‘They didn’t flinch’: Mentality of young Indiana football secondary showed major growth throughout Louisville matchup

The game plan was simple for the Indiana football defense on Saturday against Louisville — limit the explosive plays. The Cardinals came into the matchup with one of the most explosive offensive units in the country, both in the passing and running game.

It was less than halfway through the first quarter when Louisville opened up its passing attack, striking for a 43-yarder to speedster wideout Jamari Thrash deep into Indiana territory. It was only six minutes later when Louisville hit deep again to Thrash for an 85-yarder, this time for an untouched touchdown.

It was quickly 14-0 before Indiana could even get its footing defensively and eventually 21-0 heading into the half.

Louisville’s offensive drives in the first half were; 10 plays for 71 yards, two plays for 85 yards, 13 plays for 78 yards and then seven plays for 68 yards.

“You’ve got two young players that had bad eyes,” Indiana head coach Tom Allen said. “And so you think about Jamari (Sharpe), very talented player, but that was really his first — a game I would say of that magnitude where you’ve got two teams that are very, very equal and we’re trying to have — every play is going to be a variable in the outcome of the game. So I think it’s important to be able to have those experiences. You don’t want them to have a negative like that and give up such a huge play but he’s going to learn a very valuable lesson from that. In our coverage he was the high defender, so he should not be triggering on the run, and he did. So he bit on the run because of poor eyes.

“And same with Philip (Dunnam), getting his eyes off his man on that particular call and giving up a double move. And so but once again, Philip, he’s played more football for us than Jamari has but still he’s young, and so those are critical opportunities to learn from.”

Louisville quarterback Jake Plummer had six of his eight first-half completions go at least 13 yards. He would have 202 passing yards in the first half.

“You’ve got to flush it and press on and have a really bad memory in playing the secondary at this level,” Allen said. “They are going to make some plays. But we knew we couldn’t give up explosive pass plays … an 85-yard touchdown which is a killer. You can’t do that. You have to make them earn that and we did not.”

‘Flush it’ was exactly what the young Indiana secondary did coming out of halftime, however.

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It was an entirely different script in the second half. Louisville would go on to total just 102 yards after halftime, and just 36 passing yards.

“I think as a defensive staff we did make some adjustments but our guys settled in to the rhythm of play and corrected some things that we didn’t execute very well in the first half,” Indiana co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri said. “We played more aggressive, we played more like what we have played like. We have to come out of the gate that way. You can’t dig a hole like that — you’ve seen what we are able to do at our best, but it wasn’t our best in the first half.”

It was just two passes into the second half when the Indiana football defense came away with a takeaway. It was an interception on third down by Phillip Dunnam on the Indiana three yard line.

“It starts with mentality with me … it’s a fighter mentality and taking pride in the fight in every single rep no matter what the situation is. So that’s first. Our guys responded from that standpoint,” Guerrieri added. “Our guys believe in what we’re doing and believe in each other and when you have belief and a fighting mentality, it always gives you a chance. We can’t dig the hole like we did, but I was happy with the way we did respond. We have to start better and finish better.”

Plummer would have just five completions in the second half. Only one was of 13 yards or more — and it was exactly that, 13 yards. Two of his completions were to a running back out of the backfield. Deep threat Jamari Thrash did not get a reception after halftime.

While there were mistakes, the mistakes are very correctable, and — more importantly — by one individual, not a systematic mistake.

“The only way defense functions well is if everyone is doing their one eleventh. If you have one individual breakdown you have a breakdown for the total unit,” Guerrieri said. “The breakdown you saw, the explosive plays, it’s a breakdown of one piece of that at times. You can’t play great defense like that. Everyone has to be able to do their job. The effort was there, but the execution has to be better.

“It’s not wholesale structural issues, it’s a player here or there.”

Indiana football held Louisville to just 4.0 yards per play in the second half, compared to 9.4 in the first half. It also cut the Cardinals’ third down conversion rate from 80 percent in the first half to just 43 percent after halftime.

“There was mistakes, there was a big explosive play that was in there, but they didn’t flinch. So it goes back to mentality, they’re young guys so it’s my job first to get them ready so the stakes don’t happen,” Guerrieri said. “But I am pleased with them from a mentality standpoint of responding, taking the coaching, applying that so that’s a positive sign.”

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