As Indiana continues to rack up victories against Big Ten opponents, one part of the Hoosiers’ identity has remained consistent throughout Tom Allen’s tenure as head football coach— the defense.
With Indiana’s 37-21 win at Rutgers, the Hoosiers forced the Scarlet Knights to commit three turnovers— all interceptions thrown by quarterback Noah Vedral. Additionally, Indiana prevented Rutgers from converting on fourth down all three times the Scarlet Knights went for it.
“I thought Coach Wommack did a nice job mixing things up with our secondary and the coverages,” Allen said to the media following Indiana’s win over Rutgers. “The three takeaways were just massive. Special group back there.”
That secondary was led by Reese Taylor and Tiawan Mullen, who combined for 11 tackles and Mullen's 2.5 sacks.
The defense set up the Indiana offense with multiple short scoring drives in the first half.
With six minutes remaining in the second half, defensive lineman Jonathan King intercepted a ball that Vedral threw as he was being hit by linebacker Cam Jones to give Indiana the ball to begin their drive on the Rutgers six-yard line. The offense capitalized on the turnover, with Penix sneaking it into the end zone to put Indiana in front, 13-7.
The next offensive snap for Rutgers, Vedral had another pass intercepted by defensive back Jaylin Williams after being hit in the arm by defensive lineman Sio Nofoagatoto’a. Indiana would start this drive from the Rutgers 28-yard line, scoring a touchdown on a 15-yard pass from Penix to Ty Fryfogle to put the Hoosiers in command, 20-7.
Micah McFadden clinched the trifecta of interceptions for the Hoosiers in the third quarter, with the Scarlet Knights going for it on fourth down at the Indiana 34-yard line.
“There’s just a lot of talk throughout the sideline,” McFadden said on the defensive unit. “We just feed off of each other just making plays.”
Indiana’s defense held Vedral to just 128 passing yards, and 3.8 passing yards per completion.
Indiana will look to continue their momentum in the Big Ten with another tough conference opponent in Michigan. Earlier on Saturday, the No. 13 Wolverines lost to Michigan State at home, 27-24.
“It’s going to take a lot of leadership from our coaching staff, leaders of our team,” Allen said on continuing to earn victories from their schedule. “In my mind, we expected to be able to start doing things like this. We’ve been beginning to plant those seeds.”
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.
