December 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Big Ten Championship Preview: Buckeyes vs. Indiana - Insights from Indiana vs. Wisconsin
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr delve into their analysis of Indiana's 31-7 victory over Wisconsin from November. They discuss the key takeaways and how those insights could play a role in the upcoming Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Indiana. Discover the strengths and weaknesses on both sides, standout players, and potential game-changing moments. Don't miss their breakdown of Indiana's running game, passing threats, and defensive capabilities as they prepare to face the Buckeyes.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:08 Indiana vs. Wisconsin Recap
01:53 Indiana's Running Game Analysis
02:38 Wisconsin's Defensive Performance
06:38 Indiana's Offensive Line Issues
10:49 Indiana's Defensive Highlights
14:01 Key Matchups Against Ohio State
20:58 Special Teams and Final Thoughts
23:08 Closing Remarks and Announcements
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr delve into their analysis of Indiana's 31-7 victory over Wisconsin from November. They discuss the key takeaways and how those insights could play a role in the upcoming Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Indiana. Discover the strengths and weaknesses on both sides, standout players, and potential game-changing moments. Don't miss their breakdown of Indiana's running game, passing threats, and defensive capabilities as they prepare to face the Buckeyes.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:08 Indiana vs. Wisconsin Recap
01:53 Indiana's Running Game Analysis
02:38 Wisconsin's Defensive Performance
06:38 Indiana's Offensive Line Issues
10:49 Indiana's Defensive Highlights
14:01 Key Matchups Against Ohio State
20:58 Special Teams and Final Thoughts
23:08 Closing Remarks and Announcements
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How's it going, Tony? It feels like we are speed
running the entire Indiana football season this week. This is
the what fifth game? Well, I watched the Illinois game earlier,
so this is I think the fifth Indiana game I've
watched in its entirety. And it feels like generally when
we get to this point with like a deep dive
(00:31):
on one of these upcoming teams, it's just kind of
like you get to game four, game five, and you're
just kind of confirming your priors, and I just kind
of feel like I'm just kind of going, uh huh
uh huh uh huh uh huh. And this one was
fun because the first thing they showed on the broadcast
was making his first career start for Wisconsin at quarterback,
and I, oh boy, here we go, and yeah, pretty much, yeah,
(00:53):
how much.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
That Although that quarterback that you mentioned, Carter Smith, this
was probably perhaps maybe the first college football game ever
with two Carter Smith's. So you say that's not exciting.
I say, that's maybe the most exciting thing that happened
in this game. So we are here to recap and
discuss what we learned from watching Indiana's thirty one seven
(01:17):
win over Wisconsin, which was a ten to seven game
at the half, to give you an idea of how
things went very difficult going for the Indiana run game
in this one, which Wisconsin is one of the better
run defenses nationally, so that's something interesting because Ohio State
also one of the better run defenses going nationally. In
(01:39):
this game, Roman Hemby and Kaylon Black, their top two
running backs, combined for seventy yards on twenty carries. Black
was held at twelve yards on six carries and Roman
Henby was fifty eight yards on fourteen carries. And to me, Tom,
let's go ahead and start with the Indiana running game
because this is again more confirmation of what seen where
(02:02):
the long long run of the day was eight yards
by Hemby. You saw more from a rechert freshman Kobe
Martin in this game, but he generally does not play
in the tougher game, so I don't know if we
should expect him. I think he's more explosive than the
other two guys at times, but nothing that I saw
from the running game today in this game again makes
(02:22):
me think that Ohio State is in trouble. They's certainly
good and respectable, but it's not like you're looking at
this going how are you going to stop all of
these guys? Because I think there's they're limited in what
they can do.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, and I think this is I mean, you probably
remember the Wisconsin game, dear viewer and listener, that Wisconsin's
run defense is really good. In Wisconsin's past defense is
kind of booty cheeks, and that was exactly what this
game was. Wisconsin held Indiana to two point two yards
per rush and then pankdown for Nanda Mendozo went twenty
two for twenty four four and ninety nine yard yards
(03:00):
and four touchdowns. And really the only thing that worked
at all for Wisconsin in terms of past defense was
they got to him and sacked him five times. And
that's you know, that's a little bit of a concern
to me. And you know, we'll get to the offensive
line in a minute. But yeah, the running game was
really pretty uninspiring here. But it was also it was
(03:20):
kind of a game where they it felt like they
weren't particularly worried about trying to run it. It was
just kind of like, well, we probably probably won't be
able to run it, but we'll be able to throw
it just fines We're just going to throw it when
we need to throw it. And it was just kind
of which which guy would you like to have beat
you this time? Like they they could get cute with
it where they had a backup tight end whose name
(03:41):
we have absolutely have not said on any of these
shows yet. Noahkowski four catches for sixty five yards in
a touchdown. Why were they getting cute with it? Well,
he was a Wisconsin transfer, so like, all right, well
we're going to get you some we're gonna get your
thirty seven yard er, we're going to get your touchdown.
Like sure, absolutely, why not? Like they could they could
just kind of do whatever they wanted to do, mostly
(04:01):
with Wisconsin when they wanted to do it. It was
very similar to the Ohio State game against Wisconsin, where
they didn't run the ball incredibly well, they ran it.
Ohio State ran it a lot better than Indiana did,
I would say, but this was one where even you know,
it's ten seven at halftime and you're still you're not thinking,
oh boy, they are really in trouble. It was like Wisconsin.
(04:22):
Everything Wisconsin did that was positive was kind of like, well,
they came up with a really clever play design, and
now you've burned that one, so that one won't work again.
The touchdown was a play action to tight end on
fourth and one, and you know, it was like a spectacular,
cataclysmic bust in the secondary. But it's like, well, they're
(04:43):
not going to fall for that again. So you know,
it never felt like Indiana was in any meaningful danger.
But it was also it was not an overwhelming performance
by Indiana by any means.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
No, And you mentioned Fernanda Mendoza twenty two twenty five
war for two hundred ninety nine yards, four touchdowns, five sacks.
One of those two incompletions went off the hands of
his receiver, to give you an idea of how accurate
he was on a day they were without Elijah Surat.
So again entered Charlie Becker, who went for one hundred
and eight yards on five catches. He was the guy
(05:17):
who went for over one hundred yards against Penn State
after really not doing anything prior to that. And it's
just to me he Becker, Sarat and Omar Cooper have
provided have all stepped up at different times and been
a one hundred yard guy or a game winner. So
(05:39):
I do think this is the i'll say second best
wide receiver group in the Big Ten, and I think
I'll stand by that. I think when you're gonna take
Jeremiah Smith and Carnel Taint, but Indiana's not a far
drop from that. I do think they're better than Oregon
(06:00):
and so this is going to be a legit matchup
for Ice Day, especially with with Fernando Mendoza. But the
Wisconsin pass rush and Daryl Peterson was a big part
of that defensive end edge rusher. They were getting to
him and they were ruining the RPOs in different ways,
and the RPO is a big part of this offense.
So interesting to see that Wisconsin can be so effective
(06:23):
and sack him five times and disrupt him and take
some plays away. Lots to like their fuer Ohio state.
In terms of okay, I can see some avenues here,
and I guess if you wanted to go ahead and
just take it from here and talk about some of
the guys that keep popping up on the offensive line
when you're looking, well, where are these issues at? There
(06:46):
are a couple of places.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, I have to disagree with here. I would never
end a sense with the preposition like that. However, I
would say that, yeah, it is. It's the same issues.
It's bray Lane seventy four the right guard, it's Khalil
Benson sixty seven, the right tackle. It's just like Benson
head on the first drive. It was like history's most
(07:08):
of the obvious hold in the world that goes uncolled,
like right in front of the officials, right by where
the ball is. Like, I have no idea how they
missed that one give up a sack on what I
guess was Jake but thought it was like just a miscommunication,
like he passed off a guy. But it was just
kind of like, all right, you got it. Oh there's
no one there, Well, all right, and now down goes
for Ananda Mendoza. There were there was a third and
(07:32):
short where they got stuffed and that was on bray
bray Wyatt, the right guard. It was it's just it's
just not it's not great. It was bray Lynch. Sorry,
bray Wyatt is absolutely not an Indiana football player. I'm like,
that's not right. They had Helln Wyatt who's on defense,
(07:53):
and they have Bray Lynch who's on offense. Bray Wyatt
is not a football player anyway, Moving on, Yeah, it
was it's just the same stuff. It's you know, this
is like a confirming your priors thing. And I have
a friend of mine from years back who went to
Indiana and for years, like he would say, I'm the
(08:13):
only person who would text him about I ve football
because like during the Bill Lyncher, I'm like, man, you
guys almost had it, and it was you know, I'd
be like, none of his Indiana people would ever text him.
I was always text texting about Indian football. I just
texted him and said, like, if I was to tell
you there's one or two offensive lineman that I'm kind
of looking at and going like, yeah, so I'm gonna
(08:35):
I'll be interested to see what he says. I just
shot him a text while I was rewatching this game.
But yeah, I think I think that might be a
concern for Indiana. And the problem they have is if
you can't run the ball, that kind of takes away
the RPO, and the RPO is such an important part
of their offense. And then I start to worry and
(08:56):
the stat that they put on the screen, Holy Moses
Tony for an end Mendoza. This was entering the game
Permando Mendoza at home, which is basically against all the
bad teams. Seventy seven percent completion, twenty one passing, touchdowns,
one interception, and that those numbers probably went up slightly.
He's probably about after this Wisconsin Hume, but eighty percent
completions and twenty five touchdowns in one interception. On the
(09:18):
road sixty three percent, five touchdowns, four interceptions. And that's
Oregon and Penn State and Iowa. And I just I
look at those numbers and I go, which side of
that ledger does Ohio State fall more closely on? And
I think it's not the one where it's twenty five
touchdowns and one pick.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah. I'm looking at his season stats now with his
splits seven home games, five road games, and those seven
home games he's stron for seventeen hundred and seventy four yards,
and the five road games he's strown for nine hundred
and eighty four yards, not quite, not quite half, or
more than a little bit more than half. Despite the
a similar number of games and home games, he's completing
(10:03):
seventy nine point two percent of his passes road neutral
site sixty one point seven, so you've got a seventeen
and a half point drop from home to road. His
yards for attempt dropped from ten point three to eight
point two. As you said, twenty five touchdowns, one interception
at home seven touchdowns, four interceptions and five road games.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And the last one. The reason those numbers are different
is because they just played Perdue, which is not amazing
at football this year.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So yeah, so little pats stat padding there for Mendoze.
But I do think the offensive line, the right side,
love side, seems pretty good so far, and you can
include Coogan in there as the center. Defensively, we saw
another big game from defensive fen Stephen Day, who at
(10:54):
this point this was one of his He's in a
streak right now of like three out of four tackles
for loss per game, and he's leading the Big ten.
I assume he's leading. I haven't checked the leaderboard, but
he's got like eighteen and a half tackles for loss,
most of them coming in the last month since he
stepped in for Kellen Wyatt and as he got injured
(11:16):
in the middle of the season. He's done very well
did well in this one again against Wisconsin. I don't know,
this is I don't know how much you take from
a Wisconsin offense and trying to apply it to an
Ohio State offense. When you're watching Wisconsin on third and
eight run read option with the quarterback and him keeping
(11:39):
it and you're seeing Elijah Harder Hardy miss a tackle
on that, there's you're seeing. It's just like watching some
of the linebackers try to, you know, run around and
try to handle this little this just readoption stuff that
they're not necessarily going to see on Saturday. But did
(11:59):
you what are some of your takeaways from the defense
against an offense that is nothing like Ohio States.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, this is one where a lot like the Iowa game,
I kind of went, well, I'm mostly looking at Indiana's
offense against a pretty good defense because you know what
Wisconsin is doing with a true freshman quarterback making his
first start, and Vinnie Anthony's pretty okay as a wide receiver,
and everyone else is kind of like, eh, I don't
think there's a ton to take away. I did think
(12:29):
it was, you know, sort of worth noting that Wisconsin
had a really good first drive and wasted it with
a miss field goal, and then on the second drive,
Vinnie Anthony, they threw a screen to him and it
looked like it might be set up to go for
a long way and he just didn't catch it. So
you know, there were certainly some missed opportunities there, but
it was really like almost all of my notes are
(12:49):
on are on the on the offense for Indiana. It just,
you know, it feels like I look at this team
and I go the Indiana defense, good defensive front, great linebackers,
really no complaints with either of those two levels, and
the secondary didn't really get tested. Like this is the
only thing I'm really interested in watching, Like I feel
(13:10):
like I know what we've got with the Indiana you know,
defensive front, the Indiana linebackers. At this point, I really
would love to see them play another good passing offense,
which great news is gonna happen on Saturday, and we'll
find out, you know, we will find we will find
out if our priors are confirmed or not on a
couple of the spots in the Indiana secondary. But honestly,
I just I just kind of looked at this game
(13:31):
and let yeah, you know, can we go back to
talking about their wide receivers because I would like to
talk more about Charlie Becker and Omar Cooper and I
mean elijahs. Surrot is the name that you hear, and
Elijah Surrot hasn't really jumped off the screen in any
of these games in the way that Charlie Becker has
in the last couple against Penn State and against against Wisconsin.
(13:54):
And you know, Omar Cooper had a big game or two.
But they've got They've had four different wide receivers with
multiple one hundred yard games this year. That's you know,
that's depth that is going to be that is this
is the first team, I think all season that is
really legitimately going to challenge Ohio States secondary. All right,
let's see what you got because you feel like you
(14:14):
know what Ohio State's got in the secondary. But you know,
if it's Elijah Surat and Omar Cooper and uh, you
know e J. Williams was right, e J. Williams is
that the the the Yeah. E J. Williams was the
he was the one who kind of limped off and
I think he missed the Purdue game. So you know,
but if it's Becker and it's Elijah Sarat and it's
(14:34):
Omar Cooper. Those are three really good wide receivers and
three wide receivers that can attack you in different ways
where you know, Cooper is kind of more like the
slot guy and more like the Brandon Innis and you know,
you a lot of a lot of sort of volume,
catches close to the line of scrimmage and can maybe
make you miss and turn that into something bigger. Sarat
is kind of their back shoulder guy, and Becker is
(14:57):
the is the deep threat. He's the one where you
see them just take, you know, try and take the
top off the defense a couple times a game. To him,
that is as complete a wide receiver unit as we've
seen Ohio State play all season. So that to me
is assuming Mendoza has time, that's going to be maybe
one of the most interesting matchups I think anywhere on
(15:18):
the field on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And it's not just two guys like you said. They
can rotate them in and they'll find ways to get
guys the ball. They'll find matchups, and they've got a
quarterback that can throw it to them accurately, and he's
good downfield. He's good with the deep ball. So it's
gonna be the best test for the Ohio State secondary
that we've seen this year by far. And you can
(15:43):
throw in Texas in there, it's like, no, I think
it's much better than Texas, especially this late into the season.
So a huge, huge test for everybody in I think
it's I can't wait to watch it because it's going
to be both sides of the ball. It's going to
be tests outside and seeing who can stand up and
who can hold up, and who can get away with
(16:06):
the most penalties because there will be there will be
a lot of grabbing in this game and fighting and
pushing off. There will be some opis that do not
get called. Don't be shocked when there are opis that
do get called. You got some physical guys and then
you know, don't get caught deep. Get your safeties back,
(16:27):
and be careful with every single wide receiver that plays
the steps on the field in this game. Be careful
because any of them can go and you know that
could That could be the difference in the game because
at some point a home run it's it's not free points,
but it's like free points. Because you expect this to
be a difficult path to the end zone. So if
(16:51):
you can hit one, it's that's that's a little bit
of insurance right there, or even more, you know, better
than that. So I do expect to see some donfield
shots taken in this game. No reason not to like
swing for the fences. I'm not saying all game long,
but at least every inning.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, these are two teams that we've seen kind of
struggle to run the ball in short yardage at times
like it feels like that's you know, ohios to U
saw Ohio State trying to punch it in against Michigan,
and this is a better defensive line than Michigan has,
and Ohio State was not able to just sort of
man ball it in from the one yard line or
the two yard line. And we've seen Indiana struggle in
(17:29):
third and one and fourth and one kind of situations
a bunch in these games. So it may be a
how do you avoid having red zone is struggles? Well,
you just throw it over the red zone and directly
into the end zone. That's that's certainly one way to
attack that. So yeah, I and frankly I think this
is not going to be a super super high scoring game.
This is not this is not a game that's going
(17:50):
to be played in the forties. This is a game
that might be played in the twenties or prop you know,
perhaps low thirties. I don't I don't think this is
you know, I think this is a game where you
hit a big touchdown or two. That could be the
game like that, that could be the difference hit, you know,
finding Charlie Becker deep or finding Carnell Tape deep, whichever
it is. You know, whichever of these teams can do that,
(18:13):
I think is going to be the one that wins it.
And you know, you can look at the wide receivers
and then you kind of look at the safeties and
it's like I think, I think Ohio State has better
wide receivers, but it's a lot closer than you would
think with basically any other You actually have to kind
of think about it a little bit in this game,
and I think Ohio State probably has better safeties and
so that, and you know, Ohio State probably has better corners. Again,
(18:35):
these are all these are all relatively close. But I
think you're kind of going around the field and maybe
we do a Tale of the Tape show at some point,
But I kind of look at that and it's kind
of like, yeah, I like Ohio State guys a little better.
It just it feels like it's not, you know, this
is this is not a game where Ohio State it's
going to beat them by thirty five points, I don't think.
But it's it's a game where a field like Ohio
State has a bunch of kind of small advantages that
(18:58):
could you know that Ohio States right side of the
offensive line issues feel like they've maybe resolved themselves a
little better than Indiana's had. You look at the early
season games and you're thinking the same thing about the
right side of the offensive line, and then Ohio State
seems like maybe they've sort of shored that up a
little bit. And I don't know that I feel the
same way about Indiana.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
In terms of I guess a few last points from
me back defensively, and this is something that we've seen
before previous games where the opponent is just not good
enough to take advantage of a break. And you mentioned
Vinnie Anthony dropping a tunnel screen that would have gone
maybe the distance flat drops it not unlike Jeremiah Smith's
(19:41):
first ever target last year as a true freshman, and
those are things that you wouldn't expect Ohio State to do.
And we talked about this in the either the Iowa
or the Oregon game, where probably the Iowa game just
not good enough to take advantage of the holes that
are presented. Then I think oh of State should be
(20:02):
you wouldn't expect a drop on something like that. And
I still think Aiden Fisher at times has trouble getting
out running the entire length to the sideline and making
the play. He's great between the hashes, I think, but
there are times where he can't get all the way
out there and you can turn the corner on him.
And then also after two games of watching Isaiah Jones
(20:24):
linebacker Isaiah Jones wreck things, didn't really see much from
him in this one, and they were playing some nickel
as well. Strangely you're playing nickel against Wisconsin. You know,
who would expect that. But I was like, oh, I
was hoping to see more from Isaiah Jones, and you know,
he had a few tackles, but nothing that really stood out.
But again I agree with you, not great short yardage
(20:48):
situations for the offense, for the for the Indiana offense,
and I think that's basically basically what I've gotten this
one and the.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Only other thing I think we just need to mention,
and this is very much confirming our priors. Niko Radicich,
the placekicker, made his only field goal. He has not
missed a field goal all season long, so you know
that that and him kicking indoors in you know, on
an obviously dry field in Indianapolis with no wind, you
would sort of assume he's whatever. Whenever they line up
(21:21):
for something else, unless Ohio State blocked that, you you
have to sort of just put the three points on
the board. I think McCarthy the punter four punts for
an average average of thirty four point three? Was it
because they were punting from like super duper plus territory?
Sure wasn't. No touchbacks, no twenty, nothing inside the twenty.
Just not great. And that's you know, in a game
(21:43):
like this where it's just this is this is potentially
going to be a sort of fine margin game. And
you know, if Ohio State's slightly better in a bunch
of different spots and Indiana it can't steal points with
you know, the who is the punt for Alabama and
the Sugar Bowl Scott Scott JK. Scott like, you can't
(22:05):
have the JK. Scott like, just here's fifteen yards of
field position on every exchange of punts kind of game.
That's you know, that would be very helpful for Indiana
and they their punter has just not been great this
season and this was this was a perfectly find it.
This was the same day as the OSU UCLA game,
so I think they said the weather is in the
high sixties or something in sunny and not super you know,
(22:27):
it was windy, but it wasn't that windy, and so yeah,
it was just it just it feels like there's shit,
a bunch of little stuff. And I'm sure Indiana people
are like, you're saying everyone's things like no, We're like,
we're stipulating you are one of the top two teams
in the country. Absolutely we are looking at you and going, okay,
like assume that everyone is good. Where are the possible
(22:49):
concerns Like that's that's kind of what we're looking at
at this point, and that's why the conversation is the
way it is.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And with those short punts, I wouldn't expect too much
from Ohio State's punt return game with Brandon Ennis, because
coverage is gonna be right there because they don't have
far to run. That's one of the reasons why Ohio
State is so good at it as well. So that
will do it. If you want to hit the thumbs up.
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you know, we've got a game to cover. It's gonna
(23:16):
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down here at the Bucky Weekly Podcast Time with Buckeye
tomorrow morning talk with Ross Fulton, talking with the coaches
and players and getting all of those those clips put
up and getting you to better understand exactly what you're
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(23:38):
Sign up, I'd love to talk to you. Thank you
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Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How's it going, Tony? It feels like we are speed
running the entire Indiana football season this week. This is
the what fifth game? Well, I watched the Illinois game earlier,
so this is I think the fifth Indiana game I've
watched in its entirety. And it feels like generally when
we get to this point with like a deep dive
(00:31):
on one of these upcoming teams, it's just kind of
like you get to game four, game five, and you're
just kind of confirming your priors, and I just kind
of feel like I'm just kind of going, uh huh
uh huh uh huh uh huh. And this one was
fun because the first thing they showed on the broadcast
was making his first career start for Wisconsin at quarterback,
and I, oh boy, here we go, and yeah, pretty much, yeah,
(00:53):
how much.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
That Although that quarterback that you mentioned, Carter Smith, this
was probably perhaps maybe the first college football game ever
with two Carter Smith's. So you say that's not exciting.
I say, that's maybe the most exciting thing that happened
in this game. So we are here to recap and
discuss what we learned from watching Indiana's thirty one seven
(01:17):
win over Wisconsin, which was a ten to seven game
at the half, to give you an idea of how
things went very difficult going for the Indiana run game
in this one, which Wisconsin is one of the better
run defenses nationally, so that's something interesting because Ohio State
also one of the better run defenses going nationally. In
(01:39):
this game, Roman Hemby and Kaylon Black, their top two
running backs, combined for seventy yards on twenty carries. Black
was held at twelve yards on six carries and Roman
Henby was fifty eight yards on fourteen carries. And to me, Tom,
let's go ahead and start with the Indiana running game
because this is again more confirmation of what seen where
(02:02):
the long long run of the day was eight yards
by Hemby. You saw more from a rechert freshman Kobe
Martin in this game, but he generally does not play
in the tougher game, so I don't know if we
should expect him. I think he's more explosive than the
other two guys at times, but nothing that I saw
from the running game today in this game again makes
(02:22):
me think that Ohio State is in trouble. They's certainly
good and respectable, but it's not like you're looking at
this going how are you going to stop all of
these guys? Because I think there's they're limited in what
they can do.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, and I think this is I mean, you probably
remember the Wisconsin game, dear viewer and listener, that Wisconsin's
run defense is really good. In Wisconsin's past defense is
kind of booty cheeks, and that was exactly what this
game was. Wisconsin held Indiana to two point two yards
per rush and then pankdown for Nanda Mendozo went twenty
two for twenty four four and ninety nine yard yards
(03:00):
and four touchdowns. And really the only thing that worked
at all for Wisconsin in terms of past defense was
they got to him and sacked him five times. And
that's you know, that's a little bit of a concern
to me. And you know, we'll get to the offensive
line in a minute. But yeah, the running game was
really pretty uninspiring here. But it was also it was
(03:20):
kind of a game where they it felt like they
weren't particularly worried about trying to run it. It was
just kind of like, well, we probably probably won't be
able to run it, but we'll be able to throw
it just fines We're just going to throw it when
we need to throw it. And it was just kind
of which which guy would you like to have beat
you this time? Like they they could get cute with
it where they had a backup tight end whose name
(03:41):
we have absolutely have not said on any of these
shows yet. Noahkowski four catches for sixty five yards in
a touchdown. Why were they getting cute with it? Well,
he was a Wisconsin transfer, so like, all right, well
we're going to get you some we're gonna get your
thirty seven yard er, we're going to get your touchdown.
Like sure, absolutely, why not? Like they could they could
just kind of do whatever they wanted to do, mostly
(04:01):
with Wisconsin when they wanted to do it. It was
very similar to the Ohio State game against Wisconsin, where
they didn't run the ball incredibly well, they ran it.
Ohio State ran it a lot better than Indiana did,
I would say, but this was one where even you know,
it's ten seven at halftime and you're still you're not thinking,
oh boy, they are really in trouble. It was like Wisconsin.
(04:22):
Everything Wisconsin did that was positive was kind of like, well,
they came up with a really clever play design, and
now you've burned that one, so that one won't work again.
The touchdown was a play action to tight end on
fourth and one, and you know, it was like a spectacular,
cataclysmic bust in the secondary. But it's like, well, they're
(04:43):
not going to fall for that again. So you know,
it never felt like Indiana was in any meaningful danger.
But it was also it was not an overwhelming performance
by Indiana by any means.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
No, And you mentioned Fernanda Mendoza twenty two twenty five
war for two hundred ninety nine yards, four touchdowns, five sacks.
One of those two incompletions went off the hands of
his receiver, to give you an idea of how accurate
he was on a day they were without Elijah Surat.
So again entered Charlie Becker, who went for one hundred
and eight yards on five catches. He was the guy
(05:17):
who went for over one hundred yards against Penn State
after really not doing anything prior to that. And it's
just to me he Becker, Sarat and Omar Cooper have
provided have all stepped up at different times and been
a one hundred yard guy or a game winner. So
(05:39):
I do think this is the i'll say second best
wide receiver group in the Big Ten, and I think
I'll stand by that. I think when you're gonna take
Jeremiah Smith and Carnel Taint, but Indiana's not a far
drop from that. I do think they're better than Oregon
(06:00):
and so this is going to be a legit matchup
for Ice Day, especially with with Fernando Mendoza. But the
Wisconsin pass rush and Daryl Peterson was a big part
of that defensive end edge rusher. They were getting to
him and they were ruining the RPOs in different ways,
and the RPO is a big part of this offense.
So interesting to see that Wisconsin can be so effective
(06:23):
and sack him five times and disrupt him and take
some plays away. Lots to like their fuer Ohio state.
In terms of okay, I can see some avenues here,
and I guess if you wanted to go ahead and
just take it from here and talk about some of
the guys that keep popping up on the offensive line
when you're looking, well, where are these issues at? There
(06:46):
are a couple of places.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, I have to disagree with here. I would never
end a sense with the preposition like that. However, I
would say that, yeah, it is. It's the same issues.
It's bray Lane seventy four the right guard, it's Khalil
Benson sixty seven, the right tackle. It's just like Benson
head on the first drive. It was like history's most
(07:08):
of the obvious hold in the world that goes uncolled,
like right in front of the officials, right by where
the ball is. Like, I have no idea how they
missed that one give up a sack on what I
guess was Jake but thought it was like just a miscommunication,
like he passed off a guy. But it was just
kind of like, all right, you got it. Oh there's
no one there, Well, all right, and now down goes
for Ananda Mendoza. There were there was a third and
(07:32):
short where they got stuffed and that was on bray
bray Wyatt, the right guard. It was it's just it's
just not it's not great. It was bray Lynch. Sorry,
bray Wyatt is absolutely not an Indiana football player. I'm like,
that's not right. They had Helln Wyatt who's on defense,
(07:53):
and they have Bray Lynch who's on offense. Bray Wyatt
is not a football player anyway, Moving on, Yeah, it
was it's just the same stuff. It's you know, this
is like a confirming your priors thing. And I have
a friend of mine from years back who went to
Indiana and for years, like he would say, I'm the
(08:13):
only person who would text him about I ve football
because like during the Bill Lyncher, I'm like, man, you
guys almost had it, and it was you know, I'd
be like, none of his Indiana people would ever text him.
I was always text texting about Indian football. I just
texted him and said, like, if I was to tell
you there's one or two offensive lineman that I'm kind
of looking at and going like, yeah, so I'm gonna
(08:35):
I'll be interested to see what he says. I just
shot him a text while I was rewatching this game.
But yeah, I think I think that might be a
concern for Indiana. And the problem they have is if
you can't run the ball, that kind of takes away
the RPO, and the RPO is such an important part
of their offense. And then I start to worry and
(08:56):
the stat that they put on the screen, Holy Moses
Tony for an end Mendoza. This was entering the game
Permando Mendoza at home, which is basically against all the
bad teams. Seventy seven percent completion, twenty one passing, touchdowns,
one interception, and that those numbers probably went up slightly.
He's probably about after this Wisconsin Hume, but eighty percent
completions and twenty five touchdowns in one interception. On the
(09:18):
road sixty three percent, five touchdowns, four interceptions. And that's
Oregon and Penn State and Iowa. And I just I
look at those numbers and I go, which side of
that ledger does Ohio State fall more closely on? And
I think it's not the one where it's twenty five
touchdowns and one pick.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah. I'm looking at his season stats now with his
splits seven home games, five road games, and those seven
home games he's stron for seventeen hundred and seventy four yards,
and the five road games he's strown for nine hundred
and eighty four yards, not quite, not quite half, or
more than a little bit more than half. Despite the
a similar number of games and home games, he's completing
(10:03):
seventy nine point two percent of his passes road neutral
site sixty one point seven, so you've got a seventeen
and a half point drop from home to road. His
yards for attempt dropped from ten point three to eight
point two. As you said, twenty five touchdowns, one interception
at home seven touchdowns, four interceptions and five road games.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And the last one. The reason those numbers are different
is because they just played Perdue, which is not amazing
at football this year.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So yeah, so little pats stat padding there for Mendoze.
But I do think the offensive line, the right side,
love side, seems pretty good so far, and you can
include Coogan in there as the center. Defensively, we saw
another big game from defensive fen Stephen Day, who at
(10:54):
this point this was one of his He's in a
streak right now of like three out of four tackles
for loss per game, and he's leading the Big ten.
I assume he's leading. I haven't checked the leaderboard, but
he's got like eighteen and a half tackles for loss,
most of them coming in the last month since he
stepped in for Kellen Wyatt and as he got injured
(11:16):
in the middle of the season. He's done very well
did well in this one again against Wisconsin. I don't know,
this is I don't know how much you take from
a Wisconsin offense and trying to apply it to an
Ohio State offense. When you're watching Wisconsin on third and
eight run read option with the quarterback and him keeping
(11:39):
it and you're seeing Elijah Harder Hardy miss a tackle
on that, there's you're seeing. It's just like watching some
of the linebackers try to, you know, run around and
try to handle this little this just readoption stuff that
they're not necessarily going to see on Saturday. But did
(11:59):
you what are some of your takeaways from the defense
against an offense that is nothing like Ohio States.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, this is one where a lot like the Iowa game,
I kind of went, well, I'm mostly looking at Indiana's
offense against a pretty good defense because you know what
Wisconsin is doing with a true freshman quarterback making his
first start, and Vinnie Anthony's pretty okay as a wide receiver,
and everyone else is kind of like, eh, I don't
think there's a ton to take away. I did think
(12:29):
it was, you know, sort of worth noting that Wisconsin
had a really good first drive and wasted it with
a miss field goal, and then on the second drive,
Vinnie Anthony, they threw a screen to him and it
looked like it might be set up to go for
a long way and he just didn't catch it. So
you know, there were certainly some missed opportunities there, but
it was really like almost all of my notes are
(12:49):
on are on the on the offense for Indiana. It just,
you know, it feels like I look at this team
and I go the Indiana defense, good defensive front, great linebackers,
really no complaints with either of those two levels, and
the secondary didn't really get tested. Like this is the
only thing I'm really interested in watching, Like I feel
(13:10):
like I know what we've got with the Indiana you know,
defensive front, the Indiana linebackers. At this point, I really
would love to see them play another good passing offense,
which great news is gonna happen on Saturday, and we'll
find out, you know, we will find we will find
out if our priors are confirmed or not on a
couple of the spots in the Indiana secondary. But honestly,
I just I just kind of looked at this game
(13:31):
and let yeah, you know, can we go back to
talking about their wide receivers because I would like to
talk more about Charlie Becker and Omar Cooper and I
mean elijahs. Surrot is the name that you hear, and
Elijah Surrot hasn't really jumped off the screen in any
of these games in the way that Charlie Becker has
in the last couple against Penn State and against against Wisconsin.
(13:54):
And you know, Omar Cooper had a big game or two.
But they've got They've had four different wide receivers with
multiple one hundred yard games this year. That's you know,
that's depth that is going to be that is this
is the first team, I think all season that is
really legitimately going to challenge Ohio States secondary. All right,
let's see what you got because you feel like you
(14:14):
know what Ohio State's got in the secondary. But you know,
if it's Elijah Surat and Omar Cooper and uh, you
know e J. Williams was right, e J. Williams is
that the the the Yeah. E J. Williams was the
he was the one who kind of limped off and
I think he missed the Purdue game. So you know,
but if it's Becker and it's Elijah Sarat and it's
(14:34):
Omar Cooper. Those are three really good wide receivers and
three wide receivers that can attack you in different ways
where you know, Cooper is kind of more like the
slot guy and more like the Brandon Innis and you know,
you a lot of a lot of sort of volume,
catches close to the line of scrimmage and can maybe
make you miss and turn that into something bigger. Sarat
is kind of their back shoulder guy, and Becker is
(14:57):
the is the deep threat. He's the one where you
see them just take, you know, try and take the
top off the defense a couple times a game. To him,
that is as complete a wide receiver unit as we've
seen Ohio State play all season. So that to me
is assuming Mendoza has time, that's going to be maybe
one of the most interesting matchups I think anywhere on
(15:18):
the field on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And it's not just two guys like you said. They
can rotate them in and they'll find ways to get
guys the ball. They'll find matchups, and they've got a
quarterback that can throw it to them accurately, and he's
good downfield. He's good with the deep ball. So it's
gonna be the best test for the Ohio State secondary
that we've seen this year by far. And you can
(15:43):
throw in Texas in there, it's like, no, I think
it's much better than Texas, especially this late into the season.
So a huge, huge test for everybody in I think
it's I can't wait to watch it because it's going
to be both sides of the ball. It's going to
be tests outside and seeing who can stand up and
who can hold up, and who can get away with
(16:06):
the most penalties because there will be there will be
a lot of grabbing in this game and fighting and
pushing off. There will be some opis that do not
get called. Don't be shocked when there are opis that
do get called. You got some physical guys and then
you know, don't get caught deep. Get your safeties back,
(16:27):
and be careful with every single wide receiver that plays
the steps on the field in this game. Be careful
because any of them can go and you know that
could That could be the difference in the game because
at some point a home run it's it's not free points,
but it's like free points. Because you expect this to
be a difficult path to the end zone. So if
(16:51):
you can hit one, it's that's that's a little bit
of insurance right there, or even more, you know, better
than that. So I do expect to see some donfield
shots taken in this game. No reason not to like
swing for the fences. I'm not saying all game long,
but at least every inning.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, these are two teams that we've seen kind of
struggle to run the ball in short yardage at times
like it feels like that's you know, ohios to U
saw Ohio State trying to punch it in against Michigan,
and this is a better defensive line than Michigan has,
and Ohio State was not able to just sort of
man ball it in from the one yard line or
the two yard line. And we've seen Indiana struggle in
(17:29):
third and one and fourth and one kind of situations
a bunch in these games. So it may be a
how do you avoid having red zone is struggles? Well,
you just throw it over the red zone and directly
into the end zone. That's that's certainly one way to
attack that. So yeah, I and frankly I think this
is not going to be a super super high scoring game.
This is not this is not a game that's going
(17:50):
to be played in the forties. This is a game
that might be played in the twenties or prop you know,
perhaps low thirties. I don't I don't think this is
you know, I think this is a game where you
hit a big touchdown or two. That could be the
game like that, that could be the difference hit, you know,
finding Charlie Becker deep or finding Carnell Tape deep, whichever
it is. You know, whichever of these teams can do that,
(18:13):
I think is going to be the one that wins it.
And you know, you can look at the wide receivers
and then you kind of look at the safeties and
it's like I think, I think Ohio State has better
wide receivers, but it's a lot closer than you would
think with basically any other You actually have to kind
of think about it a little bit in this game,
and I think Ohio State probably has better safeties and
so that, and you know, Ohio State probably has better corners. Again,
(18:35):
these are all these are all relatively close. But I
think you're kind of going around the field and maybe
we do a Tale of the Tape show at some point,
But I kind of look at that and it's kind
of like, yeah, I like Ohio State guys a little better.
It just it feels like it's not, you know, this
is this is not a game where Ohio State it's
going to beat them by thirty five points, I don't think.
But it's it's a game where a field like Ohio
State has a bunch of kind of small advantages that
(18:58):
could you know that Ohio States right side of the
offensive line issues feel like they've maybe resolved themselves a
little better than Indiana's had. You look at the early
season games and you're thinking the same thing about the
right side of the offensive line, and then Ohio State
seems like maybe they've sort of shored that up a
little bit. And I don't know that I feel the
same way about Indiana.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
In terms of I guess a few last points from
me back defensively, and this is something that we've seen
before previous games where the opponent is just not good
enough to take advantage of a break. And you mentioned
Vinnie Anthony dropping a tunnel screen that would have gone
maybe the distance flat drops it not unlike Jeremiah Smith's
(19:41):
first ever target last year as a true freshman, and
those are things that you wouldn't expect Ohio State to do.
And we talked about this in the either the Iowa
or the Oregon game, where probably the Iowa game just
not good enough to take advantage of the holes that
are presented. Then I think oh of State should be
(20:02):
you wouldn't expect a drop on something like that. And
I still think Aiden Fisher at times has trouble getting
out running the entire length to the sideline and making
the play. He's great between the hashes, I think, but
there are times where he can't get all the way
out there and you can turn the corner on him.
And then also after two games of watching Isaiah Jones
(20:24):
linebacker Isaiah Jones wreck things, didn't really see much from
him in this one, and they were playing some nickel
as well. Strangely you're playing nickel against Wisconsin. You know,
who would expect that. But I was like, oh, I
was hoping to see more from Isaiah Jones, and you know,
he had a few tackles, but nothing that really stood out.
But again I agree with you, not great short yardage
(20:48):
situations for the offense, for the for the Indiana offense,
and I think that's basically basically what I've gotten this
one and the.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Only other thing I think we just need to mention,
and this is very much confirming our priors. Niko Radicich,
the placekicker, made his only field goal. He has not
missed a field goal all season long, so you know
that that and him kicking indoors in you know, on
an obviously dry field in Indianapolis with no wind, you
would sort of assume he's whatever. Whenever they line up
(21:21):
for something else, unless Ohio State blocked that, you you
have to sort of just put the three points on
the board. I think McCarthy the punter four punts for
an average average of thirty four point three? Was it
because they were punting from like super duper plus territory?
Sure wasn't. No touchbacks, no twenty, nothing inside the twenty.
Just not great. And that's you know, in a game
(21:43):
like this where it's just this is this is potentially
going to be a sort of fine margin game. And
you know, if Ohio State's slightly better in a bunch
of different spots and Indiana it can't steal points with
you know, the who is the punt for Alabama and
the Sugar Bowl Scott Scott JK. Scott like, you can't
(22:05):
have the JK. Scott like, just here's fifteen yards of
field position on every exchange of punts kind of game.
That's you know, that would be very helpful for Indiana
and they their punter has just not been great this
season and this was this was a perfectly find it.
This was the same day as the OSU UCLA game,
so I think they said the weather is in the
high sixties or something in sunny and not super you know,
(22:27):
it was windy, but it wasn't that windy, and so yeah,
it was just it just it feels like there's shit,
a bunch of little stuff. And I'm sure Indiana people
are like, you're saying everyone's things like no, We're like,
we're stipulating you are one of the top two teams
in the country. Absolutely we are looking at you and going, okay,
like assume that everyone is good. Where are the possible
(22:49):
concerns Like that's that's kind of what we're looking at
at this point, and that's why the conversation is the
way it is.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And with those short punts, I wouldn't expect too much
from Ohio State's punt return game with Brandon Ennis, because
coverage is gonna be right there because they don't have
far to run. That's one of the reasons why Ohio
State is so good at it as well. So that
will do it. If you want to hit the thumbs up.
If you're watching on YouTube, we would appreciate that. Hit
the bell to be notified subscribed to the channel. As
you know, we've got a game to cover. It's gonna
(23:16):
be a bunch of videos as we break it all
down here at the Bucky Weekly Podcast Time with Buckeye
tomorrow morning talk with Ross Fulton, talking with the coaches
and players and getting all of those those clips put
up and getting you to better understand exactly what you're
gonna see on Saturday night. And of course we are
talking about this at the Buckeye have had a message
board presented by Jeff Ruby's Columba Salo to us over there.
(23:38):
Sign up, I'd love to talk to you. Thank you
all for tuning in, and we'll talk to you all later.
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