Hoosiers leaning on defense heading into Big Ten opener
Indiana junior defensive back A’Shon Riggins sees steady improvement from his unit.
“Each week our defense has been executing our plays more and communicating more,” Riggins said. “We play with a lot of effort. We play hard.”
Heading into the Saturday night’s game against No. 24 Michigan State (1-1) at Bloomington, IU coach Tom Allen said the Hoosiers (3-0) are getting closer to making the game-changing defensive plays he is seeking.
The Hoosiers had seven tackles for loss in a 38-10 rout over Ball State.
“I like to get eight, kind of my goal for a game, eight-plus,” Allen said. “Three sacks is our goal. Three takeaways is our goal. Didn’t get that. That’s disappointing. Dropped one pick, I thought was a makeable catch. I thought it could have been a pick-6.
“We know it’s a big part of creating momentum in games, field position, all those things, helps to set up your offense,” Allen added. “But we’re getting there. I just think we have to create a lot of things pressure-wise, which is what we do.
“We’ve done it ever since I’ve been here. We got to continue to do that.”
Indiana has used 33 defenders and ranks first in the Big Ten in pass defense (135.3, eighth nationally), second in passing efficiency (102.5, 22nd), tied for fourth in takeaways (5), and fifth in scoring (17.3, T-33rd) and total defense (322.7, 37th).
The Hoosiers are third in the Big Ten in turnover margin (plus 0.67 average).
The Hoosiers are seventh in opponents’ first downs, allowing 18.3 per game.
“I thought as I looked at the game kind of unfolding, we’re not doing a great job on first downs early in the half,” Allen said. “By the second half, we started doing a better job of getting some third-and-longs, could do some things we want to be able to do. Put pressure, covering. That created some of those sacks.
“To me it’s just a matter of continuing to grow and develop our defense, develop our depth, our offense, allow us to finish what we want to finish.”
