Indiana Football Takes Their First Loss Of The Season And Hoosier Nation Is Sadly Left Feeling Daunted
Well, shit. Not going to lie, I'm feeling a tad bit daunted at the moment. That game felt like a good kick directly to the ol' scrotum. Getting blown out by a man who dyes his goatee AND listening to Gus Johnson? God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers, but I wasn't ready for this. While Indiana is better than they've ever been, it's the same Hoosier football story line - not enough talent on the roster to hang with the best of the best. I'll still take Cignetti over any coach in college football. Give this man the talent Ryan Day has and the Hoosiers are still undefeated.
AT LEAST Indiana football fans will always have that 1st quarter of football, that was special. Indiana giving up 3rd & 35 only to stop OSU on the goal line, what a roller coaster. We were all believing. Hell, even most of the second quarter felt great until the game slipped through our punter's hands and all hell broke loose. In an alternate universe I stopped watching at halftime, and went and did something productive with my Saturday afternoon.
The special teams were anything but special, but obviously the special teams unit can't take all the blame. Cool, Indiana only loses by 10 if special teams shows up. Wow. Cool. Awesome. Even if mistakes don't ruin the momentum, Indiana's offensive line got BULLIED by the bigger, faster, stronger OSU d-line. Rourke had 4 dudes up his ass on any given passing play (pause).
The loss sucks, but the "I told you so's" from the Joey Galloways of the world are going to be the worst part of it all. Every talking head whose been on their high horse talking down to Indiana fans about how they don't deserve to sniff the playoffs is going to be jerking themselves off on ESPN until the final CFP bracket comes out. Will Indiana be included in the playoffs, or left on the outside looking in? IU had a 96.8% chance to make it before the OSU game, but my gut has told me the last few weeks that if Indiana drops the game to OSU, the committee will use it as the perfect example for strength of schedule and leave IU out. Which is probably fair looking at what happened in Indiana's last two games, but damnit I still believe that if Indiana makes the CFP as the lowest seed possible, they can still do some damage. At the very least running up the score on Purdue next week will help me cope with whatever the future holds for Indiana football.