That was evident in IU’s 48-41 loss to No. 12 Michigan last Saturday. The defense surrendered 581 total yards, and the offense posted 527 in the loss.
Traveling to Maryland — a 2-8 team ranked last in the Big Ten in total offense and 10th in total defense — IU will have a chance for both sides of the ball to gain confidence heading into the final two weeks of the season.
“There’s not like an O-versus-D thing in that locker room,” Wilson said. “It is a team deal.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Wilson said the team knows it has to get more stops than it did against Michigan and has against other teams all season.
As a scoring defense, IU allows more points per game than any other team in the Big Ten, as it allows teams to put up 38.1 points on average. The Hoosiers are also last in total defense. They allow a conference-high 511.7 yards per game.
With a touchdown lead in the last 2:52 of regulation, IU allowed Michigan to drive 66 yards down the field to tie the game before surrendering two-play and one-play touchdown drives in overtime.
Wilson said the team has five coaches on offense and four on defense. As a coach with an offensive background — including a stint as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma — Wilson said he naturally spends more time with that side of the ball.
“Even though my background says offense, I’m the head coach,” Wilson said “We give up a bunch of points, we give up too many plays, we have some issues, whether it be injury or youth or whatever. But my whole thing is there’s energy and attitude and passion to play team defense.”
For the offense, even though it averages the most yards per game in the conference, it knows it has to score when close to the goalline, Wilson said. That’s something the team has struggled to do thus far this season, especially Saturday when sophomore kicker Griffin Oakes kicked four field goals from 24, 35, 39 and 51 yards out.
Most notably, the final play of the near-upset was an incomplete pass from Michigan’s two-yard line. Even though Wilson said in the postgame press conference he may have made the wrong call in choosing to pass from close to the goalline, IU was still stopped three times from inside the 10-yard line when the game was on the line.
With the defense playing Maryland’s worst total offense in the Big Ten, IU has an opportunity to build the confidence Wilson said it is lacking.
However, with IU’s top offense in the conference facing the 10th-best defense in the conference, junior running back Jordan Howard isn’t preparing any differently than he would for a top-tier defense, just like Wilson said the team as a whole is not overlooking the Terrapins.
“We still have to play the game,” Howard said. “We’re gonna give it our all. I treat these games the same. We’re just gonna take the challenge and keep it rolling.”
