Cleveland PD
Hoosiers looking to make corrections after loss at Iowa
<table class="byln" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="428"> <tbody><tr valign="bottom"> <td class="byln" width="328">10/18/2005, 7:08 p.m. ETBy MICHAEL MAROT
The Associated Press</td><td width="3"> </td><td width="97">
</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Terry Hoeppner thought the Iowa game was going perfectly. Indiana trailed by a field goal early in the fourth quarter, had the momentum and was controlling the ball.
Instead of rallying, though, the Hoosiers stumbled, prompting Hoeppner to challenge his players this week to figure out what went wrong.
"Be responsible and self-critical to analyze why we didn't finish the game," the first-year coach said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. "Here is what could happen. Cowards will find easy ways out. A man will step up and be tough about it. They will learn from it."
<script **********"**********"></script> <noscript> </noscript>The Hoosiers (4-2, 1-2 Big Ten) have no other choice if they intend to keep their home record unblemished this week against No. 14 Ohio State, which has won 12 straight over Indiana.
Hoeppner acknowledged much of what he witnessed Saturday in Iowa City was encouraging. Indiana didn't look nervous, as it had at Wisconsin two weeks earlier, didn't appear fazed by the big crowd and was poised enough to have a chance to pull off a big upset.
That's called progress.
But missed assignments and blown coverages on defense cost the Hoosiers a chance to end their Big Ten road losing streak at 13, and players seem to have gotten the message.
"A lot of the stuff that's been happening is guys are in the wrong gap," strong safety Will Meyers said. "It's not happening a lot, but it seemed like every time it happened against Iowa, they took advantage of it."
By scoring two touchdowns in the final nine minutes, the Hawkeyes sealed a 38-21 victory.
A similar performance against the Buckeyes could prove disastrous. Ohio State has one of the nation's top defenses, ranking second nationally against the run, ninth overall and 10th in scoring defense (15.3 points). The Buckeyes also have two fleet playmakers in receivers Ted Ginn and Santonio Holmes and a potent running game led by tailback Antonio Pittman and quarterback Troy Smith.
That leaves little margin for error if the Hoosiers intend to prevent the game from turning into a track meet.
Hoeppner wants more balance between the running and passing games and hopes to see the defense correct some of the mistakes that proved so costly at Iowa.
Linebacker John Pannozzo believes the Hoosiers will not be so mistake-prone this week.
<script **********"**********"></script> <noscript> </noscript>"It's not anything they did and it's not anything we can't fix or change," he said. "A couple of guys made mistakes and it hurt us, but we know we can fix them. We're not discouraged."
Despite the problems, the Hoosiers still remain two wins from becoming bowl eligible, are 3-0 at home and have continued to show signs of maturing.
Now comes the hard part. The next step, Hoeppner believes, will come with a boost of confidence, more consistency and a stronger mentality so they can avoid the pitfalls of a challenging schedule that has them playing three ranked teams in the next three weeks — Ohio State, Michigan State and Minnesota.
All Hoeppner can do now is hope his Hoosiers respond to the lesson of last weekend with greater focus to eliminate mistakes.
"You'll see young guys think they are the only player on the field," he said. "You'll have two guys overrun the play, and then the guy cuts back. As opposed to having one guy contain it, and the other guy bracket the play. I don't want to hear that you didn't know or didn't see that. We need to become more aware."
