Indiana’s defense keeps stacking up dominant afternoons, and Saturday at Memorial Stadium offered another clear reminder of just how suffocating this group can be.
The fourth-ranked Hoosiers blanked Western Kentucky 38-0, adding to last week’s 55-0 rout of Howard and giving Indiana back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1993. Under Curt Cignetti and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, the Hoosiers have turned defensive excellence into something close to routine.
That didn’t happen by accident against the Hilltoppers. Indiana held Western Kentucky under 200 yards of total offense, only the third time the Hoosiers have done that since 2010. It was also the 10th game under Cignetti and Haines in which IU has allowed fewer than 200 yards, and the seventh against an FBS opponent.
Linebacker Isaiah Jones said the performance reflected the way the whole unit works together.
“I think that’s just the culmination of all 11 guys on the same page,” Jones said after the game. “You’re going to have mistakes, you’re going to have times where they’re going to drive the ball, get a first down, but it’s kind of like the next-play mentality. I think we have a lot of guys that believe in that and step up when their name’s called.”
Jones also made one of the defining plays of the game, picking off a pass late in the second quarter to set up Indiana’s second touchdown. But the defensive tone had already been set.
Western Kentucky’s second possession produced its best march of the day, with quarterback Brock Glenn finding openings against IU’s zone coverage. The drive reached a fourth-and-goal at the Indiana 2-yard line, and after a WKU timeout, defensive end Chiddi Obiazor blew up the play and forced an incompletion.
Jones said Indiana took that stand personally.
“Other teams, they might just take the points. When they think they’re gonna go in, push it in and run through you guys, yeah, we took that personally,” Jones said. “We don’t want anyone in our end zone.”
The Hilltoppers finished 0 for 3 on fourth down and 2 for 10 on third down, continuing a trend that has become a hallmark of the Cignetti-Haines era. Rolijah Hardy said that pressure on money downs is exactly what Indiana expects from itself.
“We talk about that week in, week out. Third down, fourth down, we want to get off the field,” Hardy said. “That’s what we did today.”
Hardy helped establish that edge immediately, notching a tackle for loss on WKU’s first snap from scrimmage. Less than two minutes later, he added another TFL, and he later recorded a QB hurry in the third quarter.
Indiana’s front was everywhere. The Hoosiers finished with seven tackles for loss and nine quarterback hurries, and 13 different players were responsible for the 16 combined TFLs or hurries. That production mattered even more because Indiana was without veterans Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt, who were unavailable following recent developments in ongoing courtroom eligibility battles.
Even with those absences, the depth in Indiana’s front seven showed up in force. The Hoosiers kept sliding into the backfield, disrupting timing and forcing Western Kentucky to fight for every yard.
Jones said the standard inside the program leaves little room for self-congratulation.
“If you’re on the field, the coaches have the ultimate trust in you. So if you’re on the field, it doesn’t matter who it is, whether it’s a starter, a returner, a true freshman, it doesn’t matter.
The standard’s the standard,” Jones said. “You just complete your job.
You don’t have to do anything crazy, make miraculous plays. Just make your play when it’s the time, and we’ll be all right.”
Indiana’s defense has been this good before under Cignetti and Haines, but Saturday showed the ceiling again. Josh Hoover said the team saw it coming.
“We’ve got a lot of really, really talented guys that play really hard. They do their job.
And then when you add Coach Haines’ scheme in there, it puts them in a really good position to make plays and kind of wreak havoc for offenses,” quarterback Josh Hoover said. “Shoot, we saw it all offseason.
I knew those guys would be really, really good.”
For now, the numbers keep backing it up, and the shutouts keep piling up.
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