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The Indiana Hoosiers traveled to Lincoln this Saturday afternoon and lost their second game in a row with a final score of 35-21. Both of these teams headed into Saturday needing a bounce back win but Indiana was unable to pull the strings together struggling to go up against the Husker’s defense. Indiana’s motto on offense has been a fast paced style of play all season but in the second half, the offense simply could not get things rolling.

Coming into this game, Nebraska was ranked as the worst defense in the Big Ten yet the Hoosiers struggled to move the football. The Indiana offense became nonexistent in the second half, going scoreless in the third and fourth quarter.

In the final 30 minutes of play, Indiana was only able to earn 71 yards of total offense, with just five total yards in the fourth. The game was tied up at 21 heading into halftime but the Hoosiers scored all 21 of their points in the second quarter so, with a slow second half, Indiana was unable to score in the later parts of the game.

A big part of Indiana’s offensive struggles was due to injuries in their wide receiving core. The Hoosiers were without their two top receivers in Cam Camper and DJ Matthews. Both did not play due to health issues leaving Indiana to look for other options.

Indiana tried to go to a variety of different receivers but several dropped passes hurt Indiana’s chances to get something going on offense and caused Connor Bazelak to finish with a 50 percent completion percentage on 22-of-44 passing for 223 yards. That’s a 5.1 yard per attempt average.

After the game head coach Tom Allen said that in moments like these, other players have to take charge.

“There were a lot of things that were self-inflicted. The penalties, the drops, the execution…We have to make plays. I think our guys understand that but for us it's how you practice. We got to continue to find creative ways to put stress on our guys in order to get the best preparation possible so we can make those plays.” Allen said. “Getting some of our top receivers back is gonna be huge but the other guys gotta step up.”

Indiana struggled heavily converting third downs against the Huskers. Out of 15 third down attempts, Indiana was only able to complete two. That gave the Hoosiers just a 13.3% completion rate on third downs, their lowest completion percentage so far this season. The Hoosiers also finished with seven three and outs on offense.

“We were two for 15. I saw there on third downs which is not even close to being good enough. Too many third and longs which makes it very difficult to convert. To me, it's more about first down execution other than anything and then being able to do a great job on third downs.” Allen said. “So when evaluating play calling, maximization of our execution and how we are going to get ourselves better because the bottom line is we’re not getting the job done.”

In total, Indiana netted those five total yards in the fourth quarter on 11 plays. Indiana averaged 2.9 yards per rush on the night on 23 carries, making a struggling offense even more one-dimensional.

Penalties also didn't help the Hoosiers. 11 total penalties were called against Indiana for 92 yards, the most this season. From the jump, this took a toll on the Hoosiers as the first play of the game pushed them back five yards due to being called for a delay of game on their first possession.

“I think we had a couple of drops on the outside, I missed a couple of deep throws, not giving the guys a chance, a couple penalties,” Bazelak said. “At the end of the first half, they couldn’t stop us, we just couldn’t do that in the second half. It wasn’t because of them, it was because of us.”

As Indiana falls to 3-2 on the season, a lot of questions about the team's offensive identity have been left on the table.

Indiana will head back to Bloomington next week for their homecoming game against Michigan on Oct.8.

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