4th-and-2 For the Win
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Poise won. Execution won. And, of course, Indiana won. It always does in cliffhangers, even when on the road, even when opponents play their best game of the season.
The No. 5/7 Hoosiers’ dramatic fourth-quarter rally at Memorial Stadium delivered a 20-17 victory despite having the ball just 20 minutes to the Cornhuskers’ 39, despite being outgained 383 yards to 328, despite trailing by 11 points with 12 minutes left in front of nearly 86,000 roaring fans.
Fourth-quarter Josh Hoover touchdown passes to wide receiver Nick Marsh of 75 and 44 yards, and shutdown Hoosier defense fueled the comeback.
“Good teams find a way to win games like this at the end,” head coach Curt Cignetti told Voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer. “That’s what we did.”
Or, as safety Preston Zachman told Fischer, “It was definitely a grinder. There’s no quit in this team.”
There was no time to quit given IU had never trailed this season until Saturday. It had only allowed six first-half points in its first five games, the best in the nation. Behind dual threat quarterback Anthony Colandrea, Nebraska had 10 points in the first quarter, then just seven the rest of the game.
The Hoosiers’ first-half offense was in shambles -- running just 16 plays, displaying no running game or rhythm, punting twice, scoring just three points, totaling only 115 yards. The defense was missing tackles and allowing Nebraska to convert eight of 10 third-down attempts. Still, when the Cornhuskers missed a field goal, they led just 10-3 at halftime.
“We were getting dominated,” Cignetti told Fischer. “We were very fortunate to be down only by seven.
Cignetti’s main halftime message -- settle down, play your game.
“I told them to learn from the first half and forget the rest,” he told Fischer. “Play like it’s the first quarter, one play at a time. Just chip away.”
That’s what they did, Zachman told Fischer.
“There was no panic from anyone, no coaches, no players, nothing. We were down two scores in the fourth quarter and you wouldn’t have known it on the sidelines. Everyone was calm, cool, collected. We just kept chipping away and it paid off.”
The result -- IU extended its nation’s-best win streak to 22 straight. It will enter next Saturday’s game against No. 6/5 Ohio State at Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium with a 6-0 record, 3-0 in the Big Ten.
Cignetti-coached teams have a history of winning close games everywhere he’s been. Last season, the Hoosiers won nail-biters at Iowa, at Oregon, and at Penn State. The last time they had trailed was against Ohio State in last December’s Big Ten title game.
They rallied to win, of course.
“That’s the culture of this program,” Zachman told Fischer. “Games like this show what kind of team you have. We need games like this to find out who we really are. I think this will be good for us.”
IU playmakers were all over the field - Hoover (12-for-22, 263 yards, two touchdowns), Marsh (six catches, a career-high 187 yards, two touchdowns), defensive lineman Tobi Osunsanmi (four tackles, one huge fourth-quarter sack), receiver Charlie Becker (three catches, 52 yards), tight end Trevor Gibbs (two catches, 21 yards), safety Amare Ferrell (nine tackles), linebackers Isaiah Jones (nine tackles, two pass breakups) and Rolijah Hardy (eight tackles), cornerback Jamari Sharpe (eight tackles, one interception), even freshman linebacker Jacob Savage (three tackles, one tackle for loss, one pass break up).
Nebraska (5-1, 2-1) has lost 31 straight games to ranked opponents. Colandrea was 25-for-43 for 263 yards and an interception. He rushed for 47 yards and a touchdown.
“He made things very challenging by the way he could get out of the pocket,” Zachman told Fischer. “We struggled to contain him. We weren’t very successful on third down because of that.
“He’s a very good player, but once we were able to bottle him up, we took away their offense.”
Colandrea passed and ran the Huskers for a 28-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead six minutes into the game.
Hoover connected with Becker for 43 yards to help set up Nico Radicic’s 42-yard field goal to tie the score. Nebraska untied it with a touchdown run for a 10-3 late-first quarter lead.
An aggressive pass-coverage play by Ferrell prevented a late first-half Nebraska touchdown. The Cornhuskers then missed a 40-yard field goal for the 10-3 halftime score.
The Hoosiers ran just 16 plays and had the ball for less than eight minutes, but they committed no penalties and had no turnovers.
IU’s second-half offensive adjustments started with getting Gibbs involved. Two early Gibbs catches for 21 yards, then a 14-yard completion to Marsh and Hoover’s 10-yard run resulted in Radicic’s 35-yard field goal and a 10-6 third-quarter score.
The Hoosiers’ fierce defensive pressure forced a Sharpe interception, which gave IU the ball on its own 2-yard line. It had to punt. Its next possession was at its 1-yard line. That drive also ended in a punt. Colandrea ran 39 yards for a touchdown and a 17-6 Nebraska lead.
Ten seconds later, Hoover hit Marsh with a 75-yard touchdown pass for a 17-13 score.
A Zachman interception was negated by a roughing-the-passer penalty on defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker. It was IU’s first penalty in seven quarters. Still, the Hoosiers forced a punt.
Running back Lee Beebe Jr. started the drive with a 12-yard run. Hoover ended it with a 44-yard touchdown pass to Marsh on fourth and one. IU led 20-17 with seven minutes left.
Osunsamni’s sack on fourth down basically ended Nebraska’s hopes
“There are a lot of things we could have done better,” Cignetti told Fischer. “It was a hard game. There’s a lot of value in a game like that.”