Rourke, Indiana hit speed bump as Ohio State hand Hoosiers first loss

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti opened his post-game address following Saturday's 38-15 loss at Ohio State on a philosophical note. 

"In life all good things come to an end eventually," he said. "I give Ohio State a lot of credit. They dominated the football game." 

Moments earlier, Cignetti's run as the head coach of an undefeated team came crashing down in game that Indiana led 7-0 after a quarter and trailed by just seven at the half.  

Indiana, the surprise story of college football this season at 10-0 and vying for a place in the 12-team college football playoff, opened the game looking capable of pulling-off the biggest shocker of their remarkable season.

Before a crowd of more than 105,000, the Hoosiers forced an Ohio State three-and-out after the opening kickoff and then scored a touchdown on their first possession to go up 7-0, with quarterback Kurtis Rourke making two clutch third-down throws in the process. 

It turned-out to be the best drive Indiana had until the game was well out of reach late in the fourth quarter. 

Cignetti pointed to the moment the game changed as coming on Indiana's second possession when, facing third-and-six, the Buckeyes got their first of five sacks on the day, collapsing the left side of offensive line and burying Rourke before he could set his feet. 

"From that point on, that's where the game really changed," said Cignetti. "Every time we dropped back to pass something bad happened."

Indeed that third-down play became a preview of what was to come each time the Hoosiers faced third-and-long, which was a lot, including one play which produced a strip sack which Ohio State recovered. 

It was unfamiliar territory for an Indiana team that had barely trailed in a game all season and entered Saturday averaging almost 500 yards off offence per game on the season. 

The Hoosiers knew going into Saturday they were facing a different kind of opponent in Ohio State, the no. 2 ranked team in NCAA football with one of the sport's best defences, loaded with players expected to be high draft picks in next April's NFL Draft. 

That, plus the hostile environment in which the game was played, turned out to be every bit as  challenging as many imaged they might be. 

Unable to hear Rourke at the line of scrimmage, Indiana had to abandon its normal cadence and go to a silent count, something they'd practiced but never used before in a game this season. 

That created all kinds of problems in pass protection and communication, according to Cignetti. To the point that Indiana's offence appeared overmatched each time they faced an obvious passing situation.  

Cignetti said the Hoosiers had seen the kinds of things Ohio State was doing on defence before, just not in that kind of environment or facing that kind of speed on the other side of the ball. 

For a time, the Hoosiers seemed almost to abandon the pass game altogether, no doubt focused on keeping the score as close as possible so not to let a blowout loss sink their college football playoff chances. 

Besides their struggling offence, it was special teams that cost the Hoosiers as well. A muffed snap on a punt play, quickly converted into a touchdown by Ohio State, and the Buckeyes first punt return touchdown in a decade, dug a hole of which Indiana could not climb out. 

Rourke had entered the game with the fourth-best odds of winning the Heisman Trophy but needed a statement performance against Ohio State to put himself in serious contention. 

Instead he went 8 of 18 for just 68 yards, which included a late touchdown throw. He may not have helped his NFL Draft stock any on Saturday and by any measure he did not have a good day. But offence in football is never a one-man show and there were plenty of cracks around him, with dropped passes and poor protection keeping the Hoosiers from finding any offensive rhythm. 

The question now is whether this defeat was bad enough to warrant Indiana being left on the sideline when the college football playoff selection committee makes its choices in a little over a week. 

Indiana is one of few one-loss teams in FBS football but none of its ten wins have come over ranked opponents. The fact that it's only matchup with a top-25 opponent ended in a 23-point loss could lead some to argue they don't belong. 

Cignetti wouldn't even entertain the question following the game. 

He and Rourke each said they are focused on their final game of the schedule next Saturday versus one-win Purdue.

And no doubt hoping that the stain from what is likely to be their only loss this year doesn’t mean an early end to their magical season.