They didn’t easily destroy Ohio St. or PSU.
**** Iowa got a 4th quarter pick and ran it to the IU 29 with 2:36 to go and the score tied 13-13. They ended up missing an easy FG and then gave up a 50 yd TD that put IU ahead.
Ohio St blew two chances to win. Should have taken the pts when in the 3rd quarter from the IU 5 instead of going for it. Would have been a tied game instead of down 3. And then missing the FG later to tie.
IU doesn’t have a magical luck machine but they certainly have gotten several bounces going their way.
If they had blown the doors of Ohio St, I’d be right with you saying “WTF is going on here.” Instead I see a well coached team that just makes fewer mistakes than its opponent. And when dealing with college kids that tend to do dumb things like false starts or late hits, that’s usually all the edge they need.
I mean you just need to watch Miami football for the last 20 years to see what happens when a vastly more talented team loses to a far less talented opponent due to self inflicted penalties. My guess is the talent difference between Middle Tennessee state and UM is a lot bigger than the talent difference between Oregon and Indiana. And MTSU blew the doors off UM in our own stadium.
And I know the counter argument is that those types of things might happen a couple times but not for 13 games. it didn’t happen for 13 games. IU feasted on G5 opponents and B1G floormats the bulk of the season, with the remainder being games where they had comparable talent (Iowa , Illinois) and maybe 3 opponents where they had a real talent disadvantage (OSU, Bama, Oregon. Not counting coachless PSU).
Indiana crushed Illinois- and at first glance it looks suspicious but then you see it was like the Ducks game- Illinois gave up a blocked punt TD, 4 sacks, multiple 30+ yard pass plays in the FIRST HALF and was down 35-10 at half time. They gave up. No cheating necessary.
Then they played Iowa and trailed in the 4th quarter. Traded INTs and then a Missed IOwa FG gave Indiana the chance to take the lead. No cheating needed there.
Then there was the 10 pt win against overrated Oregon. Oregon gets a pick 6 to tie it 20 all in the 4th quarter (even IU makes mistakes). Indiana engineers a 12 play 75 yd drive to take a TD lead. Cheating? Not any more than Beck driving Miami down the field against Ole ****. Moore is a vastly overrated QB, he then throws a pick on the next possession and IU closes it out. Again I don’t see any cheating required. Good coaching and discipline wins that game.
IU then plays a bunch of b1g tomato cans to close out the season until the B1G championship game. But in that run they still have to hang on by their fingernails to beat a PSU team without a HC. PSU ran for 118 yards on the IU defense.
We already talked about OSU and how OSU blew it. Bama didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs and we know all about the SEC living off bloated reputation. Oregon was another self destruction.
as I said, on paper it all looks suspicious. But when you break down the games, I don’t see anything odd other than getting some lucky breaks like missed FGs and fumbles bouncing right back into their hands. That said- based on the missed FGs and lucky bounces- I can’t rule out the possibility they put magnets in the football.
