Enter the Chaos Team

That's because it rarely happens. If you're 28 or younger (!) you have never felt such shame. We can fix that right now with a quick story: When IU last departed the Horseshoe with a win back in 1987 the losing Ohio State coach - who dotted the i last weekend - famously groused:

I've known about Ohio State football since I was a freshman here in 1949. This is the darkest day in Ohio State football since I have been associated with it.

Consider that between Earle Bruce's freshman year and the darkest day the Buckeyes: 

• Lost to Michigan 16 times
• Dropped six Rose Bowls, two in which Bruce was the coach
• Were blown out by Alabama in the Sugar Bowl
• Squandered three national championships in bowl games in heartbreaking fashion
• Watched their beloved coach punch an opposing player on live national television
• Fired their beloved coach who punched an opposing player on live television

You probably knew all of that. What you didn't know is losing to Indiana was somehow worse.

In 2015 Ohio State did everything to lose and won.

The Hoosiers beating the Buckeyes in football is the sum of all fears. It's why you never bothered to rewatch the 2015 Ohio State-Indiana game in which the home team dominated time of possession, won the turnover battle 3-0 and picked up 21 1st downs to Ohio State's 13.

The defending national champions also racked up 109 penalty yards (easily the highest during Urban Meyer's tenure in Columbus) converted only two 3rd downs out of 14 and yet still won the game, because - and there's no elegant way to explain it - that's just what history has decided for when Ohio State faces Indiana.

Saturday the Buckeyes will attempt to defeat the Hoosiers for the 73rd time. No team has taken more Ls from your favorite team than the Crimson and Cream, so it makes sense that the idea of taking an L instead is so frightening and how facing that reality pulled the darkest day declaration out of Earle.

Well it's about to get scarier, because Indiana football is no longer Kevin Wilson trying to dig a program out of the rubble left by Bill Lynch. It no longer carries a roster with just 60 scholarships and 25 voluntarily unissued ones, as IU operated when Cam Cameron was inexplicably allowed to be in charge of anything. 

Indiana is now a fully-operational Oklahoma Lite, which you'll chuckle at because the result of Ohio State's game in Norman is still a fresh memory. Don't chuckle. Indiana football has evolved from being bad. Indiana football is now Chaos.

Indiana still operates under a Play 13 mantra first installed by the late Terry Hoeppner over a decade ago, which is to say the Hoosiers' aspiration is postseason eligibility. That's a low bar to clear and is more self-aware than self-deprecating: IU has participated in 10 postseason games, ever. Ohio State has played in 10 postseason games since 2008. And that's a span which included an NCAA bowl ban.

This is where chaos and evolution form a vortex around Indiana's doormat reputation, converting it into a dangerous projectile. That narrow loss to the Buckeyes last season was the first in a six-game stretch. The Hoosiers put up 52 on hapless Rutgers and still didn't win. They trailed at Michigan State by just two well into the 4th quarter before imploding. They played eventual B1G West champ Iowa even and still left Iowa City with another L.

IU then let Michigan off the hook in Bloomington, losing in double-overtime. This season it finally defeated Ball State, ending its losing streak to the Cardinals at three. Yes, there was a B1G program with a three-game losing streak to Ball State. B a l l  S t a t e.

The week after finally shattering the Muncie Curse IU allowed Wake Forest to put up 33 points in a single game, which is a scoring threshold the impotent Demon Deacons have only exceeded twice against FBS opponents since 2011. The Hoosiers lost at home despite 611 yards of offense. Six of their last eight losses have been by one score.

Indiana has PLAYED in 10 postseason games in its history. Ohio State has played in 10 postseason games since 2008.

IU is consistently on the wrong side of close games, as it has so aptly demonstrated recently against Ohio State. That was the case until last Saturday.

A week after losing to Wake the Hoosiers defeated Michigan State in overtime by a margin correctly predicted by advanced statistics but not a single sportsbook. The team whose slogan is about achieving bowl eligibility beat the defending conference champion and College Football Playoff participant.

That is how Chaos operates. *ominous background music intensifies*

Each of the Hoosiers' three touchdown passes against the Spartans were sprung from wheel routes, and if you read 11W Film Study Sensei Kyle Jones religiously - and you should - you already know that's how you slice up a Quarters defense.

Yes, that's the scheme Michigan State runs. Yes, that's also what Chris Ash installed at Ohio State. And yes, it's a coverage Greg Schiano calls with high frequency.

Here's a sampling of IU's Sparty dissection, courtesy of Kyle.

The good news for Saturday - aside from Ohio State being both immensely talented and operating with an edge that with every passing week illustrates what the team was missing last season - is that Indiana has no shot of sneaking up on the Buckeyes.

There's no appetite for reliving the darkest day. Millennials have inherited enough shitty baggage from previous generations - the least the young Buckeyes can do is shield themselves and everyone else from the horrors of the cocaine-fueled 1980s by fighting chaos with chaos of its own.

And that's the surprise twist here: Ohio State rolled into the 2016 season with 44 players having freshman eligibility along with 16 brand new starters. It's the youngest team in the country by a significant margin while simultaneously holding the top or second spot nationally in all of the nerd rankings that understand things mere mortal eyes are incapable of processing. It's hard to believe. This is our chaos.

It's a dangerous combination Indiana will be facing - the Buckeyes aren't undisciplined, rebuilding or spoiled by success. Chaos may still reign Saturday, but this time it just might come at the expense of the Chaos team.