On Saturday inside Ohio Stadium, No. 2 Indiana wasn't just up against one of the top teams in the country in No. 2 Ohio State. The Hoosiers also faced the deafening roar of 100,000-plus rabid fans donning scarlet and gray.
Indiana appeared overwhelmed by a tidal wave of talent, pressure and self-induced mistakes. From miscommunication caused by the noise inside The Shoe to the Buckeye's unmatched talent and athleticism, Indiana struggled to find its solid footing in a performance riddled with self-inflicted wounds and unrelenting Ohio State dominance.
In their first real test of the season, the Hoosiers fell 38-15 to the Buckeyes in Columbus, appearing outclassed in nearly every aspect of the game.
"[Ohio State] won and they deserved to win. They're a terrific football team. Coupled with the noise, it made it a very very challenging day for us," head coach Curt Cignetti said following Indiana's first loss of the season. "I give Ohio State a lot of credit, they dominated the football game."
After Indiana scored on its first offensive drive of the game, following a three-and-out forced by the Hoosiers' defense, the disparity between the two teams quickly became clear. Ohio State's defensive speed, talent and ability to exploit Indiana's weaknesses left Indiana scrambling to adjust.
While the Hoosiers' defense fought valiantly, their offense's struggles repeatedly put them in unenviable situations. The Buckeye's offense took over in Hoosier territory on three consecutive first half drives following mistakes, including a sack-fumble and a mishandled punt snap that both set the Ohio State offense up inside the red zone.
"We were fortunate to go into halftime only seven points down," Cignetti said.
The numbers told the story for Indiana's offensive woes on Saturday. The Hoosiers mustered just 151 total yards of offense compared to Ohio State's 316.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who completed only eight of his 17 passes for 68 yards, struggled to find a rhythm against the relentless Buckeye pressure. Ohio State tallied five sacks, timing Indiana's silent count to perfection and consistently getting to Rourke.
"We couldn't protect the quarterback and had communication errors in pass [protection]," Cignetti said. "Every time we dropped back to pass, something bad happened."
The environment inside Ohio Stadium played a significant role in Indiana's offensive struggles.
The deafening crowd noise forced the Hoosiers to use a silent count for the first time in a game all season. While most of the offensive line was able to hear, Cignetti revealed postgame that center Mike Katic struggled to hear the cadence.
"We didn't handle the noise very well. We just didn't," Cignetti said. "I don't think we played our best game today. I think a big part of that was because of them."
Despite the sting of the first loss of the season, Indiana is choosing to use the defeat as a "learning opportunity," according to Rourke.
"It was all stuff that we'd seen before. I've got to do a better job of recognizing it and being able to know where to go with the ball," Rourke said on Ohio State's blitz packages. "You have to be close to perfect to beat a team like [Ohio State]."
For Indiana, the mistakes were both self-inflicted and uncharacteristic. A fumbled punt, communication errors in pass protection and breakdowns in punt coverage—that resulted in a punt return touchdown for the Buckeyes—contributed to the lopsided result.
Of course, a big reason for those errors was the quality of the team lined up opposite the Hoosiers.
"I would describe this as an uncharacteristic game from us," Fisher said. "A lot of mistakes that we made today, we don't usually make. Credit to Ohio State, they played a really good football game."
Indiana's hopes of staying in the College Football Playoff conversation may have hit a small hitch. On Saturday, the Hoosiers weren't able to prove any of their doubters wrong.
For a handful of different reasons, Indiana didn't look like a team that could compete with the best that college football has to offer on Saturday.
"The pressure of the moment, our guys just didn't respond really well," Cignetti said. "Sometimes we had missed assignment, sometimes we had communication errors and some times we got physically beat. It wasn't very pretty."
After looking outmatched in their first true test of the season, the Hoosiers can only hope their body of work to this point in the season is enough to get them into the College Football Playoff and give them another opportunity to prove themselves against college football's elite.
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