Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers, TURNOVERS!!!!!

Sometimes it is all how the ball bounces, and in football, that bounce is usually not a good one for the offense. IU came out and played Penn State well, James Hardy was a beast on the field Catching 14 passes for 142 yards and 2 TD’s. Kellen Lewis showed off his arm, and his ability to run when he scrambled 56 yards for a TD that made it a 5 point game. Add on a TD pass to Thigpen (notice it was a PASS not a run), and a field goal by Austin Star, and you just rapped up Indiana’s scoring.

The story of this game was protection. Protection for Lewis and protection of the football. 3 fumbles, a muffed punt, and 5 sacks later, it was clear there was not much protection on the field. There are things a young QB needs to learn, one is seeing his coverage, and looking for the blitz. Penn State had a linebacker who appeared to spy on Kellen all day long, trying to take away the play with his feet. Kellen did see this, and more than once, he hesitated to run and take the yardage. What he did not see was the weak side blitz, either from an outside linebacker, or the safety coming up. This has been an issue for him this year, and is something that has to be fixed.

One thing Megan took exception to that I don’t agree with her on is clock management. After Penn State went up 20-14, we got the ball back with 3 timeouts and 33 seconds left in the half. Penn State was in what appeared to be a prevent defense to guard from us going deep. To start the drive, IU tried a sweep with Thigpen. He gained 2 yards and got out of bounds. The next play appeared to be a half back delay, Penn State linebackers were not fooled, and stuffed that play before it got started, resulting in a 4 yard loss.

At this point there are two options, call a time out, and see if you can move the ball deep, or let the clock run out and head to the locker room to regroup. Considering you have just ran two plays for a net of -2 yards, the PSU defense is fired up, and the line looked deflated, Lynch done the right thing and let the clock run out. I agree with this, as a coach. You are on your heals, and don’t want to take the chance of giving them another shot at getting easy points, or worse, getting a player (Lewis) hurt going for a low percentage play. It is better to rest, lick your wounds, get them bandaged, and come back out fighting, then to allow those wounds to become deeper, and for infection to set in.

I honestly feel as though we out played Penn State. A five point loss after 4 turnovers, and 3 of those leading to scores for PSU, this was a game that could have been won by IU. The sun will shine on a dog’s ass every so often, and on Saturday that dog was Penn State.

As I tell my kids, win or lose, that game is over, time to prepare for the next team. Bring on the badgers, those slow little ground animals can’t soar with our high flying eagles!!

Go Hoosiers!