** 2024 Opponent Preview : Indiana (Game 7) **

Nebfanatic said:
This feels like a pretty big game to me. Bordering on a must win imo. Don't want to go into OSU still needing a win to make a bowl.
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I felt Rutgers was more of a must win than Ind. I feel a lot better going into the last 6 games knowing we only have to win one to go bowling instead of 2. Especially with UCLA at home. Since Ind. hasn't played anybody decent yet they are somewhat of an unknown. NU hasn't played anybody particularly good either except Ill. and ended up losing that game. Don't have a good feel of what to expect Saturday by going 1-5 isn't out of the realm of possibility looking at the schedule. But at least that would get us to a bowl.

 
Red Five said:
Do you know that we still have 4 games after OSU?
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Yes but I also have ptsd from many seasons of dropping the ball. I fear if we lose this one and get blown out at the shoe it could turn into a here we go again situation. I think we can go the other way and still win 9 but we need to get this one.

 
I spent yesterday driving and listening to a number of pod casts.  One comment that I heard was that Nebraska is the bigger and more physical team.  Indiana has a number of players from Jackson State that, are decent players, but under sized and not used to Big Ten play.

Thoughts?

 
BigRedBuster said:
I spent yesterday driving and listening to a number of pod casts.  One comment that I heard was that Nebraska is the bigger and more physical team.  Indiana has a number of players from Jackson State that, are decent players, but under sized and not used to Big Ten play.

Thoughts?
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Physicality and size become less important when our secondary plays Charmin soft coverage. I fear Indiana will march down the field with ease, just like Illinois.

 
Caveman said:
Physicality and size become less important when our secondary plays Charmin soft coverage. I fear Indiana will march down the field with ease, just like Illinois.
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I think they will gain quite a few yards but I'm hopeful we can limit their red zone success once the field is compressed.  This one feels like a race to 30 to me.  I'm going good guys 31-27.  I would put it in the prediction contest but it hasn't been created yet.   

 
I'm not sure if this was unique to their gameplan against NW, but their OL did a lot more walling off and letting DL take themselves out of the play than I usually notice. Like this was a counter with the Guard and TE pulling, and instead of downblocking like I usually see the backside guys are just creating a wall in the backfield:

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This one doesn't look good for the LT, but he kinda just let him go upfield and the RB ran where he used to be:

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Gotta make sure the DL is going through their blockers and not around them, NW was really hurt by poor tackling and defenders just taking themselves out of the play.

Rourke is good, but he had a few misfires that easily could have been picked and he's not as mobile as I thought from Ohio. If the DL can hold up with a light box and at least slow the RBs down, I like our chances. But if we have to start committing extra bodies to the run we're going to get gashed by the RPOs. Would also be a really nice game to not have Hartzog out there - they will put it up for their receivers when there are opportunities and his size is just a massive disadvantage.

If we control the LOS, tackle as well as last week (minus the first drive), and maybe confuse Rourke on a few RPOs I think we'll end up with an impressive defensive performance. But there's a very decent chance they pick us apart in the middle of the field, get too many yards after contact running the ball, and hit a couple of deep balls. Their defense doesn't look great, so I'm hoping our offense figured some things out over the bye and comes out firing. They have some small DBs, would be a good game for Banks/Neyor to just bully some guys with their size.

 
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Red Five said:
I don't know if it is crazier that Rourke is 817 days older than JJ McCarthy or 375 days younger than Trevor Lawrence.
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It makes the game so interesting. Rourke is a very very seasoned QB on a team with momentum. He’s gotten them through the first part of their season looking really good. Then, you look at who they played and….nothing. 
 

They are a huge question mark. They might be just as good as their record shows. Or, they have momentum playing a bunch of crap teams and if they get in a B1G dogfight and they crumble.
 

Nobody knows. 
 

I hope they crumble…..this game and then keep winning. Indiana is one of those teams there really isn’t a reason to root against them when they are doing well. 

 
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