Indiana football goes Turbo-mode for rewarding report card at Rutgers
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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football passed its first road test with flying colors on Saturday night.
The No. 5 Hoosiers beat Rutgers 47-15, putting up a season-high 593 total yards thanks to a dominant rushing attack. Turbo Richard ran for a career-high 204 yards and Lee Beebe Jr. had 122 after both spent much of the week on IU's injury report.
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Here's a report card for the Hoosiers (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) win.
IU offense not quite flawless at Rutgers
OFFENSE: A
Is it fair to nitpick IU's red-zone performance? The Hoosiers just haven't run the ball well inside the 10-yard line this season, and those struggles cost them some points.
But outside of that? Pretty flawless.
Josh Hoover had his best game for Indiana, going 20 for 27 for 251 yards with four touchdowns. He completed his first 10 passes, and ripped apart a Rutgers team playing in soft coverage. After missing deep on a series of throws last week, Hoover found Charlie Becker for a 48-yard gain coming out of halftime that should ease any concerns about IU's deep passing attack.
Indiana running backs Richard and Beebe showed no signs of the injuries they were dealing with this week. Richard had more yards at halftime (150) than the Scarlet Knights (118), with two runs of 40-plus yards.
Strong effort from IU defense
DEFENSE: A
Indiana's suffocating defense helped clear out SHI Stadium by the second half.
On homecoming, Rutgers fans started heading for the exits after its offense went three-and-out, turnover on downs, turnover on downs, and three-and-out during an ugly stretch in the second quarter. The second of those turnover on downs came with IU stuffing a quarterback sneak with multiple defenders bursting through the line to make the play.
The Hoosiers allowed some long gains through the air in garbage time, but those didn't spoil what was otherwise a strong effort from the defense.
Nico Radicic struggles gives IU pause, for now
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
Indiana's specialists didn't have the cleanest of performances.
Nico Radicic missed the first extra-point attempt of his career — ending his streak of 169 consecutive extra points, the second-longest in Big Ten history — and a 22-yard field-goal attempt. It was only his third career missed field goal (33 of 36) and first inside of 30 yards.
Becker still seems to be getting comfortable in his newfound role returning punts for the Hoosiers. He fielded a dangerous punt inside his own 15-yard line that he should have let bounce into the end zone for the touchback.
Turbo Richard was dominant at Rutgers
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Turbo Richard
Hoover and Marsh had a case, but what Richard did was pretty remarkable. He put up a career-high 204 yards (15.7 yards per carry) a week removed from hobbling off the field against Northwestern without putting weight on his right foot. He raced into the secondary multiple times without even being touched and tied the career-high he set earlier this season with six runs of 10 or more yards in a single game.
Richard has now topped 100 yards in three of his last four games and would have had four in a row if not for last week's injury.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana football goes Turbo-mode for rewarding report card at Rutgers
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