Signature not-a-loss

 Indiana football coach Tom Allen is the luckiest man in 12 states. How awesome was his timing Saturday night, when the Hoosiers lost at home to the Akron Zips at the same time everyone in Indiana was watching Ohio State-Notre Dame?

And by that I mean, even a lot of IU fans were watching Ohio State-Notre Dame.

Lucky Tom's Hoosiers therefore saved their most Hoosierific performance in decades when a lot of heads were turned, so good on them. Saved Lucky Tom a ton of heat for losing to a MAC school that opened the season with a loss to Temple and was 2-10 last ye-

I'm sorry, what was that?

Indiana actually won the game in four overtimes, 29-27? 

Yeah, well ... OK. But if it takes you four overtimes to beat Akron at home, is it really a win? Especially when the only reason it wasn't a loss is because Akron, being Akron, missed a gimme field goal on the final play of regulation that would sent the Zips home winners?

Instead the fans in Memorial Stadium had to suffer through even more cruddy football when they'd already seen enough cruddy football for one night.

Numbers, you say?

Well, how about 474 yards, which is what the Zips put up against an Indiana defense that actually looked pretty stout (i.e.: Very un-Indiana-like) in the opener against Ohio State? Or the two turnovers, 2.7 yards per rush and 3-of-14 third down conversions the Hoosiers perpetrated? Or Tayven Jackson, a week after winning the starting job in IU's 21-14 loss to Louisville, completing just 11 of 26 passes for 190 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and an 8.4 QB rating?

Akron, which came in averaging 18.7 points and 315.1 yards per game, exceeded the former by more than eight points and the latter by 159 yards. They held the football for nine more minutes than Indiana.

Lucky Tom, most people were distracted by Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman deciding he only needed 10 players on the field to stop the Buckeyes as time ran out, which of course the Irish didn't. 

But Lucky Tom's luck only went so far, because enough folks were watching his team soil the game of football that IU social media went bonkers (which of course is the natural state of all social media). Incensed fans were demanding Allen be fired, like, yesterday. One even floated the idea of starting a go-fund-me to buy out his contract.

How far we've come from that frigid day in Madison when Indiana beat Wisconsin and Allen's players were hailing him as the best coach in the country. 

After that, see, Allen's Hoosiers went 2-10 and then 4-8, and they're 2-16 in their last 18 Big Ten games. Throw in Saturday's signature not-a-loss, and, well, the bloom is off that rose.

And, no, we're not talking about the rose that blooms in Pasadena on New Year's Day.

As if.