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The Indiana Hoosiers suffered their third loss of the year and their first loss at home after Michigan rolled past the Hoosiers 31-10. Indiana was able to keep this close in the first two quarters going into halftime tied at 10 a piece but a lack of offensive production in the second half allowed Michigan to pull away to avoid the upset resulting in another lack luster offensive showing from Indiana.

A lack of offensive production in the second half seems to be one of the areas that this Indiana team has struggle with in the 2022 season. In the loss against Michigan, Indiana only earned 29 total yards in the last two quarters leaving them without any points in the second half. In the fourth quarter, Indiana actually did not earn any positive yardage and had negative 12 total yards.

This has been a common trend for Indiana this season struggling in the later parts of the game. In the game against Nebraska, it was a similar story. The Hoosiers only earned five total yards in the fourth and went scoreless in three quarters. This problem might come from the inability to protect the quarterback and head coach Tom Allen acknowledged that might be one of the issues with the teams offensive production.

“You can see the opposite from the first half to the second half in the ability to move the football and then obviously in the second half not being able to. It obviously starts up front, you have to protect, not getting the job done there and gotta look at that very hard,” Allen said.

Quarterback Connor Bazelak was sacked a total of seven times in the game against Michigan resulting in a total loss of 61 yards. Bazelak has now been sacked a total of 19 times in just six games tied for third most in all of college football. Indiana now racks eleventh in the Big Ten in offensive rankings after the Michigan loss.

Indiana's inability to run the football efficiently hasn't help with the offense either. In the past two games, Indiana hasn't had a running back run for over 50 yards. In the game against Michigan, Indiana only rush for 13 yards in the third quarter and finished with negative rushing yards in the second half. The Hoosiers finished with negative 11 rushing yards total in the second half against Michigan and only 19 total rushing yards in the entire game.

Slow starts have been one of the main problems for Indiana and today's game clearly showed that. The past two weeks have consisted of no offensive production in the second half and earlier in the year it was the opposite. At the beginning of the year, Indiana would struggle to get things opening up the ball game but now things seemed to have flipped. Either way, Allen acknowledged that these lack luster second halves will not set his team up for victory.

“The last two weeks the offense staff has not done a good job with those adjustments the proof is in the pudding. We haven't scored points in the second half so it is what it is, call it what you want but those adjustments have to be made and they have to be made in a way that allows us to be successful in the second half.” Allen said. “That hasn't happened in the last two weeks. That has to be addressed and that's on our offensives staff thats their responsibility but at the end of the day I'm the head coach so I gotta make sure it happens.”

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