No. 7 Indiana pulled off a wild one against Nebraska, gutting out a 20-17 win that felt more like a throwback slugfest from a bygone era. Talk about ugly, man. The wind was whipping, the offense was nowhere to be found for long stretches, but somehow, some way, the Hoosiers are still undefeated, still haven’t dropped a game to an unranked team since 2023, and are still on their march to repeat last fall’s heroics.
Colandrea Carved Them Up, But Nebraska Couldn’t Finish
You remember two years ago, right? When Nebraska, ranked at the time, got absolutely throttled 56-7 by Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers. Well, Saturday was NOT that. Anthony Colandrea, the Nebraska quarterback who’s been tearing it up for their 5-0 start this season, came out looking like an absolute beast. He was dynamic with his arm and his legs, driving the offense up and down the field. That first drive? Thirteen plays, ended with a field goal, but Colandrea was 4-of-5 for 31 yards passing and added two “wiggly” rushes for 28 yards. Dude was electric.
He kept that energy on third downs, too, picking up five conversions , three through the air, two on the ground , as the Huskers jumped out to an early lead. By halftime, Colandrea was 14-of-22 for 138 yards, and get this: Nebraska had run 43 plays to Indiana’s measly 16. The crazy part? Nebraska should’ve had way more points. They settled for that early field goal, then stalled out in the red zone with just a minute left in the half. Colandrea hit a wide open Kwazi Gilmer in the end zone, but Amare Ferrell came up with a clutch hit, pushing Gilmer’s foot out of bounds. No touchdown. And to twist the knife, kicker Kyle Cunanan shanked a 40-yard attempt wide right right after that. Just brutal. Those are the plays that haunt you.
Hoosiers Looked Painful in the First Half, What Was That?!
Whatever easy offense Indiana had cooking through the first five weeks? It was GONE in the first half on Saturday. Painstaking, man. They only ran 16 plays in the first 30 minutes. Eighty of their 115 total yards at that point came on just two throws from quarterback Josh Hoover. Yeah, you read that right. Eighty yards on TWO throws. The supercharged run game, featuring Lee Beebe Jr. and Turbo Richard, got completely stifled. Nebraska’s front-seven was straight-up physical, something they’ve apparently been missing for years, and they put the clamps on.
It got worse. Cignetti and the coaching staff looked totally out of sorts on short yardage situations, burning through all their first half timeouts. They were 1-for-4 on third down to start the day, coming up short three times. Twice, they tried to run the ball on third down just to set up fourth. What were they thinking? You gotta execute better than that if you’re a top-10 team.
So, yeah. The Hoosiers scraped by, 20-17. It wasn’t pretty, not by a long shot, but a win is a win, especially when you’re still sitting there undefeated. They keep their clean sheet against unranked teams, and the grind continues. You know this team has that fight in them, but man, they gotta clean it up if they wanna keep this heroics march going.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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