Wright-Baker gets the start, exceeds expectations

There’s no doubt that very few Indiana fans were expecting a loss to begin the 2011 campaign, especially considering how much the Ball State Cardinals have struggled recently. Surely even fewer expected the Hoosiers to be physically dominated. For fans desperately seeking rose-colored glasses though, they need look no further than the play of Edward Wright-Baker.

How he (or Dusty Kiel or Tre Roberson) would fare in leading the offense was one of the biggest questions facing the Hoosiers heading into the season. The Hoosiers have had their share of quarterback battles over the past few years, and whether it was Blake Powers vs. Kellen Lewis or Kellen Lewis vs. Ben Chappell, the offense was always anemic during the quarterback limbo period, gelling only when a winner emerged and began building a rapport with the skill players.

Make no mistake; Ed Wright-Baker didn’t set the world on fire in his first crack at leading the Indiana offense. He missed some reads, gave up on a few plays too early, missed a couple of throws he should have made and looked tentative at times. He also completed 63% of his throws, for 272 yards and a touchdown without a turnover in his first collegiate start. It’s doubtful Dusty Kiel could’ve done better, and it’s not like Ben Chappell is still an option.

Speaking of Chappell, in his first start of his junior year, after starting much of the previous season, he led his offense to 19 points in a nail-biter over Eastern Kentucky, throwing one touchdown and two interceptions in the process. The point I’m trying to make is that Wright-Baker looked better in his first start than just about any Hoosier signal-caller in recent memory and he grew noticeably more comfortable as the game wore on.

He has aspects of his game to work on, but appears to be improving at a steady pace and, for the time being, that’s a huge win for Indiana.

Ground game shows off a new look

The second biggest question mark for the Hoosier offense coming into Saturday’s game was probably the new-look running game. Neither Darius Willis, nor Nick Turner – the Hoosiers’ two most experienced running backs – was mentioned at length in the week leading up to the game. Instead, much of the attention centered around two backs without a single Division I carry – Matt Perez and Stephen Houston.

The on-field product was different from the norm, but not necessarily bad. Perez and Houston obviously don’t possess the speed of Willis or Turner, but the toughness that both backs showed when running the ball was fun to watch. Perez received the starting nod and was a battering ram on the opening drive, while Houston broke through several tackles on his carries.  Neither appears to have much in the way of game breaking speed, but both possess more burst than Trea Burgess did last season as a power back.

In his post game press conference, Kevin Wilson emphasized the importance of controlling the line of scrimmage and having success running the ball. For that reason, it’s easy to see why he likes these guys so much. They combined for 21 carries and 84 yards, without putting the ball on the ground. Neither is a highlight reel back (unless they’re blasting through defenders) but both appeared steady and dependable.

I still think that Darius Willis is the most talented back on this team, and should see plenty of touches once he gets healthy and up to speed, but until he’s ready and Wilson feels comfortable getting him in the game, the Perez and Houston should provide a workmanlike thunder and… more thunder combo.

Porous defense leaves plenty of questions

Two statistics tell the story here: the Cardinals held the ball for 13 minutes longer than IU and more than doubled the Hoosier rushing total. That’s not a misprint. A Ball State team that finished 4-8 last season and were missing their top four rushers from that year absolutely manhandled a Big Ten defense. Senior linebacker and defensive captain Jeff Thomas admitted as much when asked about a miserable team performance after the game.

“They won the battle up front, our defensive line just didn’t get a pass rush… they out-executed us… we’re in good shape but we were fatigued at the end.”

Adam Replogle’s response to a question about the Cardinals’ game-icing drive was perhaps more telling:

“No comment.”

The drive in question lasted 7:18, covered 80 yards and consisted of 15 plays – many of them runs between the tackles that Indiana was powerless to stop. Every defensive player was adamant that Ball State didn’t run anything they hadn’t seen before. That is profoundly troubling.

The Hoosiers failed to penetrate on running plays or passing plays, allowing big run after big run and giving the Cardinals’ Keith Wenning all day in the pocket. It was a defensive performance too poor to even think about sugarcoating; IU let a low level MAC team look like Wisconsin. As bad as the Hoosier defense appeared last year, this group may be worse. Tyler Replogle is gone from last season’s unit and Darius Johnson was inactive against Ball State, but even those two factors fail to fully describe the baffling ineptitude Indiana fans were forced to witness in the season opener.

On the bright side, this unit has literally nowhere to go but up and no one is under the illusion that the defensive effort was anything approaching acceptable.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Thomas, “Starting Monday, we need to work fundamentals and technique. We have 11 weeks of football left to accomplish our goals.”

Here’s hoping they’re up to the task.