For real

 Listen to the narrative one last time, before it fades to a whisper and then the memory of a whisper. Listen to it riding out from the Pacific Northwest, out from an unfathomable scoreboard and a stadium awash in yellow and green, out and out until it's gone.

What were the naysayers naysaying about Indiana football, before Indiana 30, Oregon 20?

Overrated.

Fraud.

Never beaten anyone who's actually good.

Travesty of the century, making the playoffs last year.

And this morning, of course, this one, as surely as night follows day:

Gee. Obviously Oregon wasn't as all that as we thought.

Because you know it's coming. Because even as Indiana continues to kick it to shards, the narrative is Indiana football simply can't be THAT good, not really, because it's INDIANA FOOTBALL. It's all a trick of the light, smoke and mirrors, a bunch of wins over Who's That State, Nobody Tech and the Big Ten's table scraps.

Well. What can the naysayers naysay now, after 30-20 in Autzen Stadium?

What can they say after the Hoosiers destroyed a ranked Illinois team, 63-10, and won out in Iowa City, and took down third-ranked Oregon with an attack dog defense and just enough offense to get the job done?

They can say, yes, that obviously Oregon wasn't as all that as everyone thought.

Except the Ducks marched into Happy Valley and took down then-No. 3 Penn State before Penn State had begun to unravel.

Except they hadn't lost in Autzen since 2022, the year Dan Lanning arrived as head coach.

Except everyone was looking at quarterback Dante Moore and his guys as 1A to Ohio State's 1 in the Big Mathematically Challenged, and that if Indiana presented a challenge surely the Hoosiers weren't going to be that much of a challenge.

Because when you win 18 straight home games, and you've got Dante Moore going for you, that's how you're gonna think.

But then here came that Indiana D, a couple thousand pounds of bad attitude and grievance, intercepting Moore twice and sacking him six times and making eight tackler for loss. And here came Moore's counterpart, Fernando Mendoza, throwing for 215 yards and a score. And here came Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr., who made 15 catches between them for 179 yards and a six, and Roman Hemby, who bulled and quicked his way to 70 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.

Want to hear something crazy?

If Mendoza doesn't hang the ball and throw a pick six in the second half, Oregon finds the end zone just one time, on a busted-coverage throw from Moore to Malik Benson. It gets outscored 17-3 in the second half. It scrapes out just 13 points all day.

Thirteen points. At home. From a team that came in averaging 47 points per.

Conclusion: Yes, Indiana is for real -- really for real -- and the unglamorous past is the unglamorous past. And the narrative that attended that past?

Can barely hear it anymore.