gain per carry for the season nearly a full
yard (5.3 to 4.4).
DeBord didn't ascribe that solely to offensive line play.
"In the run game, it takes everybody," he said. "That can be the offensive line with the tight ends. It can be the running back on the read. There were just times in that ballgame where we didn't have everybody in sync.
And it might be one guy.
"You've got to have everybody, in the run game. And we just couldn't get in sync that way."
Pass protection can break down via just one guy, also. There was a fair amount of that, too, Saturday night.
The Spartans recorded four sacks among their nine tackles for loss, picked off a pair of passes (including a 69-yard pick-6 that put IU into an early 14-0 hole).
Asked if the pressure applied inhibited the variety of pass plays he could call, DeBord replied:
"Well, yeah. When they're bringing so many guys and they're blitzing everybody, that puts everybody in a one-on-one matchup – and if you lose one of them, you're in trouble. So, yeah, you've got to get rid of the ball
quick and can't hang onto it as much."
Which means it's harder to get the ball downfield.
"Yeah, it was, because of the pocket (collapsing)," DeBord said. "When you're in the course of the game and having trouble that way a little bit, the thing I think about is getting rid of the ball quick, and we tried to do
that as best we could."
The Hoosiers essentially used an efficient short-passing game to at least partly compensate for the lack of a running game.
It sometimes worked.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Peyton Ramsey completed 70 percent of his passes and Indiana moved the ball well enough through the air to amass 301 total yards (61 more than MSU surrenders on average, with its 240.3 mark ranking third nationally).
"Trying to make up for that a little bit, yes," DeBord said when asked about short passes replacing runs. "They played a lot of man coverage and we were trying to run some crossers, some guys running underneath guys right around the five-yard area. And you're going to catch those. Trying to get rubs that way, get guys open that way.
"It was trying to keep the chains moving a bit, to get in favorable third downs."
Eventually the Spartan defense did seem to wear down a bit, and IU posted eight of its 18 first downs in the fourth quarter in the process of scoring 14 straight points – including a 65-yard touchdown strike from Ramsey to Whop Philyor.
"You saw us in the two-minute drive being able to throw the ball downfield a bit more because the defense was worn down a bit," DeBord said. "The rush was as much (of a factor) and they weren't blitzing, either. They were basically playing coverage, playing two-deep, that entire time. And that situation is totally different than the (rest of the) game situation."
Sophomore wideout Philyor finished with career-high totals of 13 catches and 148 receiving yards.
That was perhaps partly due to the fact that IU's receiving leader heading into the game, fifth-year senior wideout Luke Timian, didn't dress due to injury. And the Hoosiers entered the fray looking to find their wideouts more than, say, their tight ends, based upon MSU's defensive scheme.
"Going into the week, we had a game plan to use more wide receivers," Ramsey said. "There were packages where we had four or five wide receivers on the field and didn't have a tight end in there, because that's how we thought we could exploit them. We thought we could find matchups that way."
Ramsey said the Spartan defense didn't make much of anything easy.
"They did a good job of game-planning us and mixing it up," Ramsey said of the Spartans. "We may have expected them to do things a little bit differently. It's all about adjusting and adapting.
"They did nothing that they haven't shown. They just did a little bit more of this and maybe a little bit less of that. It was just a matter of adjusting and we didn't do a very good job of it."
MSU got credit from Hoosier head coach Tom Allen, too, but he also wasn't absolving his own team for issues that arose.
"You've got to give them tremendous credit," Allen said of the Spartans. "They are really good in the box. They're hard to move because they're so physically strong. They're so well-coached, and they use their hands well.
"But we had some errors. We had some technical scheme (mistakes) – not executing it right, and then also them just disrupting. And that's why that part of the game was so huge. It's hard to get things going when the line doesn't hold up.
"We have to find a way to run the football … didn't run the ball good enough, and that's pretty clear. Too much pressure on our quarterback."
Indiana (3-1) now faces more pressure to win this week against a 1-3 Rutgers team. But Ramsey cautioned the Scarlet Knights will come in really needing a win, too.
"They're a team that plays hard," Ramsey said of Rutgers. "They're going to be hungry. They're going to be ready to try and get their season back on the right track.
"It's hard to win games and it's hard to win games on the road. They're going to be ready and be a tough team. We just have to continue to prepare like we have been … I know (Saturday night was) disappointing, but I think from the very beginning of the season this team was hungry. I think this team is confident in what we have the ability to do. I don't think much has changed. I think we're going to continue to come out, stay level-headed and prepare with confidence and just be ready to go."
The IU offensive line had performed well through the first three weeks.
Next time doesn't have to be like last time.
REDISCOVERING HIS WIDEOUT ROOTS (AND ROUTES)
Swift fifth-year senior J-Shun Harris II caught 18 passes as a true freshman in 2014, including a crucial TD catch in IU's win at No. 18-ranked Missouri, but three ACL tears subsequently have helped limited him mainly to return-specialist duties since.
Harris still found a way to shine. He was Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week twice last season before sustaining his third ACL tear in game eight at Maryland, and has already notched the same honor this year when supplying an 86-yard punt return TD against Ball State.
But Harris had just one catch for six yards heading into Saturday night's game with Michigan State. He caught six passes against the Spartans for 42 yards, looking fully like his old self.
"It felt awesome," Harris said Monday about getting more involved with the offense. "That was my first time playing that much on offense since freshman year. It felt good to get back out there.
"I attack practice like I'm going to play receiver in the game. If they need me, like last week, I need to be there when I'm called upon. ... I treat it as if I'm a starter and you never know what can happen. Luke (Timian) not being able to play last week ..."
Harris felt the Hoosiers, who had 272 passing yards against MSU, could have had more if the Spartan pass rush had not consistently pestered Ramsey.
"There were a lot of pass windows that if we could've had (open up if Ramsey had) a couple more seconds. That stuff would've been awesome. The run game was so important. We needed that a little more. We have to go back and focus in on that, as well. If we can't run, then defenses can back up and won't play us honest."
Does Harris want to see IU take more shots downfield?
Does that question even need asking?
"As a receiver," Harris said with a broad smile, "I wish we could throw a go-ball every play.
"I feel we need to keep the defense honest. If we throw underneath, they can just sit on those routes. So the (deep) shots are there. There were a couple in the game, but Peyton was either going through his reads (or) had to scramble. There were a couple deep shots that were there, but he wasn't able to see them with the pocket collapsing.
"It's just taking what they give us. We knew coming in that the run game, it would be a challenge. They had a pretty strong run defense and I think they may still be No. 1 (in the nation). We knew coming in that the guys up front would have to set the tone. We didn't necessarily, I would say, win that battle."
Harris feels the Hoosiers can rebound from that disappointment.
"Definitely," he said. "Not getting rattled. Continuing to focus on the little things. Coach Allen preaches on that a lot. Just because we lost this game doesn't mean we have to change our whole scheme.
"There were a couple times where we hurt ourselves in that game and changed a lot of (play) outcomes, so I think (we need to be) continuing to prepare like we have been and understand that we still have eight games left and that game doesn't define our season."
Allen was happy to see some resiliency from his Hoosiers even as Saturday night's game was ongoing.
"I'm disappointed in the outcome from Saturday," Allen said, "but encouraged by the fight of our team and the character they showed to be able to stay together and give us an opportunity in the fourth quarter, to be able to score 14 points and cut the lead to seven with three minutes to go."
And Allen can always just point, as an example, to Harris.
Resiliency personified.
PENIX PLANS
While Ramsey has started all four games at quarterback for IU, true freshman Michael Penix Jr. played in both the Florida International and Ball State games – and has completed 80 percent of his passes (12-of-15).
Allen was asked about plans for Penix in the wake of the Michigan State game, in which the true freshman didn't play, and whether the new four-game freshman redshirt rule might still apply to Penix as the season pans out.
"Well, right now you look at it, he's played in two, so you have two more to work with," Allen said of the chance for Penix to retain redshirt status by limiting participation to four games. "So that still gives you that flexibility.
"But I think that at the same time, as I've said before, he's our backup quarterback, he's our No. 2 quarterback, and so I expect him to play. So we'll see how that all ends up working itself out. If it continues to be the case where he doesn't play enough and you have a chance to redshirt him, I think you have to use that as a thought. But right now when you're the backup quarterback, chances of that guy playing is pretty high.
DEFENSIVE SIGNALS CROSSING?
Indiana defenders were still moving about when MSU unleashed a 75-yard jet-sweep touchdown that clinched Saturday night's result, and it wasn't the first time this season the defense hasn't seemed set at the snap.
And it isn't just because the Hoosier defense is youthful.
"Yeah, I would say, and there's different reasons for that," Allen said. "You play certain styles of offenses and you try to look at formations, too, before you make the calls … it's all based on their tempo and how much time you think you have.
"So you're trying to wait as long as you can, and the other part of it, too, is that people are really, really good at stealing signals. And so you want to be able to wait as long as you can … In a perfect scenario you'd love
to have the guys have the call way in advance so they have plenty of time to make all their adjustments, especially because you're young, but sometimes we don't have that luxury."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Even a sturdy offensive line, upon occasion, will get clocked.
In which case its team tends not to have a very good time.
Indiana lost the trench warfare to Michigan State's talented defensive front Saturday night, an abiding factor in IU's 35-21 setback.
"Well, I think we didn't block as well as we had expected," IU offensive coordinator Mike DeBord acknowledged Monday. "And we didn't play as well up front as we thought we were going to. I thought that had quite a bit to do with it.
"And I have to give (the Spartans) credit. They're good. I mean, they'll probably be a top 10 defense. But, we still moved the ball at times and we had things going, and we just hurt ourselves."
Michigan State leads the nation in rush defense and allowed the host Hoosiers a mere 29 rushing yards (at 0.9 yards per attempt) Saturday night. MSU dropped IU's average gain per carry for the season nearly a full
yard (5.3 to 4.4).
DeBord didn't ascribe that solely to offensive line play.
"In the run game, it takes everybody," he said. "That can be the offensive line with the tight ends. It can be the running back on the read. There were just times in that ballgame where we didn't have everybody in sync.
And it might be one guy.
"You've got to have everybody, in the run game. And we just couldn't get in sync that way."
Pass protection can break down via just one guy, also. There was a fair amount of that, too, Saturday night.
The Spartans recorded four sacks among their nine tackles for loss, picked off a pair of passes (including a 69-yard pick-6 that put IU into an early 14-0 hole).
Asked if the pressure applied inhibited the variety of pass plays he could call, DeBord replied:
"Well, yeah. When they're bringing so many guys and they're blitzing everybody, that puts everybody in a one-on-one matchup – and if you lose one of them, you're in trouble. So, yeah, you've got to get rid of the ball
quick and can't hang onto it as much."
Which means it's harder to get the ball downfield.
"Yeah, it was, because of the pocket (collapsing)," DeBord said. "When you're in the course of the game and having trouble that way a little bit, the thing I think about is getting rid of the ball quick, and we tried to do
that as best we could."
The Hoosiers essentially used an efficient short-passing game to at least partly compensate for the lack of a running game.
It sometimes worked.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Peyton Ramsey completed 70 percent of his passes and Indiana moved the ball well enough through the air to amass 301 total yards (61 more than MSU surrenders on average, with its 240.3 mark ranking third nationally).
"Trying to make up for that a little bit, yes," DeBord said when asked about short passes replacing runs. "They played a lot of man coverage and we were trying to run some crossers, some guys running underneath guys right around the five-yard area. And you're going to catch those. Trying to get rubs that way, get guys open that way.
"It was trying to keep the chains moving a bit, to get in favorable third downs."
Eventually the Spartan defense did seem to wear down a bit, and IU posted eight of its 18 first downs in the fourth quarter in the process of scoring 14 straight points – including a 65-yard touchdown strike from Ramsey to Whop Philyor.
"You saw us in the two-minute drive being able to throw the ball downfield a bit more because the defense was worn down a bit," DeBord said. "The rush was as much (of a factor) and they weren't blitzing, either. They were basically playing coverage, playing two-deep, that entire time. And that situation is totally different than the (rest of the) game situation."
Sophomore wideout Philyor finished with career-high totals of 13 catches and 148 receiving yards.
That was perhaps partly due to the fact that IU's receiving leader heading into the game, fifth-year senior wideout Luke Timian, didn't dress due to injury. And the Hoosiers entered the fray looking to find their wideouts more than, say, their tight ends, based upon MSU's defensive scheme.
"Going into the week, we had a game plan to use more wide receivers," Ramsey said. "There were packages where we had four or five wide receivers on the field and didn't have a tight end in there, because that's how we thought we could exploit them. We thought we could find matchups that way."
Ramsey said the Spartan defense didn't make much of anything easy.
"They did a good job of game-planning us and mixing it up," Ramsey said of the Spartans. "We may have expected them to do things a little bit differently. It's all about adjusting and adapting.
"They did nothing that they haven't shown. They just did a little bit more of this and maybe a little bit less of that. It was just a matter of adjusting and we didn't do a very good job of it."
MSU got credit from Hoosier head coach Tom Allen, too, but he also wasn't absolving his own team for issues that arose.
"You've got to give them tremendous credit," Allen said of the Spartans. "They are really good in the box. They're hard to move because they're so physically strong. They're so well-coached, and they use their hands well.
"But we had some errors. We had some technical scheme (mistakes) – not executing it right, and then also them just disrupting. And that's why that part of the game was so huge. It's hard to get things going when the line doesn't hold up.
"We have to find a way to run the football … didn't run the ball good enough, and that's pretty clear. Too much pressure on our quarterback."
Indiana (3-1) now faces more pressure to win this week against a 1-3 Rutgers team. But Ramsey cautioned the Scarlet Knights will come in really needing a win, too.
"They're a team that plays hard," Ramsey said of Rutgers. "They're going to be hungry. They're going to be ready to try and get their season back on the right track.
"It's hard to win games and it's hard to win games on the road. They're going to be ready and be a tough team. We just have to continue to prepare like we have been … I know (Saturday night was) disappointing, but I think from the very beginning of the season this team was hungry. I think this team is confident in what we have the ability to do. I don't think much has changed. I think we're going to continue to come out, stay level-headed and prepare with confidence and just be ready to go."
The IU offensive line had performed well through the first three weeks.
Next time doesn't have to be like last time.
REDISCOVERING HIS WIDEOUT ROOTS (AND ROUTES)
Swift fifth-year senior J-Shun Harris II caught 18 passes as a true freshman in 2014, including a crucial TD catch in IU's win at No. 18-ranked Missouri, but three ACL tears subsequently have helped limited him mainly to return-specialist duties since.
Harris still found a way to shine. He was Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week twice last season before sustaining his third ACL tear in game eight at Maryland, and has already notched the same honor this year when supplying an 86-yard punt return TD against Ball State.
But Harris had just one catch for six yards heading into Saturday night's game with Michigan State. He caught six passes against the Spartans for 42 yards, looking fully like his old self.
"It felt awesome," Harris said Monday about getting more involved with the offense. "That was my first time playing that much on offense since freshman year. It felt good to get back out there.
"I attack practice like I'm going to play receiver in the game. If they need me, like last week, I need to be there when I'm called upon. ... I treat it as if I'm a starter and you never know what can happen. Luke (Timian) not being able to play last week ..."
Harris felt the Hoosiers, who had 272 passing yards against MSU, could have had more if the Spartan pass rush had not consistently pestered Ramsey.
"There were a lot of pass windows that if we could've had (open up if Ramsey had) a couple more seconds. That stuff would've been awesome. The run game was so important. We needed that a little more. We have to go back and focus in on that, as well. If we can't run, then defenses can back up and won't play us honest."
Does Harris want to see IU take more shots downfield?
Does that question even need asking?
"As a receiver," Harris said with a broad smile, "I wish we could throw a go-ball every play.
"I feel we need to keep the defense honest. If we throw underneath, they can just sit on those routes. So the (deep) shots are there. There were a couple in the game, but Peyton was either going through his reads (or) had to scramble. There were a couple deep shots that were there, but he wasn't able to see them with the pocket collapsing.
"It's just taking what they give us. We knew coming in that the run game, it would be a challenge. They had a pretty strong run defense and I think they may still be No. 1 (in the nation). We knew coming in that the guys up front would have to set the tone. We didn't necessarily, I would say, win that battle."
Harris feels the Hoosiers can rebound from that disappointment.
"Definitely," he said. "Not getting rattled. Continuing to focus on the little things. Coach Allen preaches on that a lot. Just because we lost this game doesn't mean we have to change our whole scheme.
"There were a couple times where we hurt ourselves in that game and changed a lot of (play) outcomes, so I think (we need to be) continuing to prepare like we have been and understand that we still have eight games left and that game doesn't define our season."
Allen was happy to see some resiliency from his Hoosiers even as Saturday night's game was ongoing.
"I'm disappointed in the outcome from Saturday," Allen said, "but encouraged by the fight of our team and the character they showed to be able to stay together and give us an opportunity in the fourth quarter, to be able to score 14 points and cut the lead to seven with three minutes to go."
And Allen can always just point, as an example, to Harris.
Resiliency personified.
PENIX PLANS
While Ramsey has started all four games at quarterback for IU, true freshman Michael Penix Jr. played in both the Florida International and Ball State games – and has completed 80 percent of his passes (12-of-15).
Allen was asked about plans for Penix in the wake of the Michigan State game, in which the true freshman didn't play, and whether the new four-game freshman redshirt rule might still apply to Penix as the season pans out.
"Well, right now you look at it, he's played in two, so you have two more to work with," Allen said of the chance for Penix to retain redshirt status by limiting participation to four games. "So that still gives you that flexibility.
"But I think that at the same time, as I've said before, he's our backup quarterback, he's our No. 2 quarterback, and so I expect him to play. So we'll see how that all ends up working itself out. If it continues to be the case where he doesn't play enough and you have a chance to redshirt him, I think you have to use that as a thought. But right now when you're the backup quarterback, chances of that guy playing is pretty high.
DEFENSIVE SIGNALS CROSSING?
Indiana defenders were still moving about when MSU unleashed a 75-yard jet-sweep touchdown that clinched Saturday night's result, and it wasn't the first time this season the defense hasn't seemed set at the snap.
And it isn't just because the Hoosier defense is youthful.
"Yeah, I would say, and there's different reasons for that," Allen said. "You play certain styles of offenses and you try to look at formations, too, before you make the calls … it's all based on their tempo and how much time you think you have.
"So you're trying to wait as long as you can, and the other part of it, too, is that people are really, really good at stealing signals. And so you want to be able to wait as long as you can … In a perfect scenario you'd love
to have the guys have the call way in advance so they have plenty of time to make all their adjustments, especially because you're young, but sometimes we don't have that luxury."
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