Indiana Football Manhandles Nebraska 56-7, Improves to 7-0

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – No matter who played quarterback, No. 16 Indiana had its way with a Nebraska defense that entered Saturday’s game ranked seventh nationally with just 11.3 points allowed per game. 

The Hoosiers exploded for 495 yards of total offense on their way to a 56-7 win over the Cornhuskers on a picture-perfect fall day at a sold-out Memorial Stadium. That ties the largest margin of victory in a Big Ten game in program history, along with its 49-0 win over Minnesota on Nov. 10, 1945.

With several pregame TV shows in town and a national broadcast on FOX, the game carried more pregame hype than any since at least the 2021 game against Cincinnati and perhaps  for decades. Indiana lived up to its billing. 

The Hoosiers intercepted Nebraska’s highly touted freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola three times, and they held the Cornhuskers to 2.4 yards per carry on 29 attempts. Before leaving the game with an injury, Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke was near-perfect. So was his replacement, Tayven Jackson.

With this win, Indiana improves to 7-0, its best start since 1967. The Hoosiers remain tied for first place in the Big Ten standings. 

“I know there was a national perception that Nebraska had a pretty legit defense on a national scale,” Cignetti said. “So that will open their eyes, okay. I think this is a great team win.”

Nebraska was widely viewed as the best opponent with the strongest defense that Indiana had faced so far, ranking seventh nationally with 83.8 rushing yards allowed per game. Which team controlled the line of scrimmage would go a long way in deciding the outcome. 

Indiana had the advantage on both sides, sacking Raiola twice, along with two quarterback hurries and seven tackles for loss. Rourke was sacked just once and had zero quarterback hurries, and Indiana ran the ball with ease throughout Saturday’s game, averaging 6.5 yards per carry on 33 attempts for 215 yards.

“The o-line, we came in thinking that the holes were gonna be very tight due to their good d-line, and those were probably the widest holes we’ve seen all season,” Indiana running back Ty Son Lawton said. “So shoutout to the o-line.”

Rourke said after Indiana’s win at Northwestern on Oct. 5 that he wanted to get off to stronger starts in future games. He threw two interceptions on Indiana’s first two drives against Maryland and failed to score through two drives against Northwestern. That point of emphasis over the bye week was quickly resolved.

On the Hoosiers’ first drive, they reached Nebraska territory on an outside pitch to running back Justice Ellison on 3rd and 1, who made a cut up the middle for a 43-yard gain. Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan came out aggressive, and the sold-out Memorial Stadium crowd loved it. 

Facing 4th and 1, Rourke remained poised in the pocket and completed a pass to Miles Cross over the middle for nine yards and a first down. Ellison finished off the drive with a five-yard rushing touchdown, giving the Hoosiers an early 7-0 advantage. Rourke went 6-for-6 passing on the first possession.

Nebraska kick returner Jacory Barney Jr. made a costly mistake on the ensuing kickoff, catching the ball at the one-yard line and stepping out of bounds. Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola converted a 3rd-and-8 pass to get Nebraska out of its own end zone, but Indiana linebacker Jailin Walker pressured him on the following third down to force a Nebraska punt.

The Hoosiers stayed aggressive on their second possession. They went for it on 4th and 2 from the Nebraska 26-yard line instead of attempting a 43-yard field goal with Nico Radicic, who hasn’t missed a field goal or extra point all season – but that would have been his longest attempt of the season. This time, though, Indiana’s gamble backfired, as Rourke was sacked for a nine-yard loss. 

Nebraska steadily worked its way down the field, with seven positive gains but none for more than 10 yards. Coach Matt Rhule matched Indiana’s aggressiveness by going for it on 4th and 1 at the Hoosiers’ 12-yard line. Running back Dante Dowdell appeared to convert the first down, but Walker flew in and forced a fumble. Indiana’s Jacob Mangum-Farrar pounced on the loose ball, halting Nebraska’s once-promising drive and flipping possession just before the conclusion of the first quarter.

Walker left the Northwestern game with an injury, but on Saturday he recorded six tackles, one tackle for loss, a quarterback hurry and a forced fumble. He said the bye week helped him return to action on Saturday.

“Coming from a kid from Virginia, we just ball with toughness,” Walker said. “That’s like how I was raised. I was raised from a great mom and dad, and they just built the toughness in me since I was a little kid. When I went down in the Northwestern game, I knew the team needed me so I gotta hurry up and get treatment and be back.”

Following the turnover, Rourke displayed impressive precision and timing with completions of 28 and 36 yards to Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr, respectively, down the left and right sidelines. Nebraska played tight coverage on both, but Rourke put the ball right where it needed to be. On the next play, he swung a screen pass out to Myles Price, who beat the Nebraska defense for a seven-yard touchdown, giving the Hoosiers a 14-0 lead.

Nebraska put points on the board the following possession, as Raiola led a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. His completions of 25 and 19 yards set up Barney’s seven-yard touchdown run.

But Nebraska simply had no answer for Indiana’s offense all game long. Ellison and Lawton gashed what had been a strong Cornhuskers run defense entering the game for gains of 12 and 14 yards. Rourke spread the ball around with chunk plays to Sarratt and Williams. Lawton finished off the well-rounded drive with a one-yard rushing touchdown with 3:48 left in the half.

After the touchdown, the FOX broadcast showed an Indiana staff member holding a towel wrapped around Rourke’s right hand. On a 12-yard completion to E.J. Williams Jr. with 6:13 in the second quarter, Rourke’s right hand appeared to collide with Nebraska defensive lineman James Williams’ hand when following through on the pass..

“He hit this thumb on, I believe, a helmet and a nail kind of came off. So we’ll know more tomorrow, but optimistic,” Cignetti said postgame.

After a Nebraska three and out, Rourke stayed in the game, scrambling for six yards and completing an eight-yard pass to Price. But Indiana’s run game, again, shredded Nebraska’s defensive front. Lawton ran the ball for 29 yards, and Ellison burst through the line of scrimmage for a 31-yard touchdown run.

Nebraska went three and out for a second straight drive, and Rourke remained Indiana’s quarterback for its last chance to score before halftime. He completed two passes, but threw his third interception of the season on a Hail Mary pass that flew short of the goal line and was picked off by Nebraska’s Malcolm Hartzog as time expired.

Indiana took a 28-7 lead into halftime, and Nebraska threatened to make it a two-score game on the first possession of the third quarter. The Cornhuskers drove 14 plays into the red zone, but Raiola threw an interception to Indiana safety Shawn Asbury II at the three-yard line, who returned it 78 yards to the Nebraska 19-yard line.

“Shawn Asbury's play was probably the big play in the game,” Cignetti said. “There were a lot of big plays in that game, but that was a real momentum-turning play.”

That was perhaps the game’s biggest swing, as Miles Cross scored a two-yard touchdown three plays later to give Indiana a 35-7 lead with 6:27 left in the third quarter. That touchdown came on a pass from Indiana backup quarterback Tayven Jackson, who replaced Rourke for the entire second half.

Rourke finished the game having completed 17 of 21 passes for 189 yards, one touchdown and one interception. 

“I thought he played really well,” Cignetti said. “Made plays. Ran a little bit, too. The wideouts made some catches. He threw some nice balls on those back shoulders, and those wideouts made some real nice catches.”

One may have thought that Rourke’s injury would put Indiana’s lead at jeopardy, as Rourke entered the game with the nation’s third-best quarterback rating, per ESPN. But with Jackson under center, Indiana’s offense didn’t skip a beat.

On the first play of Jackson’s second drive, he completed a 35-yard pass to Lawton. With soft touch, Jackson lofted the ball perfectly to Sarratt in the corner of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown. That put the Hoosiers ahead, 42-7 with 1:50 left in the third quarter. 

Its back against the wall, Nebraska went for it on 4th and 7, but Raiola’s pass flew incomplete. Indiana took advantage of the positive field possession – and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Rhule – and scored five plays later. This time, it was Kaelon Black’s turn in the running back rotation, and he scored a 10-yard rushing touchdown to give the Hoosiers a 49-7 lead.

Raiola drove the Cornhuskers deep into the Hoosiers’ territory again, but Indiana defensive lineman Mikail Kamara sacked him for a nine-yard loss on 4th and 6 from the Indiana six-yard line with 10:34 to play.

Indiana was forced to punt on the next possession, but it got the ball right back as freshman linebacker Rolijah Hardy came down with Raiola’s third interception of the game. 

“They threw the ball a lot more than they had,” Cignetti said. “Then they got behind, they had to throw the ball more. So he's under pressure. Then he's in some tough down and distance situations. Maybe he's forcing the ball. He's young. Very talented guy, but he's young. We made some nice plays out there.”

Indiana extended its lead to 56-7 shortly after, thanks to a one-yard score from running back Elijah Green. 

Jackson finished the game completing 7 of 8 passes for 91 yards, two touchdowns and zero turnovers. He also picked up 21 yards on two carries. 

“Still has to practice better. It's hard to be the second-string quarterback, because you don't get many reps,” Cignetti said. “We put a lot of new stuff in in the pass game week to week. You look at the variables in terms of their coverages and defenses, right. But I thought he went in there and did a good job. I had confidence. Team had confidence. I was proud of him.”

Nine Hoosiers caught at least one pass, led by Cross with seven receptions for 65 yards and a touchdown. Four running backs contributed, and Ellison finished with a team-high nine carries for 105 yards.

The final minutes were a formality, and afterward the Hoosiers celebrated with a crowd that has generated newfound excitement around the football program.

“There's a lot of excitement in a lot of places, which is awesome,’’ Cignetti said. “I could tell they were really loud. We did have some people leave, which I understand, as the game waned on. We had a pretty big lead. Always on Scott [Dolson] and his crew about in-game entertainment, music selection in the second half. Keep winning, people are going to come. I felt confident it could happen here like that, too, because I'd done it at one other place that was very similar to this going in.”

Next up, Indiana hosts Washington on Saturday at Noon ET at Memorial Stadium. The Huskies reached the national championship game last season under former Indiana offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer and former Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr., but their 2024 roster and coaching staff are far different. 

Washington’s new head coach is Jedd Fisch, who went 10-3 at Arizona last season. The Huskies are 4-3 and most recently lost 40-16 at Iowa. They have a bye week to prepare for the Hoosiers.

Success comes with attention, but Cignetti refuses to allow that to negatively affect his team – even in the closing minutes of a 49-point win.

“I'm not going to let them get complacent, or the coaches either,” Cignetti said. “I was a maniac in the fourth quarter of this game, a maniac.”