A negated punt return, dropped passes, missed play-calls and porous defensive play in the waning minutes of each half were all moments that cost Indiana the game in East Lansing on Saturday.
Indiana head coach Tom Allen wants those moments sealed tight when the Hoosiers play their next competitive game.
Indiana was only one play away from beating No. 25 Michigan State on Saturday night in East Lansing. That’s what head coach Tom Allen told his players and what made the 40-31 outcome so frustrating for the third-year head coach who branded his first season in 2017 as the “breakthrough” year.
It’s a similar sentiment for those who have followed the program longer than most of the current roster has been enrolled in Bloomington. The 2015 season featured several competitive games against top-25 opponents, while 2016 presented a two-point loss in the Foster Farms Bowl and 2017 saw two more close games against Michigan and Michigan State.
Indiana has been one play away for a handful of years, and even with a younger roster filled with future foundational players, IU was one play away from beating the Spartans again.
“Tough way to lose. Tough to look them in the eye,” Allen said after the game. “A lot of tears in there, and there should be because when you invest as much as our guys invest and work the way our guys work, it’ll hurt. We had our chances. We just have to find a way to make one more play.”
Those missed chances began with the dropped interception by Bryant Fitzgerald in the first quarter that would have been returned for a touchdown. Then they compounded in the form of a block in the back penalty that negated a long Whop Philyor punt return, cost the Hoosiers 61 yards and eventually led to a Michigan State score.
A dropped pass deep down the field and a missed touchdown pass from Mike Penix to Philyor could have flipped the field late in the game, and some drives were wasted because the offensive play-calling abandoned the original strategy and either ran three consecutive times in its own territory or threw deep down the field with three minutes left in the game.
“We’ve got to keep executing in those key moments, at the end of the half, at the end of the game,” Allen said. “We have those young guys, and to me, it’s just making those one-on-one catches, defending the ball – the ball is right there, we’re right there. We’re getting better and better every week.”
The moments that jumped out to Allen the most, he said, were at the end of the first half and the end of the game. After running the ball to draw the rest of Michigan State’s timeouts, Indiana was prous on defense and were beaten on a touchdown pass that capped 56-yard, 46-second drive.
And on the game-winning drive, Indiana allowed a 44-yard pass on a one-on-one matchup between Darrell Stewart and Jaylin Williams and then allowed Brian Lewerke to squirm his way to a 30-yard run.
Those moments reflect themes of the past that have resurfaced in the present, and fifth-year senior Donavan Hale – who was at IU to witness the missed field goal in the Pinstripe Bowl, the dropped touchdown pass in the double-overtime loss to Michigan and the 25-point blown lead to Rutgers at home – summed it up in postgame the way it’s been summed up in postgames following those losses too.
“We’re obviously disappointed, but we’re not discouraged,” Hale said. “It’s just all about finishing. Coach Allen is always telling us about finishing. We think we’re close, we just need to pull it out.”
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