My Two Cents: Indiana an Incomplete Football Team, Which Might Be Most Frustrating

The worst thing about Indiana's disappointing and frustrating 2021 football season has been that this team has no identity, nothing to hang its hat on. Both sides of the ball have let each other down, and it showed up again in an ugly 29-7 loss to Michigan on Saturday night.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Football is the ultimate team game, It's not like basketball, where you can win with one or two great players, or baseball, where you can ride a couple of star pitchers.

In football, you need lots of dudes. And you all need to work together, offense, defense and special teams. 

Some football teams, either on the college level or in this pros, will have a certain identity, something they hang their hat on. It might be one side of the ball, or the other.

But this year, this Indiana football team doesn't have that. They don't have an identity of any kind, which is probably the biggest frustration of all with this football team.

 Last year's team had an identity. Michael Penix Jr. was going to torch you with a great passing attack, throwing for 491 against Ohio State, and 342 against Michigan and 320 against Michigan State, and once he got hurt, the defense said 'we've got this'' and held Wisconsin to just two field goals in a huge 14-6 win in Madison.

That's an identity.

But that complete lack of identity in 2021 was all on full display again on Saturday night. The Hoosiers were playing No. 7-ranked Michigan in front of 109,870 fans in a primetime environment that can be pretty overwhelming. And it was, with Michigan winning comfortably, 29-7, and keeping Indiana's offense locked up all night.

This Michigan team, which lost 38-21 to Indiana a year ago, dominated this game in every possible way. Indiana had only 195 yards of total offense in true freshman Donaven McCulley's second career start. There was just one turnover, but it was a big one, a strip sack on McCulley that set up a short field for Michigan's first touchdown.

McCulley, who's just 18 years old and is playing so early only because starters Michael Penix Jr. (shoulder) and Jack Tuttle (foot) are out with injuries, is still very much a work in progress. He did lead one good drive late in the second quarter — a 75-yard march that ended with a touchdown and made it 10-7 at the time — but the Hoosiers never threatened again.

Not once.

That's not surprising at all, really. This offense hasn't been very good all year anyway, and throwing a youngster into the mix at quarterback against a very good front seven at Michigan just makes it even more difficult. Add more injuries into the mix — starting left tackle Luke Haggard got hurt on the first play of the game and starting running back Stephen Carr injured and ankle on his third carry in the first quarter — and you've got a disaster waiting to happen.

The recipe for winning in the Big House — for anyone — usually doesn't include playing a true freshman fourth-string quarterback and two walk-on running backs and shuffling an offensive line practically every series. 

That recipe? That's a recipe for disaster. 

But you know the frustration with this team? We expected the same thing last week — a day full of offensive struggles with a kid making his first start — at Maryland, but the offense still found a way to score 35 points. Indiana's defense played horrible in the 38-35 loss, not picking up McCulley when he really needed them. It's the same defense, of course, that gave up six consecutive touchdown drives to Ohio State the week earlier in a 54-7 loss.

That's the ultimate frustration, that you can't rely on any one group to carry this team to the finish line. Of Indiana's seven losses this season, I ranked the Maryland defeat as the worst of them all, because if this defense shows up at all, Indiana wins that game.

They played much better at Michigan, played really hard and played with a lot of pride. They kept Indiana in that game for a half, but the offense could do nothing to pick them up.

Nothing good is happening, week after week after week. That's why they're 2-7, and 0-6 in the Big Ten, the only team without a league win. 

“Just to be able to play complimentary football, where the offense and defense are working off of each other, that hasn’t been the case for us this season,'' Indiana coach Tom Allen said. "It’s been a real struggle for us to do that, and that's the reason why we hadn't had the success that we expected to have."

McCulley, who was playing high school ball this time last year, is extremely athletic and he's probably going to win a lot of games in his career at Indiana. But he's still in way over his head right now. He had some nice runs, and that one drive was great, but literally nothing happened the rest of the night. 

“I just need to be better,'' McCulley said, and it was something he repeated in just about every one of his answers during his short postgame press conference. "I’ve just got to find a way to get comfortable (under pressure),” McCulley said. “I didn’t have that tonight.”

Allen said losing more guys to injury "is frustrating, but it's part of it.''

“There are a lot of guys hurting, but there's a lot of character in that room, but they'll keep fighting. I talked to the captains already before I came in here. There are a lot of tears, but there is also a lot of resolve in there. They have character and they have resolve, and they'll come back (Sunday) and get back to work.''

There will be no bowl game for the Hoosiers this year, which is disappointing after playing in two January bowl games in Florida the past two years, the first of its kind for this often-underachieving program.

It's just been a bad, bad year, plain and simple.

It was tough to see the defense play so hard and try to keep Indiana in the game, with no real reward. They were good. Not great, but good.

And with this offense struggling so bad, that's not enough. Not for this team. Not this year.  

"I think up front, we played well. They have a good O-line there, but we held ground,'' Indiana linebacker Micah McFadden said. "They had a good run game and they made some explosive plays on us. I don't think we tackled as well as we should.''

Effort certainly wasn't an issue. The Hoosiers' defense was great on third down all night long, holding Michigan to just 3-of-12 conversions and forcing field goals (3) instead of allowing touchdowns.  

There was really just one frustrating time for the defense, which allowed a touchdown march right after the Indiana touchdown made it 10-7. On the second play, Hassan Haskins hit a crease and went 62 yards. Michigan scored two plays later on a touchdown pass from Cade McNamara to tight end Luke Schoonmaker.

"That was a critical part of the game there. It's just one guy missing a play, but we missed plays all over the field,'' Indiana linebacker Micah McFadden said. "This isn't what we expected, for sure. But I won't give up on anybody on this team. It's unfortunate and it's a tough loss, but everybody will stick together.'' 

Indiana played without starting cornerbacks Reese Taylor and Tiawan Mullen and backup safety Josh Sanguinetti, who's had a good year, too.

No one is using all the injuries as an excuse, but it is certainly still a fact. Indiana has been playing without its two best quarterbacks, its best wide receiver and return man (D.J. Matthews), two of its three best corners and now without its left tackle and starting running back.

That's a lot.

"We've had a ton of foot and ankle injuries," Allen said. "I don't know how you stop those. I guess we've just been unfortunate. We didn't have hardly any last year, and it's been the exact opposite this year."

Last year's epic 6-1 Big Ten season that included wins over league powerhouses Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State now seems a long way off. It's been a rapid descent from the top, or top-ish.

Now, the Hoosiers just need to win a game. They get that chance at home next Saturday against a Rutgers team that's struggling badly, too.

"I talked to all the captains already in here, there are tears in there, but there's also a lot of resolve in there, too" Allen said.

For now, it's just all about winning a game. The fun has been sucked out of this season, that's for sure. But there are still three games to be played, Rutgers and Minnesota at home — both clearly winnable, even for struggling Indiana — and the season-ender at Purdue on Nov. 27.

This year, the Old Oaken Bucket game is now the bowl game. Just keep working, just keep playing. 

And make it to the end.