A different kind of same-old

 Saturday afternoon, and I'm watching Indiana assume the position for its usual racking from the Ohio State Buckeyes, and ... wait, what?

Is that an IU guy blasting an Ohio State running back into next Wednesday?

Is that another IU guy taking down another Ohio State running back behind the line of scrimmage?

Is that yet another IU guy swatting down a slant pass seemingly destined for six?

"Dang, there's 44 (Aaron Casey) in Ohio State's backfield again!" I'm saying. "He should rent a condo."

Then I'm looking at the score, which says Ohio State 10, Indiana 3 as halftime approaches. Then I'm wondering if that's an actual defense I'm seeing on the Indiana side, because I've never seen one and thus am not quite sure.

Well ... it is. I think. We'll see.

All I know is this was a different Indiana team I was watching yesterday (thanks, transfer portal!), and also the same Indiana team. Which is to say the defense gave Ohio State fits for awhile instead of fits of laughter like usual, but the Hoosiers lost anyway, 23-3.

But at least they lost differently.

Back in the day, see, Indiana could score points in bunches in its good years, but they'd lose anyway because the defense gave up points in bushel baskets. Yesterday all that was reversed.

The Indiana D was aggressive, it stuck people, it was nasty until the Buckeyes wore it down, Casey had a whole season in one day, making nine solo tackles, 11 total and one tackle for loss. The Hoosiers held all-world wideout Marvin Harrison to just two catches for 18 yards, and had five tackles for loss.

The offense, meanwhile ...

Well. The offense looked as if it couldn't have moved the football against thin air.

IU coach Tom Allen started Brendan Sorsby at quarterback, yanked him after two impotent series for Tayven Jackson, and generally gave every evidence that he doesn't really have a starting quarterback. Maybe that's why naming his starter was a gametime decision.

Jackson was marginally better than Sorsby, but only marginally. In the end, the Hoosiers huffed out just eight first downs and 153 total yards, were 4-15 on third down and 0-2 on fourth, and averaged just 2.2 yards on the ground. Simple forward motion ought to get you 2.2 yards a carry, but, nah.

So to sum up: The defense gave the offense a chance for once instead of the other way around. But the offense said (again), nah.

I don't know if this means we'll see the usual Indiana this fall, only wearing its clothes backward. I'm betting yeah, but I was betting Purdue wouldn't give up 39 points to Fresno State yesterday and lose its home opener 39-35. So what do I know.