To put it rather bluntly, the Indiana Hoosiers are rolling on offense right now. They have scored 56, 73, and 63 points in their last three contests. The Iowa Hawkeyes have the chance to stifle this unit this Saturday inside what figures to be a hostile and raucous Kinnick Stadium.
What makes Indiana so tough to defend is how their offensive success can come from all over the field. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza is completing 76.8% of his passes for 975 yards and 14 touchdowns and has yet to toss an interception.
On the ground, Indiana has four running backs with at least 200 yards on the ground, and each of those backs averages 5.3 or more yards per carry.
Iowa is embracing the challenge, though, and Kirk Ferentz elaborated on how to slow down their potent attack.
“Where do you want to start? It’s hard to find a weakness. It really is. I’m not saying it’s like playing Ohio State, but there’s some similarities in my mind if you look at their offense. They have a big, physical offensive line, a couple newcomers there that have helped them. Right tackle, center, I’ll start right there. I think the other three guys were there last year, although I think one of them was a transfer as well, maybe, a year ago. But they’re a big, physical offensive line, two tight ends that are very effective and the one guy made the big play the other night with the long touchdown. Then those three receivers as a group — they’re all really good individually, but as a group, it kind of takes you back to Ohio State, where pick your poison. They had two first-rounders and another guy is pretty good.
“You’ve got that, and then in the backfield they have two really good running backs right now, and then the quarterback might be the best quarterback in the country. Somebody was saying he’s the leader for the Heisman. I don’t have a Heisman vote,…
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