| Well, here's what we all had in the first year of Scott Frost 2.0. The Cornhuskers playing for nothing more than playing spoilers to Indiana's bowl hopes by the first day of October. That might not be entirely fair, Indiana, Rutgers and Michigan are not exactly the toughest crossover draw, so maybe 5 wins isn't totally out of the question. But, it seems unlikely, particularly as Husker fans spent their week off watch Taylor Martinez carve up the Oklahoma offense in an upset win. But for Indiana, I don't think its hyperbole to say that even at 3-2, finding 3 wins is tough. The two most winnable games left on their schedule are both on the road (at Rutgers and at Michigan State). And Indiana outscored their opponents by an average of 5.3 ppg in regulation in their three wins. Not exactly a murderer's row either, with Illinois, Idaho and Western Kentucky. All at home. While Tom Allen had flipped the all offense, no defense Indiana narrative, things went perhaps a little too far in that direction, with a historically bad offense. The offense, at least the passing game, seems to have bounced back a bit this year, but the Hoosier offense looks a lot like prior vintages. Their run defense looked stout against Cincinnati last week, but Ben Bryant tore them apart through the air, with 354 passing yards, and 4 touchdowns. Connor Bazelak wasn't overly efficient, completing under 50% of his passes, but he spread the ball around to 11 different receivers, six of whom caught multiple passes. He should find the passing much easier against a Nebraska secondary allowing a Big Ten worst 66.5% opponent completion percentage. While Indiana struggled to run the ball last week, they have put up plenty of points in other games being simply sort of bad on the ground. Everyone runs on the Husker defense, who has given up more rushing yards per game (by 73 ypg) and by carry (by 1.3 ypc) than any other Big Ten team. They've also allowed a conference worst 12 rushing touchdowns, when only one other team has surrendered more than 4 (Northwestern). Could we see a rejuvenated Husker group, in a home night game? Sure. But this might be the worst defense Indiana has faced. I think they get enough on the ground to open up more passing lanes than they saw last week. |