“My job is to make them the best they can be”: Indiana football continues to find a way to win, blowing out Michigan State 47-10

#13 Indiana football was put to the test once again, facing Big Ten conference rival Michigan State on the road Saturday afternoon.

Indiana entered the game not having a scoring deficit at any point of the season. This streak changed early on in the game, as Michigan State put up 10 points in the first quarter.

Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti reacted to this incredible streak coming to a close. 

“I knew at some point we’d be behind and I knew we’d be fine. So now we’ve been behind and we responded. 

Indiana’s response was a good one. The team scored 47 unanswered points after being shutout in the first quarter.

The team did all of this despite starting an injured Kurtis Rourke.

Even with a thumb injury, Rourke went out on the field with a glove over his throwing hand, anticipating to continue to guide his team. 

Cignetti explained his reasoning for starting Rourke while he wasn’t fully healthy.

“I decided at some point just to believe in our team, right, which is what you got to do as a head coach and a leader. You just got to believe in your team, attack, attack, attack, and they’ll feed off that, and I thought he played great.”

Cignetti’s critical thinking as a coach continued to work successfully, as an injured Rourke dominated against Michigan State.

Rourke completed 19 of 29 pass attempts, throwing for 263 passing yards and four touchdowns. 

Rourke continued to make his offense look good, completing passes to seven different pass catchers throughout the game.

Playing through an injury is tough for any player, but Rourke made it look easy. The veteran quarterback commented on how it felt to play with the injury.

“I had some things that minimized the pain at the start of the game. It was definitely a little bit sore with every throw, but something that I knew was going to come and I wanted to play through because you don’t get a chance to play football a lot.”

Aside from the strong performance from Rourke and the offense, Indiana’s defense was another huge factor in the game.

Michigan State’s offense entered the weekend averaging 187.5 rushing yards per game across their last two games. Even with Michigan State having an explosive offense, Indiana’s defense never failed to respond throughout the entire game. 

After Indiana fell behind 10-0, Indiana’s defense had to make adjustments quickly to adapt to Michigan State’s offense.

Indiana defensive lineman James Carpenter explained what the switch in the playbook looked like for Indiana.

“We had to keep better leverage. As the game went on, we did better in the screen game. They had a couple big ones on us at first, but we got a better feel for it.”

Carpenter and the Indiana defensive line clearly made the correct defensive adjustments early on, as Indiana shutout Michigan State for the last three quarters of the game.

Indiana’s defense recorded 15 tackles for a loss along with seven sacks against Michigan State’s offense.

Cignetti heavily praised the defense for their destruction of Michigan State’s offense.

“Really impressive. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen those numbers on a team… great credit to our defensive players staff.”

While reflecting on the game as a whole, coach Cignetti showed that his mentality as a coach has fully rubbed off onto his players.

“They continue to play very consistently, never perfect, and they’re never satisfied.”

Indiana’s 9-0 record marks a new historic record for the program, as the best start to a season in program history.

The team will look to add another win next weekend, hosting the Michigan Wolverines, a 3:30 PM ET kickoff. 

SEE ALSO: Key takeaways from the IU basketball 106-64 exhibition win over Marian

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