Indiana's opportunities for 2019 marquee victory are dwindling
Indiana proved that the distance between itself and the top programs in the country isn't as far as the 51-10 loss to Ohio State made it seem, when it traveled to Penn State and a lost a competitive 34-27 game Saturday.
With Michigan being the only top-25 team left on the schedule and no clue as to who the bowl opponent might be, Indiana is staring its last chance at gaining the needed – or not needed – marquee victory for 2019.
When Indiana traveled to State College on Saturday to play the top-10 Nittany Lions, there was history to make.
The 2019 Hoosiers are used to making history at this point. They’d just cracked the top-25 for the first time since 1994 and were considered to be the best Indiana team, by the associated Press, since 1993. They already qualified for a bowl and then some.
Yet, even with the history of this season stacking up in the record books, Indiana still has something to prove. It hasn’t captured the big win. It didn’t Saturday either, losing 34-27 to Penn State.
“We definitely need one,” sophomore linebacker Micah McFadden said after the game. “We’re working on it, and we’re going to get one.”
The opportunities to gain that golden feather in the Hoosiers’ cap are dwindling, as Indiana has Michigan, Purdue and a bowl game left to play this season. Beating a top-15 Michigan team could provide that validation, and winning the bowl game was the Holy Grail of the 2019 season before the first game was played.
At this point, outside of winning the bowl game, the marquee win appears to be the only box remaining unchecked for the Hoosiers this year.
The loss to Penn State on Saturday didn’t necessarily prove anything new except that the trench between Indiana and the top-10 teams wasn’t as wide as the 51-10 loss to Ohio State made it seem. Indiana is still competitive with those programs, and it has been since 2015 – 2014, if the win against Missouri is counted.
The fact that Peyton Ramsey could throw for 371 yards and no interceptions on the road against a top program was already known. Offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer’s system has already picked apart good defenses. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has molded the defense into a force that could limit Sean Clifford – one of the Big Ten’s most effective passers – to 11-of-23 and 179 yards.
That’s why Indiana head coach Tom Allen wasn’t content with the play of his team Saturday.
“I was highly disappointed,” Allen said. “We didn’t come here to be close. We came here to battle them. Day-by-day, step-by-step, we’re building this thing. The next step is winning these kinds of games.”
To meet the head coach’s standards, yes, Indiana does need a shiny win. To prove that it’s working toward a breakthrough, though, it doesn’t.
Indiana has won games it typically doesn’t win. It won at Nebraska and at Maryland with its quarterback taking less than a majority of the reps in practice, and it handled Northwestern in blowout fashion. The fact that these performances have been taken for granted by some is a sign that Indiana is working toward a breakthrough.
Say some of the 50/50 plays went Indiana’s way at Michigan State or Penn State on Saturday – a practice Indiana is used to using in the last half-decade – Indiana would be 9-1 with two major road victories on its resume.
Indiana could both prove it has broken through and not win a game against a top program. There’s a reality where those two ideas co-exist.
But without knowing who the bowl opponent will be, Michigan remains the most difficult team on Indiana’s schedule, and if the Hoosiers don’t beat Michigan, that box might always remain unchecked for the 2019 season. In a realm where checklists decide the memory of past football seasons, the lack of a prestigious win could always remain attached to an Indiana team that proved everything else wasn’t fool’s gold.
“Since the beginning, we’ve known and we’ve believed that we could hang with teams like this,” McFadden said about Penn State. “It’s not really surprising because we’re building this and we want this, but it definitely shows what we can do."
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