Ehhh. They’re good at run blocking, IMO. I’ve watched their games against decently talented DLs. No one is going to convince me PSU has a better DL or front 7 against the run than we do. Indiana’s OL didn’t run block very well in that game.
Football is matchups. Some of IU’s generalized stats don’t carry well into *this* matchup. I’d have to look at their specific numbers against OSU, PSU, and Iowa. I respect their RBs, especially Black, but I’m not favorably comparing their OL to our OL in almost any aspect.
I don't disagree with you. I think for as much as our offense has been memed at times for being
too duo reliant and having such tight splits, it can ironically be a major key to our offense having success.
Combining our tight splits with our size advantage in the trenches should mean their stunts are less effective when we run duo and when we do run duo our double teams are able to move the LOS 2-3 yards downfield at times throughout the night.
Ole Miss may have not been elite defensively, but they have elite size and sometimes physics still matter. They do slant themselves out of the play at times, but they also have big boys that don't allow you to reset the LOS as easily when blocking, even when combo blocking. Indiana is not going to have that advantage.
The Indiana DL does move well laterally, but I am not sure how well that's going to help them vs a concept that just works vertically.
They are a good team. That's why they are in the title. Their defense on paper seems to almost be as good as Ohio States in some regards. But it does lack size and we are a duo team meaning size where size and power are what we rely on and are what are best used to stop our bread and butter.
I don't expect us to run as well on them as we did vs Texas A&M, the Indiana LB's are much better in their run fits and at tackling, but I won't be surprised at all if we end up running the ball better on Indiana than we did Ohio State. If we manage that, our offense should be able to move the ball and put up some points on them as long as we don't hurt ourselves elsewhere(penalties/turnovers).
Is my take too homerish?
