Peach Bowl Recap – Indiana Embarrassed Oregon 56-22 and Will Play The Miami Hurricanes for The National Championship
For the 100th Indiana blog I've written in a row, I can once again honestly say, "I can't believe what I just watched."
No matter how much better Indiana constantly looks than the other best teams in college football. Despite them never giving me any reason whatsoever to doubt them. As a fan who's used to casually cheering for 6 wins and a bowl game, I go into every big Indiana game with a nagging worry that they're going to suddenly turn back into a pumpkin. But this year, it just never happens.
Indiana could not have possibly started out any hotter tonight. Well... that's not quite true. They could have forced a fumble on the kick return for a scoop n' score TD. But short of that, when you kickoff the ball to start the game, it's hard to get in the end zone any quicker than the Hoosiers did tonight. D'Angelo Ponds pick 6. Right off the bat.
But that was nothing. Even for Oregon. Oregon got the ball right back and responded with a long, time consuming, near-perfect touchdown drive. They moved the ball on Indiana in a way I haven't seen anybody move the ball since well before the Ohio State game.
We had a real football game on our hands there for a minute. Oregon came to play. But as Fernando Mendoza always does whenever his opponent captures a sliver of momentum, he marched right back down the field with a perfect touchdown drive of his own.
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We saw some damn good offense in the first quarter. On both sides. For the first time in forever it looked like Indiana might have themselves a fun, back-and-forth, high-scoring football game.
Even Oregon's defense even started causing problems. They had Fernando Mendoza bobbling footballs for his life out there.
But right when you thought Oregon's offense was about to get settled in, and that spotting Indiana 7 points was all they'd have to overcome, Dante Moore blessed the Hoosiers with the most gift wrapped fumble you will ever see.
That fumble is at least 90% on the running back right? Dante Moore has to immediately look left and throw. That's nearly unavoidable from his standpoint.
From there… floodgates. Biblical floodgates. Floodgates the likes of which I haven't seen since Bishop Sycamore made a fake high school and took on IMG Academy.
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Charlie Becker continues to be unbelievable. Who'd have guessed Elijah Sarratt getting injured in the regular season would unlock an equally dangerous weapon. I don't have any stats to back this up. But when your track star deep threat is a white guy, it gives him an extra half step. It just doesn't compute in any athletes brain that the white boy is going to be the one to take you over the top. They call that "sneaky speed".
And shoutout Daniel Ndukwe. When Indiana's All-American edge rusher Stephen Daley went out for the season with a fucking post-game celebration ankle injury after beating Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship, someone was going to have to step up. Daley's absence has been noticeable. Even vs Alabama, Indiana wasn't getting the QB the way in quite the same way they had been. They weren't getting to the QB to start this game either. Dante Moore had time in the pocket. Oregon was getting 5 yards a carry. But boy did that change in a hurry. Dante Moore was seeing ghosts.
Not to mention Mario Landino looked like the best defensive lineman in football tonight.
Curt Cignetti was feeling so cocky he started calling screen passes to his #1 cornerback. Elijah Sarratt played out of his damn mind all game long. The Mendoza to Sarratt back shoulder throw has proved to be nearly unstoppable. At least for Oregon. Indiana killed them with that play in their first matchup as well.
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Yet still… watching that game as a Hoosiers fan… even though they've given me absolutely zero reason whatsoever to think they're going to ever take their foot off the gas and blow a big lead… I was still nervous going into the second half. I still get scared that the superior 4 and 5 star athletes are going to suddenly realize their potential and start looking like they're playing against a bunch of 2 and 3 starts.
But when Mendoza ran the ball 15 yards up the gut and fumbled directly into his Rose Bowl MVP Pat Coogan's hands…
That's when I took a deep breath. The football gods remain with the Hoosiers. Even their special teams got involved. Just as a fun little treat to give the fans a little more to cheer about.
All in front of a crowd that looked to be conservatively 90% Hoosiers fans, Indiana went "belt to ass", as way too many people say nowadays.
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The only bad things that happened in the second half was yet another Indiana defensive lineman, Mikail Kamara, went out with an ankle injury. Please be ok for Miami, Mikail…
And unfortunately Indiana won so handily that Fernando Mendoza didn't even get a chance to hang an impressive stat line. 5 TD's are impressive and all. I guess throwing for more TD's than incompletions two playoff games in a row is pretty cool. But he didn't even have to eclipse 200 yards. Nobody on Indiana really "popped off" stats-wise. It was just a perfect collective team effort from start to finish. Everybody on offense got involved.
What a game. Beginning to end. Not even a contest. Hard to believe Indiana is so dominant that they've got me almost feeling bad for the Oregon Ducks… almost.
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What a season for the Hoosiers. When they beat Ohio State, at the time, I thought that was going to be good enough. I figured no matter what happened after that, I'd be satisfied, because Indiana proved they could go toe-to-toe with the best. But they're so close now. As I type this, with the 4th quarter coming to a close, Indiana is currently -310 to win the national championship on the Draft Kings Sportsbook. Just one more win to go. Just one more win over Miami, in Miami, and Indiana completes what might be the greatest story in sports history.
Go Hoosiers. Bring on Danny Boy Cane.