Ohio State takes on Indiana this Saturday in a battle of unbeaten teams.
No, you didn’t hallucinate that last sentence. The Hoosiers enter Big Ten play 4-0, making it to the conference slate undefeated for the first time since starting the 2010 season 3-0. Indiana opened the 2015 campaign with victories over Southern Illinois (48-47), FIU (36-22), Western Kentucky (38-35), and Wake Forest (31-24).
While not a murderer’s row of opposition, and allowing a frightening number of points (32 per game, on average), the Hoosiers don’t appear to have taken a step back, despite losing some quality players, including stud running back Tevin Coleman.
It’ll be the first time the two schools have met without a loss between them since 1954.
Indiana ranks 18th nationally in total offense, with plenty of quality skill players, including senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld, who has thrown for 1,143 yards and seven touchdowns against one interception, completing 61.1% of his passes.
Sudfeld is averaging 285.8 passing yards per game, which is 23rd best nationally. The senior should enter Saturday feeling confident. In two career games against Ohio State, Sudfeld has completed 31/51 passes (61%) for 301 yards and four touchdowns, without an interception.
The Buckeyes cannot afford to take Indiana lightly. Last season, Sudfeld couldn’t even play in the game and Ohio State still needed a 21-0 fourth quarter to pull out a 42-27 win at home. Indiana rushed for 281 yards on the Buckeyes last season in Columbus, with Coleman scoring on runs of 90 and 52 yards to go along with a two-yard plunge.
You might recall the last time the Buckeyes went to Bloomington. Ohio State had some defensive issues throughout the game and things got a little dicey at the end. Although the Buckeyes won, 52-49, things got a bit close for comfort (having to recover an onside kick, and all), and it felt a lot more like an escape than a victory.
With Ohio State showing some vulnerability against the run on Saturday against Western Michigan, the Buckeyes will need to fix some things to stop Indiana’s rushing attack, which is ranked 21st in the country (Ohio State is No. 25). Junior running back Jordan Howard is the nation’s leading rusher in yards, with 675 on 111 attempts (6.1 YPA).
Howard has good power and Indiana’s offensive line has shown an ability to get to the second level, which Ohio State’s defensive line struggled with last week. Kevin Wilson’s crew will look to exploit the OSU front four and get blockers to Joshua Perry and Raekwon McMillan. If the Hoosiers are able to do that, it could be a long, annoying afternoon in Bloomington.
Indiana has rushed for more than 100 yards against Ohio State each of the last four years.
The Buckeyes held their own for the most part against Zach Terrell and Western Michigan’s talented wide receivers on Saturday. However, Sudfeld may be a better quarterback and he’s got weapons that are just as good. Junior wide receiver Ricky Jones is 20th in the country in receiving yards per game (102.8), tallying 18 receptions for 411 yards with three touchdowns, averaging just over 22 yards per reception.
Sophomore Simmie Cobbs Jr. is just behind Jones with 17 catches for 244 yards and two touchdowns. Sudfeld isn’t afraid to use his tight ends and backs, either. Four Indiana tight ends have combined for 15 receptions for 215 yards. Howard and sophomore Divine Redding have eight catches between them.
Fans tend to give Indiana little chance, but, despite just a 12-70-5 record in the series, the Hoosiers have a history of making life tough on Ohio State. In addition to last year’s back-and-forth affair and the high-scoring 2012 match-up, the Hoosiers played within two touchdowns of the Buckeyes in Columbus in 2011. In 2001, Indiana stayed within 13 points of Ohio State in Bloomington.
But the Bill Mallory years were more problematic. In 1986, the Buckeyes won by only two, 24-22, on the road. The next year, the unthinkable happened, with the Hoosiers winning 31-10 in Columbus in 1987. They backed that up with a 41-7 win at Bloomington in 1988. The Buckeyes got back on top in the first meeting in the Shoe under John Cooper in 1989, but won only 35-31 at home, then tied 27-27 on the road the next season.
As an aside, let me tell you how not fun it is to attend a loss to Indiana. I was at that 31-10 home loss and it made me a bitter, bitter man. I don't even want to think about how much my head hurt the next day from all the sorrow drowning that went on that night.
In two of the next three years, Ohio State won by less than a touchdown, before the games grew a bit more lopsided at the end of Cooper’s tenure and into Jim Tressel’s reign in Columbus. But lately, those scores have crept uncomfortably close again with the exception of a 42-14 thumping in 2013.
In short, the Buckeyes had better be ready if they want to be the team to emerge from Saturday’s meeting as the still-unbeaten side.
