Piscataway, N.J. — It’s 21 straight victories and counting for Indiana.
The No. 6/5 Hoosiers (5-0 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten) beat Rutgers 47-15 Saturday night in a dominating display of offense, defense, and execution.
“I was concerned about this game,” head coach Curt Cignetti told Voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer during the postgame radio show. “I thought Rutgers was a dangerous team offensively. I thought our defense did a really good job. We made a lot of plays on offense and took a step forward. It was a good win.”
Quarterback Josh Hoover was ruthlessly effective, completing 20-of-27 passes for 251 yards and four touchdowns. He’s thrown for 15 touchdowns and no interceptions for the season.
Hoover opened the game with 10 straight completions for 142 yards and a touchdown. That left Rutgers (1-4, 0-2) vulnerable to the run, and the Hoosiers capitalized behind running backs Lee Beebe Jr. and Turbo Richard, who showed no signs of earlier injuries.
A week after Beebe Jr. rushed for 203 yards against Northwestern, Richard had 204 in just 13 carries with a touchdown. Beebe Jr. followed with 122 yards and a touchdown.
How’s this for balance — IU also had a pair of 100-yard receivers (Charlie Becker, eight catches 107 yards, two touchdowns) and Nick Marsh (seven, 120, one) in addition to the running success.
“Turbo had 204 yards,” Cignetti told Fischer. “That’s a nice game right there. Nick started out like a ball of fire. They couldn’t tackle him on those (run-pass options). Then they started changing the coverage and Charlie had a couple of touchdowns.
“Hoover threw four touchdowns. We were pretty balanced. We gained a lot of yards. We left some points out there that bothered me a little bit. We got in the red zone and want to score touchdowns.
“The game didn’t quite finish as clean as I was hoping. They threw one over our heads and, you know, it’s hard, but it’s a good win.”
Defensively, the Hoosiers had eight tackles for loss with four sacks while holding Rutgers to 254 total yards. Indiana had 593 total yards, including 329 on the ground. Overall, the Hoosiers had no turnovers and committed no penalties.
“We treat every matchup like it’s the same,” defensive lineman Kellan Wyatt told Fischer. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we go into the week and prepare the same as if we were playing the No. 1 team in the country.”
IU’s opening drive featured passes of 10 yards to Becker and 25 to Marsh, and then 10-yard runs by Richard and Beebe Jr. to get the Hoosiers close. A 15-yard pass to Marsh was followed by Hoover’s nine-yard touchdown pass to Becker for a 7-0 lead.
On the Hoosiers’ second possession, completions of 27 and 30 yards to Marsh and 14 to Becker got them into the red zone. The drive ended with Nico Radicic’s 39-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Richard had runs of 41 and 23 yards to get IU close to the goal line and set up Hoover’s two-yard touchdown pass to Davion Chandler. Radicic missed his first-ever extra point after making 169 straight for a 16-0 score.
After defensive lineman Tobi Osunsanmi stopped Rutgers’ fourth-and-one gamble, Beebe Jr. ran for nine and 11 yards before Richard ran 14 yards for a touchdown, giving the Hoosiers a 23-0 lead.
A 57-yard Richard run couldn’t produce any points when Radicic missed a 22-yard field goal attempt just before halftime. Hoover was 14-for-17 for 159 yards and two touchdowns. Richard rushed for 148 yards. Beebe Jr. had 54. Receiver Marsh caught five passes for 103 yards.
Hoover opened the third quarter by hitting Becker on passes of 13 and 48 yards before connecting with Marsh for 12 yards and a touchdown for a 30-0 early in the third quarter. Hoover added a three-yard TD pass to Becker. Rutgers followed with a 53-yard touchdown pass, and then a touchdown run and two-point conversion before Beebe Jr.’s one-yard TD run made it 44-15. Radicic added a 48-yard field goal for the final score
Next up — a battle of unbeatens when IU plays at Nebraska (5-0) next Saturday.
“We’ve got to get back real late and get on to Nebraska,” Cignetti told Fischer. “It was a good performance. A lot of guys made a lot of good plays.”
