The final seconds ticked off the clock at Memorial Stadium, and though the scoreboard read Indiana 27, Old Dominion 14, the mood was anything but triumphant. Curt Cignetti stood with his arms crossed, expression hard and unsmiling, the weight of expectation evident in every crease of his brow. After a brief handshake with Old Dominion […]
The final seconds ticked off the clock at Memorial Stadium, and though the scoreboard read Indiana 27, Old Dominion 14, the mood was anything but triumphant.
Curt Cignetti stood with his arms crossed, expression hard and unsmiling, the weight of expectation evident in every crease of his brow. After a brief handshake with Old Dominion head coach coach Ricky Rahne, the second-year Indiana head coach walked briskly toward the tunnel, his face confirming what his words soon made clear.
“Wins are hard to get, 1-0, but I guarantee you, everybody in this organization realizes we didn’t play as well as we wanted to,” Cignetti said postgame. “That’s just a flat out fact.”
From the very first play, Indiana looked out of rhythm, as though the Hoosiers had stumbled out of bed on the wrong side. Anticipation for this opener was sky-high. Nearly 47,000 fans filled the stadium, buoyed by a preseason ranking, a roster dotted with veterans and the program’s newfound reputation as a College Football Playoff contender.
Instead, it took only 11 seconds for the air to escape the building. Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph faked a handoff, kept the ball and bolted 75 yards up the middle, shocking a crowd that expected fireworks from the home team.
It was the kind of defensive lapse that gnaws at Cignetti, a missed assignment that gave the Monarchs a lead before the Hoosiers even had time to settle in.
Indiana would respond, but unevenly. The Hoosiers put together a 502-yard offensive showing, ran for over 300 yards, held the ball for more than 41 minutes and intercepted Joseph three times. And still, the game felt like a missed opportunity wrapped in a victory.
The glaring problem, one that left Cignetti visibly disturbed, was what happened whenever Indiana approached the goal line. Time and again, the Hoosiers drove the length of the field only to sputter at the finish.
The first drive told the story. After Joseph’s stunning opener, Indiana pushed inside the Old Dominion 5-yard line. First-and-goal at the two. Four plays later, the Hoosiers had nothing to show for it as quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s fourth-down pass was swatted away.
Later in the first half, redshirt junior running back Lee Beebe Jr. coughed up the football after Indiana again crossed into the red area. There was a sure-fire touchdown dropped by Omar Cooper. There was kicker Brendan Franke, a career kickoff specialist, doinking a 52-yard attempt off the crossbar.
Even when the Hoosiers did put points on the board, they often had to settle for chip-shot field goals when touchdowns weren’t available. By day’s end, Indiana had six trips inside the 10-yard line and only two touchdowns to show for it. Four others ended in either turnovers on downs, field goals and frustration.
“I thought we had them in position near the end of the second quarter where we could have stuck a fork in them and really jumped on them, and we couldn’t capitalize offensively,” Cignetti said. “First-and-two on the 2, couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. Get down there the next time and fumbled the ball. Got open for a touchdown, make a nice throw and he drops the ball. Hit the crossbar on a field goal. Overthrow a guy for a touchdown in the second half. From that standpoint, you know, we have to get better, gotta get better.”
The statistics only underscored the missed chances. A season ago, Indiana scored on 64 of 69 red-zone trips, an efficiency that helped carry them to one of the most successful seasons in program history. Against Old Dominion, the Hoosiers failed to score altogether on three red-zone possessions — two turnovers on downs and a fumble — and had to accept field goals on two more.
The math is damning: 42 potential points available in goal-to-go situations, but only 20 were converted. Cignetti, who admitted he was uneasy about the offensive plan inside the 20 even before kickoff, offered no excuses.
The defense, though steadier, did not emerge unscathed either. Joseph’s second long touchdown run, this one for 78 yards in the third quarter, came on another read option in which Indiana failed to keep contain and were left chasing shadows.
It was nearly identical to the game’s opening play, and it left Cignetti fuming at a group that otherwise suffocated Old Dominion, holding the Monarchs to just 129 yards on nine other full drives. The Monarchs managed only 96 passing yards against Indiana’s secondary, which produced three interceptions, including one by safety Amare Ferrell, who afterward voiced the standard the defense had fallen short of.
“It was a win, but it wasn’t the win we wanted,” Ferrell said. “Being a great defense, you always want to make sure you do everything right. Leading into this game, [the key] was stopping the run, and we didn’t do a great job of stopping the run today with the quarterback. So, we just got to go in, be more disciplined, everyone do their job.”
There were highlights. Jonathan Brady’s 91-yard punt return tied the game at 7-7 and lit up the sideline, and Mendoza showed poise in stretches, commanding an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive out of halftime that briefly suggested Indiana might finally pull away.
But when the Hoosiers went ahead 24-7, the expected rout never came. Indiana managed only a field goal the rest of the way and was outscored 7-3 across the final 26 minutes of the game.
“We needed a touchdown and we did. We got it. Up 24-7. Then you thought the rout could be on,” Cignetti said. “But it wasn’t. There will be a lot to learn in this tape, and we’ve got to get better.”
The atmosphere inside the stadium reflected the same unease. Fans, spoiled by last season’s dazzling playoff run, began the day ready for a coronation. Instead, they sat through a game that felt more like a grind than a showcase.
Last September, Indiana opened with a similarly uneven win over Florida International before throttling Western Illinois 77-3 the following week. The players noted the parallel themselves. Mendoza said teammates mentioned the resemblance in the locker room. Ferrell agreed.
The difference this time is that expectations are no longer modest. Indiana is not the underdog sneaking into the spotlight. The Hoosiers are a top-20 team with playoff dreams, and performances like Saturday’s invite skepticism.
That is why Cignetti’s postgame demeanor stood out. He was calm but blunt, staring off into space as though replaying every missed assignment, dropped pass and missed block in his head. Nearly 25 minutes after the final whistle, the sting was still visible.
“I’m not pleased with the way we played,” he said.
MORE: Coach Q&A: Curt Cignetti talks Indiana’s season opening win over Old Dominion
For now, Indiana has the win it needed to begin its season, but not the validation it craved. The Hoosiers will return to the practice field in search of answers, aiming to turn red-zone misery into touchdowns and defensive lapses into disciplined stops. The Hoosiers will face Kennesaw State next weekend, an opportunity to reestablish themselves with the kind of emphatic performance Cignetti demands.
Victories may be difficult to earn, as Cignetti reminded his team, but in Bloomington, victories alone are no longer enough. The standard is higher. And for the Hoosiers, Saturday was a sobering reminder that meeting it requires much more than what they showed in their opener.
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Category: General Sports
