63-10?

Wow. I don't know where Cig finds these guys, as we all knew about Mendoza, (and he was MUCH better than at Cal!) but the players on defense, in particular pass-rushing was just jaw-dropping to me. If anyone coaches offensive linemen well, it is Coach Bret Bielema, and his team got tore up yesterday with a ton of sacks....like I can hardly believe.

The skill players at Indiana just zipped past Illinois, and the precision of their passing game was impressive. Between the JMU transfers, and all the transfers that came in after last football season....Cig has a very smart, old team made primarily up of seniors.

This has become a very tough game in nearly three weeks, but we can worry about after next Saturday. I just thought I'd give the warning after a 63-10 destruction of No. 9 Illinois by Indiana yesterday.

Wowsa.

P.S. You cannot see it on mobile, but on laptop and especially on desktop...you can see a wonderful picture in the background of No. 2 Gary Bryant scoring his touchdown. It is very hard to find the right photos that fit, as you'll note the football is on the same level as his face....which never happens, and is perfect. His positioning is to the right, thus the ad won't pop up in the middle of his face. (at least on my desktop)

And the photo by Scott Kelley is looking upward with the celebrating crowd behind, and not at eye-level which has cement wall background, the sideline, etc. And to add to it--we have had massive issues with the new platform uploading photos, and I think we have a band-aid on it for now.

Fun stuff, that makes it special.

I read somewhere that by game’s end Illinois had lost a total of six of their ten DB’s to injury.

Week 7? Hoosiers could be a hard Cig to stamp out in Autzen.

The B1G headliner this week is OBD at Penn State. (DUH 😜) However, Indiana's first road game of the season at Iowa could be interesting. The Iowa D looked bad in the 1st half at Rutgers, but Phil Parker's D shut down the Rutgers O in the 2nd half.

I was surprised by the score vs. Illinois, but not the manner in which the Hoosiers played. Cig did a great job of improving where Indiana most needed improvement, both LOS. Mendoza is a step up from Kurtis Rourke. And Indiana looks faster and quicker than last season.

Google Cig, he wins! 😁

Illinois is not a top 10 team, but Indiana truly embarrassed them. Indiana believes they belong in the CFP picture, and I won’t argue.

Their QB was 21/23 passing, and they rushed for over 300 yards. They also had 7 sacks. Nobody beats a team with those stats.

Home field advantage at Autzen is the real deal, and our defense will be challenged. 10/11 will be a can’t miss game.

38 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

P.S. You cannot see it on mobile, but on laptop and especially on desktop...you can see a wonderful picture in the background of No. 2 Gary Bryant scoring his touchdown. It is very hard to find the right photos that fit, as you'll note the football is on the same level as his face....which never happens, and is perfect. His positioning is to the right, thus the ad won't pop up in the middle of his face. (at least on my desktop)

On mobile I just have a picture of a defeated Beaver.

Indiana wiped the floor with Illinois. They also played with great intensity. All those sacks! That's the kind of fire we need to see from the Ducks. So far they haven't played with that kind of intensity against a strong opponent, since they haven't faced one yet this season.

IF the CFP was based on today's AP Top 12, then No. 11 Indiana would be out.

No. 12 Tex Tech would be in as Big12 rep, and No. 27 USF would be in as Non-Power 4 rep. USF would take the No. 12 spot, and Tex Tech would move up to No. 11. At No. 6, Oregon would host Tex Tech.

The 1st-ranked team that Indiana has defeated under coach Cig.

481 yards in the Hoosiers' favor vs. a top 10 team is a CFB record.

Indiana's 63-10 beatdown of a top 10 team is a CFB record.

Are you not entertained? 🤪

Obviously we posted a very similarly lopsided score and beat down on week 2 vs OK St.

But even in those clearly game-controlled contests against MSU and NU and even against the Beavos, we are generally at the spread and don’t wreck folks by 50+. If you look at the Indiana game, and the lines of similarly dominant teams in FBS this isn’t uncommon. While OBD have been dominant thus far, we haven’t “broken their spirits”. Well maybe we did that to Gundy and Co lol.

Why is that? Is it Lanning, who wants us to dominate but also seems to exude a culture of respect and doesn’t need to feel the ego need to go for 2 late in the fourth quarter? Is it that logic prevails, an we want to provide our 2nd/3rd team with valuable reps, and we want to preserve our 1’s from garbage time? Or are we actually trying to break those teams but they were better than that (we couldn’t beat them by 70).

It feels like there may be coaches that are okay wrecking other teams. Cignetti didn’t do it to Old Dominion, but Indiana was mercilous in weeks 2,3 and 4. I’m personally okay with it but it has me super curious. We are only 2-2 against the spread and we were similar last year. I don’t think Lanning cares!

10 minutes ago, SEA Duck said:

We are only 2-2 against the spread and we were similar last year. I don’t think Lanning cares!

First off Lanning doesn't care at all about the spread. He's concerned about winning and ensuring the health of his team for the long run of the season. We have depth and can take some hits, already have taken some hits but can't take needless hits.

Second off... the line for Oregon to beat Oregon State at 34 points was absurd from a betting standpoint. The Ducks got pretty close but a spread like that usually requires running up the score and with Lanning as the head coach that is a tall order to ensure they get those points. The Ducks did it against Ok State because they couldn't stop anything.

Personally I'm just happy to see the Ducks break the 40 point mark this season.

10 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

Lanning doesn't care at all about the spread. He's concerned about winning and ensuring the health of his team for the long run of the season. We have depth and can take some hits, already have taken some hits but can't take needless hits

I think that’s totally right.

Lanning wants to win the game and doesn’t really care about the score. He is wholly unconcerned about the spread - outside noise. He doesn’t care about padding stats either. Jayden Daniels is clearly awesome, but Bo could have had many more TDs / yards if that was a priority for us. Dante only played for a half and a bit for the first three weeks.

He wants to see the perfect game. For him that seems to be defined by depth, perfect execution beyond the 1’s. He knows that snaps at game speed and intensity are so valuable for the non starters.

And he knows the season is a marathon. Not worth over rotating on any game after the outcome is determined. Prepare-Execute-Celebrate-Correct… and then on to the next. Maybe the thumbs up/thumbs down game at Michigan was the only time where we punched in another TD late in the game when we already had the outcome guaranteed. I was surprised at that. I also loved it! 😊

I much prefer coaches to give the backups reps in one-sided games as opposed to running up scores for whatever reason. Game reps are super important for player development and a coach never knows when those backups may have to be thrust into action to (hopefully) keep a team headed toward its seasonal goals.

Indiana is probably pretty good, but I take this as more of a statement about Illinois. Illinois was supposedly good last year and they left zero impression against us as we did our standard 35-3 at the half handling of inferior teams. No legitimate team should get boat raced by a fringe playoff team like they just did.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by JabbaNoBargain

OBD under Lanning tends to play to the opponent's level. I am sure they will step up in the next 2 games. The bye after PSU is perfect before taking on IU. Go Ducks!

1 hour ago, DuckFan93 said:

OBD under Lanning tends to play to the opponent's level. I am sure they will step up in the next 2 games. The bye after PSU is perfect before taking on IU. Go Ducks!

I'll have to politely disagree with Lanning teams playing to the opponent's level. I think they do it less than just about anybody else. Especially Mario Cristobal.

Our schedule difficulty looked pretty easy this year, but it could very well end up being harder than 2024.

Penn State, IU, USC, Iowa and UW will all likely be ranked at the end of the season, with 3 of them in the top 15.

4 minutes ago, Solar said:

Our schedule difficulty looked pretty easy this year, but it could very well end up being harder than 2024.

Penn State, IU, USC, Iowa and UW will all likely be ranked at the end of the season, with 3 of them in the top 15.

With the possible exception of Iowa, I agree.

Indiana at Iowa on Saturday is an under-the-radar B1G game. Unfortunately, the game will be streamed on Peacock.

Saturday Tradition on Indiana's Historic Win -

Saturday Tradition

Indiana puts a historic beatdown on top-10 Illinois team

Indiana absolutely demolished Illinois on Saturday, turning a battle of ranked teams into a historic embarrassment.

21 minutes ago, Solar said:

I'll have to politely disagree with Lanning teams playing to the opponent's level. I think they do it less than just about anybody else. Especially Mario Cristobal.

My memory is short, but didn't we struggle against Idaho and Wisconsin last year? This year so far, I thought we showed some lack of effort in both the NU and OSU games, unless you wanted to call that strategy? On the flip side, we stepped up big time against tOSU last year at home... Anyway, my point is that I am confident that we will put forth our best effort this Saturday and in 2 weeks, especially if IU is in the top-10.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by DuckFan93

One thought about Cignetti is that his turn around for Indiana is so impressive he will be hired elsewhere. But, will he?

He doesn't look it, but he is 64.

Other than Belichick and Herm Edwards, I can't remember a college coach whose first FBS level head job was older. Cignetti was 63 when he was hired by Indiana. Belichick and Edwards had been NFL head coaches.

Current FBS Power 4 conference level coaches

73 – Belichick – N. Carolina

70 – Ferentz – Iowa

65 – Whittingham – Utah

65 – Fritz – Houston

64 – Cignetti – Indiana

63 – Kelly – LSU

63 – Pittman - Arkansas

2 hours ago, DuckFan93 said:

OBD under Lanning tends to play to the opponent's level. I am sure they will step up in the next 2 games. The bye after PSU is perfect before taking on IU. Go Ducks!

I wouldn't say Lanning's teams are playing to the opponent's level. But he tends not to run up the score when the game is in hand. He will throw in back-ups and let them run the offense or run the ball.

The only reason our North Western win looks less good is because the back-ups gave up 14 points. The starters gave up 0 even though NW had some good drives but made some critical mistakes.

Lanning will not leave in the starting QB to run up the score and pad their stats. Gabriel was in the game so much last year because the game needed to be managed till the conclusion. The Oregon offense was good but not great.

This year the game has been put away by the 3rd quarter's conclusion and the 4th is time for the back-ups.

1 minute ago, David Marsh said:

Lanning will not leave in the starting QB to run up the score and pad their stats.

Actually you brought up an interesting observation I had from the Civil War game - why was Dante still playing in Q4 when the score was already 41-7? I nearly cringed on every snap he took...

11 minutes ago, DuckFan93 said:

Actually you brought up an interesting observation I had from the Civil War game - why was Dante still playing in Q4 when the score was already 41-7? I nearly cringed on every snap he took...

I think the coaches wanted him to take one more series. Against North Western I think the coaches looked at the end of that game and realized they took their foot off the gas a little too soon and allowed NW to bloody their nose a bit. Giving the back-ups reps is great but they did embarrass the final score for the Ducks. So Moore's last series may not have put any extra points up on the Beavers but it did eat clock.