What Tom Allen Said After Indiana Football's Loss on the Road to Nebraska

Indiana drops its second road game of the season to Nebraska, who won 35-21 on Saturday night. Hoosiers head coach Tom Allen addresses the loss in a post game press conference. Read his full transcript, or just watch the attached video of the entire interview.

Haley Jordan | Oct 2, 2022

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Indiana Hoosiers

LINCOLN, Neb. — The Hoosiers lost their second consecutive road game to Nebraska 35-21 on Saturday night. Indiana coach Tom Allen addressed the media following the loss.

Read his full transcript to get an update on injuries and where the mistakes took over for Indiana. The full press conference video is attached.

—On the main issues of the game...

ALLEN: "We had several key drops that I thought hurt us. Obviously down our top two receivers, got to have guys step up and make plays have consistency from our receiver core and tight ends and obviously continue to get better up front and give ourselves a chance.

"Jaylin Lucas showed what he can do with the ball in his hands, so we got to continue to find ways to give him the football, and it's about execution. When our guys do that, positive things happen. When they don't, it's not good enough."

—On the first timeout...

ALLEN: "Yeah, that should never happen. That's a mistake on the coaching staff, so you get the ball, the play clock starts immediately, so you got to take the field, something new, has to do with crowd noise, inexcusable, should've never happened."

—On Jaylin Lucas...

ALLEN: "He's a dynamic player, and we got to do a better job of giving him the football more frequently without question."

—On when the team knew Cam Camper and D.J. Matthews weren't going to play...

ALLEN: "First of all, Cam's got a non-COVID related illness that he hopefully should be back from here soon, but wasn't able to play, something that we don't have control over. He'll be okay, but couldn't bring him on the trip.

"D.J. was here, warmed up, tried to see if he could go, not quite 100 percent yet and don't want to do anything that'll set him back. We need him without question for the long haul. Hopefully, we'll get those guys back next week if it all possible.

"Yeah, they did some good things offensively, but wasn't consistent. You just have to be consistent, got to execute, got to be able to block up front, be able to catch footballs, not be able to have illegal procedures. We got to make sure we're doing things the right way and not shoot ourselves in the foot by getting off to a negative start in those drives. When we do, positive things happen. When we don't, as I just mentioned, it's not good enough.

"We're going to keep working. We play tough tough schedule. We know that. It's a long season, just got to keep on getting better each week."

—On not getting first downs...

ALLEN: "We were 2-for-15 on third downs, which is not even close to being good enough, and it's really tough to be third and longs which makes it difficult to convert and to me, it's more about first down execution than anything and then being able to do a great job on third downs, so we got to evaluate play calling and maximization of our execution and how we're going to get better in the air, because the bottom line is we're not getting the job done.

"We scored 14 punts on offense, and one of the touchdowns was a defensive score after a sack cost fumble, so to me we just have to find ways to get our playmakers the football and make sure that we're staying on schedule, and to me that's just constant evaluation.

Obviously tonight was not good enough to give us a chance to win the game."

—On moving the o-line around...

ALLEN: "I got to watch the film to get the full assessment. Sometimes things appear a certain way, but obviously you got to do a better job at blocking up front. I think that's obvious, but at the same time, we're trying to get the best combination. We put Zach there, guard with his issues with his hand, so we had to move Michael to center and then continue to find the best combination.

We'll always keep evaluating that each day and each week to get the best five out there and try to get as many guys as we can that are ready to play and can help us win football games. To me, the offense is still not good enough. I think we can all agree with that, and the evaluation process continues."

—On how to not beat yourself...

ALLEN: "From an execution perspective, there were a lot of things that were self-inflicted like I mentioned, the penalties, the drops, at times just the execution. You give credit to our (inaudible). They obviously worked hard and played hard. We had some things we had to adjust on the hoof schematically that they modify without question.

At the same time, we got to make plays. I think our guys understand that, and for us that's how you practice, so you got to continue to find creative ways to put more stress on our guys to be able to get the best preparation possible, so we're able to make those plays.

Obviously getting some of our top receivers back is going to be huge without question, but those other guys have to step up. They made some good plays for us tonight, some of those guys did, but also had some key drops.

"It starts with me, with out staff, and we got to do a better job at getting our guys ready."

—On if Nebraska threw anything at Indiana that it wasn't expecting...

ALLEN: "Defensively yes. Offensively, there's always...a game plan, things they would do schematically that's maybe different from when they're playing someone else, but overall it's just a sequence of things that they do. They had two weeks to get ready for us obviously, but at the same time, they have talented coaches that do a really good job.

"I've said this in the beginning, but they have really good football players and put it all together like they should have earlier, but it's a team that has a chance to be a really good football team. That's what I think, and so I said that earlier because the film doesn't lie, and when they execute and do things the right way, they got a lot of good talent, so really you're playing against really good football teams each and every week and you better execute on both sides of the ball and special teams.

"We didn't execute on our punt protection, get a punt block. We haven't had punt blocks here. That's not something that happens to us usually, but that's a huge huge huge error. Usually, you lose games when it gets punt blocked, especially when they take it down for a touchdown, so that cannot happen, and it's inexcusable and really really frustrating on my part.

At the same time, we got to evaluate everything and continue to work together to find the best combinations that we have on offense, defense and special teams to keep working, so I'd say yeah they had some wrinkles for sure."

—On Jaylin Williams' injury...

ALLEN: "Unfortunately he did injure his shoulder on that play, and he did come back and play a few snaps, so he should be — we'll go through, and there's different AC sprains you have and different degrees of those. We'll evaluate that, and within the realm of our medical staff, we'll get him back as soon as possible so he can help us, but he did come back in and play in the game a few snaps, but other guys at that corner position got to rise up.

"We got two really good ones. I thought there was one play Tiawan made that was such a phenomenal play and Jaylin had some good ones too, but got a couple holes that we can't have from that position, but they have some talented receivers as well. Just hope to get him back and ready to go for next week."

—On Andison Coby...

ALLEN: "Yeah, it was huge for us. We challenge our receiver core that someone's going to have to step up. Multiple guys need to step up, and Andison Coby was one of those guys. I thought he did some great things. I thought Javon Swinton, even though he took a big hit had some big catches as well and just proud of our guys to (inaudible). We need Andison to be a consistent contributor no matter who's playing or not playing, and he's got tremendous speed and athleticism and got good ball skills so he's a guy that this football team needs to step up in a big way."

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