Indiana needed to play a nearly flawless game to upset sixth-ranked Ohio State at Memorial Stadium. It was nowhere close to that effort.

Instead, the Hoosiers suffered a 51-10 defeat to the Buckeyes, the largest loss to OSU at home in IU’s history. The 41-point loss dropped Indiana to 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in B1G play.

After the game, Allen spoke with the media to talk about what went wrong during Saturday’s blowout loss. While there were plenty of factors the head coach could point to, establishing the run and defending the run seemed to be the key failures for the Hoosiers.

“You have to run the football on offense and stop the run on defense,” Allen said, according to Kevin Brockway of CNHI Indiana. “We didn’t do either today.”

Allen continued to say the run game isn’t “good enough right now” to win these big-time games. With teams like Penn State, Michigan State and Penn State on the schedule, that’s not a good sign.

The Hoosiers rushed for a measly 42 yards on 31 carries Saturday, an average of 1.4 yards per touch. Ohio State, however, piled up 306 yards on the ground, averaging better then 7.0 yards per carry. That ratio isn’t going to win a lot of football games, regardless of competition.

In three games, Indiana has rushed for a total of 304 yards. A good chunk of that responsibility falls on the offensive line, which has struggled to keep defenses out of the backfield through the first portion of the season.

That’s something that needs to be fixed in a hurry if the Hoosiers hope to get back to bowl eligibility this season.