Indiana football: Grade card after the Hoosiers’ rally falls short at Maryland

The Hoosiers are down to their No. 3 quarterback, yet they showed more fight Saturday than they had in a month.

Yet, it still wasn’t enough, as Maryland blitzed Indiana in the second half, racing out to a 2-touchdown lead that proved — barely — to be enough.

Let’s grade out the Hoosiers after the 38-35 loss at Maryland:

Passing offense

With Michael Penix Jr. and Jack Tuttle sidelined due to injuries, not much was expected out of an Indiana offense down to its third-string quarterback.

But freshman Donaven McCulley showed that the present — and the future — might not be all that bleak, as the rookie passed for 242 yards and 2 touchdowns while nearly rallying the Hoosiers back from a 2-touchdown deficit early in the 4th quarter. But McCulley, as one might expect in a first start, wasn’t perfect; too often, his accuracy wasn’t quite as good as desired, and he took 4 sacks.

But, the good outweighed the bad, especially for an IU team that had been searching for any sort of spark from the quarterback position. McCulley made several great passes, seeming to have a particularly good connection with veteran tight end Peyton Hendershot. The 2 hooked up 6 times for 106 yards and a couple of TDs. The last one was a pretty pass from McCulley, who found Hendershot in the left side of the end zone after the tight end had gotten by a couple of defenders. It’s the kind of accurate pass that has to have IU excited about its future at the position.

Grade: B+

Rushing offense

In one play Saturday, Stephen Carr busted loose for a rare big-gainer for the Hoosiers.

The lead back went 66 yards on IU’s first possession of the third quarter, when he took a handoff to the right, looking to gain short yardage on a 3rd-and-2. But when he cut back against the grain, he exploded through the line, finding a hole generated by the zone-blocking offensive line, and raced into the open field. His TD gave the Hoosiers an early second-half lead. And it was the best run on a very good day by the line and IU’s backs.

The Hoosiers finished with 204 yards rushing, averaging nearly 5 per carry, and they had a couple scores, both by Carr. IU twice converted 4th downs, once on a pass and the second when Bryant Fitzgerald not only gained the needed 5 yards but got 20 more. It helped to keep IU within striking distance midway through the second half.

Grade: A

Offense overall

Without their top 2 quarterbacks, it wouldn’t have been shocking for the Hoosiers to hide in their turtle shells against the Terrapins.

Instead, IU put together its best offensive day of the season, generating 35 points on 446 yards without a turnover. The Hoosiers had a balanced attack, and hit on big plays, which had been glaringly missing the first 7 games of the season. Indiana was only 4-of-16 on 3rd down, although the Hoosiers at least made up for that by twice converting on 4th.

Grade: A-

Passing defense

The Hoosiers defense has been one of the program’s bright spots in an otherwise disappointing season.

Saturday, it struggled to slow the Terrapins down through the air, as quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa passed for 419 yards on 40 attempts — that’s more than 10 yards per attempt — with 26 completions. He had 2 touchdowns, no interceptions and was sacked only twice.

So, it wasn’t a great day for the Hoosiers.

The biggest issue was yards-after-catch. Maryland had an astounding 197 post-catch yards, showing IU’s inability to bring down receivers once they got into the secondary. It happened on both of Carlos Carriere’s touchdown receptions, the second one (which gave Maryland a 15-point 4th-quarter lead) getting IU defensive back Raheem Layne all crossed up.

The sacks were big for IU, with both coming on third downs on back-to-back first-half possessions. But the Hoosiers had too few game-changing defensive plays.

Grade: F

Rushing defense

The Hoosiers clogged up the running game of the Terrapins, which was good, aside from the fact that it forced the ball into Tagovailoa’s hands to pass more frequently.

But IU stopped the run, for the most part, giving up only 79 yards on 46 attempts, only 1.7 per carry. And the long for the Terps was only 9. Impressive work.

Grade: A

Defense overall

The facts are the facts: IU gave up 38 points, including 24 in the 30 minutes of the second half. And it did so by allowing the Terrapins to accumulate 498 yards. Sure, IU stopped Maryland’s run, but it was gashed through the air, and that was the difference.

The Hoosiers couldn’t turn the Terps over either, which proved to be a problem. After punting on its first drive of the second half, Maryland scored TDs on 3 straight possessions, then was forced to punt, before it hit the final field goal, which proved to be the winning margin.

Grade: D

Special teams

Charles Campbell suffered a rare miss on his first field goal attempt, a 42-yarder, before rebounding to hit from 55 and then 29 yards.

Punter James Evans had 7 attempts, which is too high, for a 38.7 average, which is too low.

And IU couldn’t get the on-sides kick recovery it needed late.

Grade: C

Coaching

Kudos to Tom Allen for developing an offensive game plan that played to McCulley’s strengths. It kept things simple, allowing him run-pass options out-of-the-pocket, when he had only one receiving option. It worked. And IU played hard.

But the defense had no answers.

Grade: B

Overall

IU is running out of time.

The Maryland game represented the best chance for the Hoosiers to get a win during this brutal stretch, which finally will come to an end after the visit to Michigan next week. But the Hoosiers couldn’t get enough stops defensively and saw their comeback bid fall short.

Grade: D+

Kyle Charters

Kyle Charters, a familiar face at Gold & Black, covers Purdue, Indiana and college basketball for Saturday Tradition.