Why Indiana football lost to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff

SOUTH BEND – The clock struck midnight for IU football in South Bend on Friday night.

The No. 8 Hoosiers’ (11-2) storybook season ended with a 27-17 loss to No. 5 Notre Dame (12-1) in the first round of the College Football Playoff. The Irish will advance to the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day to face No. 2 Georgia.

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Indiana had critical mishaps in all three phases, starting early and becoming more apparent as the game progressed. The lopsided loss will do little to appease the crowd that was wondering whether or not IU even belonged in the 12-team field.

The Hoosiers were looking for their first win over Notre Dame since 1950 and their first win in South Bend since 1898.

Early in the third quarter, IU had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but fell behind after two sacks. On Notre Dame’s ensuing drive, the defense missed a crucial chance to get off the field when sixth-grader James Carpenter was called for a personal foul on a potential third-down stop.

This was the closest IU came to a comeback with significant playing time. They added two touchdowns in the final two minutes, separated by an onside kick. By the final period they had less than 200 yards of total offense.

The Hoosiers went into halftime down 17-3 after failing to score a touchdown in the first half for the first time this season.

While Indiana’s defense managed to get a few stops, Notre Dame was 7 of 13 in the third and doubled IU’s time of possession for much of the game thanks to a series of missed calls and failed tackles by the Hoosiers.

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IU’s offense ends the season with a whimper against Notre Dame

Indiana put up some of the best offensive numbers in program history during coach Curt Cignetti’s first season as coach, but the fireworks were canceled Friday night.

In the first half, IU’s offense regularly found itself on third-and-long, averaging 8.9 yards from goal, and these obvious passing situations allowed Notre Dame to put pressure on quarterback Kurtis Rourke and keep him in the pocket to make uncomfortable.

Rourke started the game just 1 of 6 and one of those incompletions was a freak interception. He finished the game 20 of 33 for 215 yards and two touchdowns, both coming in the final 90 seconds.

Indiana’s best possession was a 12-play, 52-yard drive just before halftime that ended with a 34-yard field goal by Nicolas Radicic. Cignetti thought about going for it on fourth-and-4 at the Notre Dame 16-yard line, but opted for the field goal after a timeout.

It wasn’t the only time Cignetti was a little more conservative than in the regular season. Although neither situation was favorable for IU, Cignetti chose to throw the ball near midfield twice.

On its first punt, IU scored on a 4th-and-8 from Notre Dame’s 37-yard line midway through the first quarter.

Indiana remained out of sync after halftime. The offensive line allowed two sacks on the first drive of the third quarter in the shadow of its own goal line. As Rourke made a crucial drive later in the quarter, he overthrew a wide-open Miles Cross on a play that would have resulted in a score if the pass had been accurate.

Cignetti had no choice but to punt at his own 32-yard line with 2:48 left in the quarter, trailing 20-3, even though Notre Dame had nearly seven minutes left on its previous drive.

IU football digs deep hole with “shaky start” in CFP first round

Indiana was almost automatically in the red zone until Friday night this season.

The Hoosiers appeared poised to strike first – the defense gave them a short field by blocking Riley Leonard’s first pass attempt – when Kurtis Rourke threw a ball past Ke’Shawn Williams inside the Notre Dame 5-yard line and the Irish safety Xavier Watts made a diving jump with 11:11 left in the first quarter and it was still an interception.

It was a rare mistake for Rourke, who hadn’t thrown an interception in the red zone this season and only had two in his career. The turnover came immediately after Rourke converted a 3rd-and-13 with a precision throw down the sideline to Elijah Sarratt.

Indiana’s offense scored points on 62 of its 66 drives inside the 20-yard line during the regular season and scored touchdowns on 54 of those red zone attempts. The offense ranked first in the FBS with a touchdown scoring percentage of 81.8%.

The Hoosiers’ top run defense also suffered a major disappointment, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.

Jeremiyah Love took a carry from his own end zone after Rourke’s interception for a 98-yard touchdown run, giving Notre Dame a 7-0 run with 10:57 left. He defeated nearly every IU defender in a sideline race and reached speeds of over 21 miles per hour, according to Reel Analytics.

The only Hoosier who came close to making a play was D’Angelo Ponds, but he collided with a teammate and that slight delay gave Love an insurmountable lead. It was the second-longest touchdown run in FBS postseason history (including bowl games) behind Oregon State’s 99-yard run against Villanova in the 1992 Liberty Bowl.

During a brief interview between quarters, Cignetti said someone wasn’t in the right spot while lamenting his team’s “shaky start.”

Indiana’s third-best rushing defense didn’t settle down until late in the first half. The Hoosiers’ worst performance against the run this season came when they gave up 137 yards on the ground against Charlotte. They had only given up seven runs of 20 yards or more all season.

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