With eight minutes left in the game, the Maryland Terrapins had the ball at their own 26-yard line. IU led 29-25 after junior kicker Griffin Oakes missed a 38-yard field goal.
Maryland had the momentum, and it needed a score.
Maryland’s senior quarterback Perry Hills dropped back to pass on third down, but before he could finish his drop, junior linebacker Marcus Oliver met him in the pocket and forced the ball free.
It trickled to the six-yard line before freshman defensive back Marcelino Ball recovered and secured it.
“We had the passion when we got on the field that they weren’t going to get anything,” Ball said.
The Hoosiers had the ball in prime position to make their lead a two-score deficit for the Terrapins.
That’s when they handed the ball to freshman running back Tyler Natee, who recorded 111 yards rushing on the night, to pound the ball into the endzone.
The Natee touchdown made the difference in the fourth quarter that allowed IU to hold the lead against Maryland and finish the game, 42-36, pulling its record to 4-4 on the season.
“Those were really good plays,” Ball said about his recovered fumble and first-quarter interception. “But I still didn’t have my best night.”
That was Ball’s story and the story for the defense as a whole Saturday.
It allowed 36 points, 517 total yards, 5.4 yards per rush, three fourth-down conversions and five touchdowns. Hills had a handful of wide receivers open for potential touchdowns but bad throws prevented the scores.
Maryland’s freshman running back Ty Johnson broke multiple tackles along the sideline on a 66-yard rush for a touchdown and finished the day with 142 yards rushing.
On paper, it wasn’t a pretty night for the IU defense, IU Coach Kevin Wilson said
“In college football, you can play really good defense and give up 30, 35 points if you’re not careful,” Wilson said. “I thought we could play better, but we played good D tonight. Just got to be careful.”
The offense needed to back up the defense, Wilson said, but after the offense hadn’t rushed for more than 100 yards in three straight weeks, the 650 total yards the Hoosiers racked up Saturday came as a surprise.
But so did the takeaways.
IU hadn’t won a turnover margin since it defeated Ball State in the second game of the season, but the Hoosiers forced two against the Terrapins and didn’t turn the ball over at all.
And the takeaways the defense recorded were capitalized by the two touchdowns the offense scored on them.
“Every takeaway is critical,” junior linebacker Tegray Scales said. “It’s all about momentum, so when the offense scores, we want to get the ball back so they can do it again.”
That’s what the Hoosiers did. As the offense scored four touchdowns in their last five drives, their defense forced two punts, a field goal and recovered a fumble to begin those drives.
Even though it surrendered more than 500 yards of total offense, the IU defense made the plays that maintained the lead and decided the game.
Like when freshman cornerback A’Shon Riggins squared up against the 300-pound Maryland offensive lineman Michael Dunn on a 2-point conversion that could have pulled the Terrapins within three points late in the game.
The 180-pound freshman brought the lineman down by himself in open field.
Giving up 36 points wasn’t the goal, Scales said, but it was those “scratch and claw” plays that helped keep the Hoosiers out in front and earn their first win since defeating Michigan State in Memorial Stadium on Oct. 1.
“He did take on that 300-pounder like a champ,” Scales said about Riggins. “I’m proud of him.”
