BLOOMINGTON — After yet another Indiana football win to match the best start in program history, head coach Curt Cignetti delivered his players a strong message about their performance.
No. 13 IU defeated Washington, 31-17, at Memorial Stadium on Saturday to reach 8-0, and this victory wasn’t easy. The Hoosiers didn’t play their absolute best football, and they couldn’t go into cruise control the way they had in several other wins this season. But they just found ways to get the job done, regardless of the circumstances.
“It was a great team effort,” Cignetti said after the win. “I told the team after the game, I said, ‘Really good teams, championship teams, they find ways to win games, and that’s what we did today. We found ways to win a game.'”
It’s impossible to know, at this point, whether or not Indiana’s a championship team. But IU is undoubtedly a really good team.
The Hoosiers proved that against Washington as much as they have in any game this year. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke has thrown himself — literally — into the Heisman conversation with his exceptional play this season, but his thumb injury suffered against Nebraska last week kept him sidelined on Saturday. Redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson re-entered the spotlight in his place, and IU’s offense wasn’t its usual dominant self.
It’s the type of circumstance that separates bad teams from good teams. Plenty of bad Hoosier teams through the years would’ve wilted without their star quarterback. But this IU squad found other ways. Other players — in all three phases — made things happen in big moments.
During the middle of the first quarter, Washington drove into IU territory and threatened to give the Hoosiers their first deficit of the season. But defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker tipped a Will Rogers screen pass, and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds grabbed it and took off. Nobody came close to catching the sophomore on a 67-yard pick six.
He managed to one-up that play early in the second quarter. Backed up deep in Washington territory, Rogers targeted sophomore Denzel Boston deep in a 1-on-1 matchup against Ponds. The Miami native locked Boston down the entire time, and after he couldn’t make the interception cleanly on first attempt, he tipped it up to himself and hauled it in.
“He’s just a dawg, that’s what it comes down to,” defensive end Mikail Kamara said. “We pride ourselves in winning our 1-on-1s, and he wins his 1-on-1s every single time. You turn on the tape, he doesn’t lose.”
Offensively, IU has typically maintained a healthy run-pass balance this season. But without Rourke, offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan leaned on the running game much more heavily. Jackson attempted only 19 passes, while he, Justice Ellison, Ty Son Lawton, and Kaelon Black combined for 52 rush attempts.
The Hoosiers usually rotate Ellison and Lawton very frequently, while also incorporating Black and Elijah Green to a lesser extent. But they strayed from that norm, as well. Cignetti said Lawton “had a little tweak” and didn’t feel 100 percent as the game went along, and the James Madison transfer recorded only three touches after halftime. Ellison became the de facto feature back, and turned in one of the finest performances of any IU player all season.
The fifth-year rushed for 123 yards on 29 carries — both career-highs, between this season and his four prior at Wake Forest — with a touchdown. Perhaps most impressive about his outing: his longest rush went for 12 yards. His yardage wasn’t bloated from one huge play. He grinded all game, fighting through contact for extra yards, and wore the Huskies down.
The Wake Forest transfer particularly stepped up in a pivotal moment. Jackson threw an interception on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, and Washington turned that into a touchdown four plays later to cut IU’s lead to 17-14. The Hoosiers answered with a long, methodical, ground-heavy drive to regain a stronghold on the game. They ran the ball on 11 of 14 plays in that series, with eight of the 11 runs by Ellison. He capped it off with a five-yard score.
Jackson had an up-and down game stepping in for Rourke, with some positive moments mixed with some missed throws and bad decisions. But the Hoosiers gave him support and found other ways to win.
“Kurtis has been absolutely amazing. It’s unfortunate that he went down, but other guys had to step up, and we knew what we were getting into this week,” center Mike Katic said. “We knew that we were going to be running the ball a lot, so we took that as a challenge. And I think we did pretty well with it.”
When Indiana needed a jolt to help put the game away, Myles Price rose to the occasion.
The fifth-year let a punt drop in front of him late in the third quarter, which bounced Washington’s way and pinned the Hoosiers deep. Cignetti was less than pleased, and let Price know as he walked off the field.
When the Texas Tech transfer lined up deep for his next punt return early in the fourth quarter, he learned his lesson. Price caught it and burst ahead for a 65-yard return that set the Hoosiers up in the red zone. They scored a touchdown four plays later, to all but secure victory.
Price, Ellison, and Ponds have all stepped up in different ways throughout the season, and they weren’t the only ones to do so against Washington. But the way they continued producing big moments with Rourke out exemplifies this IU team.
One star player isn’t carrying the rest of the group. These Hoosiers don’t succeed at only one thing. They excel in every facet of the game, and even if a key piece of the puzzle is unavailable, they simply find other ways to fit everything together.
It’s the sign of a good team. It’s what defines winning teams: pulling out victories when they aren’t playing their best, by just figuring it out.
That’s what this 8-0 Indiana football team is, and that’s what it does.
“You are what your record says you are. Believe me, we’re going to put that tape on, and it ain’t going to be real pretty a lot of times on offense and it won’t be on defense, either. There will be a lot of mistakes out there,” Cignetti said. “But not off to a bad start, I guess.”
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