Indiana escaped with a 20-17 victory over Nebraska on Saturday. The Hoosiers were down 17-6 in the fourth quarter. That is when Nick Marsh took over for Indiana, scoring twice in the fourth quarter to give Indiana the win.
While the pass game took over late, Indiana struggled on the ground. One Nebraska defender had noted that he knew what Indiana was doing on the ground based on tight end alignment. Now, head coach Curt Cignetti is responding to those claims with a baseball analogy, per Michael Niziolek of The Herald-Times.
“Good teams have tendencies, but you got to have some changeup pitches, too. Run game has got to have at-bats. When you run 16 plays in the first half, you're not getting many at-bats,” Cignetti said.
Nebraska did a great job of controlling the clock in the first half. Indiana ran just 17 plays in the first half, but one of those was a rush up the middle with 18 seconds left in the half. Overall, Indiana ran the ball six times for 14 yards in the first half. Overall, Indiana ran the ball 22 times in the game, for just 65 yards.
Article Continues BelowLee Beebe Jr. ran the ball nine times for 31 yards, while Turbo Richard had eight carries for ten yards. Quarterback Josh Hoover has the most success on the ground. He ran five times for 24 yards, good for 4.8 yards per carry, the highest average on the team. Still, the run clearly opened up the pass late. Nick Marsh ended up with six receptions for 187 yards and two touchdowns, including a 75-yard catch-and-score.
Cignetti will hope that the run game picks up next week. Indiana has a Top-5 matchup with Ohio State on Saturday.

