BLOOMINGTON – After barely scraping by against Akron last week, Indiana is in desperate need of a win on the road this week against the Terrapins. The Hoosiers had some quality moments last week. Several takeaways, a somewhat solid bounce back game from the secondary, and a couple good drives from the offense were just enough to win the game in 4OT.
This will not be the case against Maryland. If Indiana plays the same way they dd against Akron, they will get rinsed by the Terps. Indiana, fighting to stay alive for bowl contention, needs a decisive win to get fans believing again. If they can have success in these three areas of the game, they may just leave Maryland with a win.
Make Taulia Tagovailoa uncomfortableÂ
The Terrapins boast a quality dual-threat quarterback in Taulia Tagovailoa. Akron trotted out DJ Irons, who in theory is nowhere near the player Tagovailoa is, and Irons dismantled the Hoosier defense for four straight quarters.
If Indiana is unable to keep Tagovailoa in the pocket, he will make them pay with big plays on the ground. He is more than capable as a runner, and if the Indiana edge rushers aren't able to stop him from scrambling, they will be in for a long day on the defensive side of the ball.
Adversely, though the Maryland signal-caller is a quality runner, he does the bulk of his damage as a passer. Allowing him time in the pocket will be detrimental to Indiana's chances in the game.
Indiana's secondary has not been good lately, and if Tagovailoa has time to hang in the pocket, one of his targets will create enough space for him to complete a pass.
In the same vein, if Tagovailoa is able to freely escape from a collapsing pocket, he could have the same effect as the play breaks down. Altogether, if the Hoosiers allow Tagovailoa to get and stay comfortable in this game, they will be in trouble.
Complete more passes
This seems so simple, but when your quarterback only completes 11 of his 27 pass attempts, something needs to change, because you aren't going to win many football games that way.
Tayven Jackson showed flashes of becoming a really good quarterback in the second half against Louisville two weeks ago, but he disappeared Saturday. The young quarterback has had his struggles in all areas of the passing game, and at a certain point we have to look to the play calling.
Indiana's offensive coordinator, Walt Bell, needs to create more simple reads for Jackson if he is going to continue to struggle passing the ball. Just stringing together early completions early on could make a world of difference for Jackson's afternoon.
The offense doesn't need to be exclusively check downs for the entire game, but Bell needs to find a way to get Jackson into a rhythm. If he passes the ball the way he did against Akron, and Bell can't scheme anything up to help his young quarterback, Indiana's offensive woes will continue, and they will lose another football game.
Stop running read options
When my dog, Percy, was just a puppy, the first trick we taught him was how to sit and shake. This proved to be a mistake, as all he wanted to do was sit and shake whenever somebody came in the room, for no reason other than to show everybody his trick.
Whoever taught Bell what a read option is made a big mistake, because it seems as though all he wants to do is run options just to prove he knows a cool trick.
Your team becomes very easy to stop when every other offensive play is a read option. The idea of a read option based offense with a mobile quarterback sounds great, but there have to be other offensive threats.
If the opposing defense just has to gameplan for stopping a read option, they're going to win every time. Thus far, that is all teams have needed to do when facing the Hoosiers. Indiana's wins against Akron and Indiana State were due purely to the talent disparity.
Any Big Ten opponent is going to exploit the lack of variety in the Hoosier offensive attack. That said, this also gives Indiana a unique opportunity going forward. The Hoosiers could largely abandon the read option, and surprise everybody.
Realistically, they would be sacrificing very little offensive production, as the read options have not yielded much by way of yards of points. That said, the benefits could be great for Indiana.
If Bell opens up the playbook a bit and transitions away from the read options, the Terps may find themselves shellshocked.
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