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With 2:16 to go in Friday night's opener against Illinois, Indiana was staring down what had seemed to reveal itself as an inevitable fate.

This game was a tale of two halves. The Hoosiers had carried a 16-10 lead into the halftime break thanks to some Illinois mistakes and the automatic leg of Charles Campbell. This isn't a position that's foreign to IU as of late, though.

Last season, Indiana found themselves in similar situations with Cincinnati, Michigan State, and Maryland. In all of those contests, Indiana had relinquished a lead following a turn of misfortune and never recovered. After a nightmare start to the second half that saw the Hoosiers come out flat and uninspired on offense, it looked as if this would be yet another in a growing list of all-too-familiar, gut-wrenching losses.

However, not tonight. Tonight, Connor Bazelak and the Indiana offense had different plans.

"I think we knew we had that game from the beginning," Bazelak said early Saturday morning following the win. "We just had to go and take it, and I guess we did it in style."

Commanding an offense that had amassed just 70 yards and been held scoreless up to that point in the second half, Bazelak was 7-10 for 70 yards & had four yards on the ground on the game-sealing drive. Balancing targets between Cam Camper and DJ Matthews before eventually handing the ball off to Shaun Shivers for the deciding score, Bazelak knew he had to trust his guys.

"You go to your playmakers," Bazelak said.

Coming off of last year's season-ending ACL injury, Matthews' presence was felt in a big way as he eclipsed the 100-yard mark on seven receptions and a score. Camper impressed in his Indiana debut, adding 156 receiving yards on 11 receptions. The two saw 30 of Bazelak's 52 targets on the night.

Given the heightened tensions and intensity of the moment, teams can sometimes go erratic in high-pressure situations. Indiana, however, is a different case.

As shown in the victory, offensive coordinator Walt Bell's scheme is heavily based on tempo. So, when a situation arrives when up-tempo play is required, Indiana feels right at home.

"I mean, that's our offense," Bazelak said. "The whole game, we're in two-minutes. So, we didn't have to do anything special. When you get in a rhythm in this offense, we really started to roll."

Matthews echoed the same sentiments after a big performance from him on the night.

"Our whole method is playing fast," Matthews said following the game. "Space, pace, race, that's our motto as an offense. It was just being us, that's our identity. We work two-minutes almost every day in practice, so it's nothing new. It's just coming together, rallying the troops, going to execute at a high level, and it was needed in a critical moment."

In that critical moment, Bazelak did what leaders do: Took it upon himself to put his team in the best situation to win.

"I'm just really trying to keep everyone calm," Bazelak said. "I guess you don't really think about [the emotions] on the field, but once we scored, it was awesome; just that relief because we had been working so hard this offseason."

After it was all said and done, though, DJ Matthews let the moment come to him as he soaked in the joys of such an important win for not only the team, but himself.

"It was super overwhelming," Matthews said. "This is the first season opener I've ever won, so it's an awesome feeling to have my family here and to be able to do it with the guys. It's just unbelievable."

When it's all said and done, the importance of a win like this is hard to overstate. On the heels of one of the more disappointing seasons in recent memory, Bazelak is at the head of the charge hoping to make things different in 2022. With a conference win on opening night, something they weren't able to accomplish all last year, they've taken a mostly-positive first step in the right direction.

"I wasn't here last season, but these guys have a bad taste in their mouth after last year," Bazelak said. "Just excited we got a win tonight, 1-0."

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