Coming into the Hoosiers’ matchup with No. 1 Ohio State, there were several questions asked about how IU Coach Wilson and the IU defense could stop the three Buckeye quarterbacks in senior Braxton Miller, junior starter Cardale Jones and sophomore JT Barrett.
There was little asked about Ezekiel Elliott.
There was also little stopping the junior running back, as the Hoosiers lost to the Buckeyes 34-27 Saturday evening.
“I thought we got really good pressure on them,” Wilson said, “except for those three long runs that they popped.”
Elliott ran the ball 23 times against IU’s 47th-ranked rushing defense and broke open runs of 55, 65 and 75 yards, all for touchdowns, on his way to a 274-yard, three-touchdown day.
“Just beating ourselves, really, there’s not much you can do there,” sophomore linebacker Marcus Oliver said about the three long runs. “We had him when we kept him running side-to-side, but those few plays where we broke down and beat ourselves, that’s what happens when one person doesn’t do their job.”
Allowing an average of 138.5 rushing yards per game, IU surrendered a total of 272 to Ohio State, and allowed Elliott to average 11.9 yards per carry.
The Hoosiers allowed just 14 rushing yards in the first half, but in the second half, they allowed 258, including the three big runs for touchdowns, one of them coming on a fourth-and-one play that Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer said jump-started the Buckeyes.
“We were getting a lot of movement against run plays,” Meyer said. “Zeke’s just such a good second-level runner. Three big hits. It’s great to see him get to the second level.”
Wilson said he thought the defense stopped Elliott well, until it came to the three long runs.
“The rest of the day he has 72 yards,” Wilson said, subtracting the yardage of Elliott’s three longest runs. “There were less than 173 plays. To me, the difference in the game is they turned it over a couple of times and gave us a chance, but they made three big plays, and we didn’t really make one.”
Jones, who led the Buckeyes to a national championship victory last season, threw for 245 pass yards and also threw one interception to sophomore linebacker Tegray Scales in the Hoosier’s territory.
Barrett never touched the ball, and Miller ran the ball twice, once for -9 yards and once for 14 yards. Both players are athletes who have been in the Heisman trophy conversation.
The Hoosiers also forced three Buckeye turnovers while not surrendering any.
“(The turnovers) were big,” Scales said. “Our team was able to capitalize on them. We just have to play one play at a time, and then just see what happens. Tonight, we just came up on the short side. We need to continue to build.”
Though the Hoosiers hung in the game with the defending champions, a team that has won 18 games in a row, and did not allow the point-differential to exceed 14, Wilson said he was proud of the team and the way it kept the Buckeyes down.
Meyer said he thinks IU will be going to a bowl game this season.
“They beat Missouri last year,” Meyer said. “They’ve got Division I scholarship athletes, too, and that’s a team that will be going to a bowl game.”
