Some questions for this morning, as everyone in Bloomington, In., searches for the breath they ran out of last evening …
* Is Paddy McAteer the new Keith Smart?
* Will your Indiana Hoosiers score more than two touchdowns against Bye next week?
* Did someone mistakenly leave an extra numeral off the “4” in the Hoosiers’ ranking?
And the most intriguing question of all …
* Did the Bucket game just get a lot more interesting?
I say the last because the Minnesota team Indiana needed a 60-yard field goal and overtime to escape yesterday is the same Minnesota team Purdue trucked 41-13 less than a month ago. Yeah, the Boilermakers lost 31-17 at Penn State yesterday, but they’re obviously a much better football team than the tarpaper shack they’ve been the last couple of years.
During which they lost to Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers 66-0 and 56-3. I’m guessing it won’t be quite the same annihilation this time around.
Because, yes, this is not the same Purdue team, but it’s not the same Indiana team, either. Fernando Mendoza is no longer there to save every day with a surgical strike to Elijah Sarratt or Omar Cooper Jr.; yesterday it was backup quarterback Grant Wilson who had to do that.
Wilson came on at halftime to relieve Josh Hoover, who as knocked out of the game after taking a brutal shot to his already-injured throwing arm. So when the Golden Gophers cashed a long field goal with 19 seconds to play, it was Wilson who trotted out to pull off a miracle.
Be honest now. Is there anyone out there, no matter how much cream and crimson was pumping through their veins, who didn’t think the Hoosiers were finished?
Well, they WEREN’T.
Because here came Wilson, immediately winging a 31-yard strike to Charlie Becker. Then he escaped a collapsing pocket to find Nick Marsh. And when the drive stalled, here came McAteer to do his Keith Smart thing.
Not with a baseline jumper, though. Oh, hell, no.
This time Indiana was 60 yards away and done like disco. Except McAteer stepped up and blasted the football straight down the pipe as time expired to force overtime.
After which (of course!) Wilson immediately threw a touchdown pass to Becker. And the Indiana D sacked the Minnesota quarterback on fourth-and-goal from the 4 to end it.
Indiana 23, Minnesota 16. And another round of last gasp-ing from what’s apparently God’s favorite football team these days, Notre Dame notwithstanding.
Cignetti joked that his Hoosiers were just trying to be entertaining, seeing how it was Homecoming and all, but he surely knows this team isn’t championship material. They’ll likely move up to third after USC clotheslined No. 2 Ohio State last night, but objectively that’s a good deal more lofty address than they should be occupying.
However …
Now they’ve got a bye week to heal up. And to refocus. And it couldn’t come at a better time.
Because you know who the Hoosiers get in two weeks?
The same USC team that beat Ohio State last night.
In other words: Buckle up.
