Indiana Hoosiers Fall To Ball State Cardinals On Last-Second Kick

With their best player, quarterback Tre Roberson, out for the whole season, it was evident that this year was going to be a long one for the Indiana Hoosiers football team. They showed that Saturday night when they lost to the Ball State Cardinals 41-39 after of a last-second field goal.

Cardinals quarterback Keith Wenning moved the ball down 44 yards to set up a game-winning drive, in which kicker Steven Schott put IU’s hopes in the bag as they improved to 2-1, dropping IU to 2-1. It was the third straight victory for Ball State against Indiana, further fueling the rivalry.

This was the first of the past three games in which the Hoosiers visited, but it improves the Cardinals’ 3-49 all-time record against BCS-conference schools, in which all of the victories have sadly came against IU.

The game was a shootout for the most part, with both sides holding their ground. Ball State broke out to a quick 14-3 lead, thanks to two touchdowns by Wenning in the first quarter. However, IU would start bouncing back, starting off with a 13-yard run to the end zone by running back Stephen Houston.

Wide receiver Kofi Hughes would then give the Hoosiers the lead thanks to a nine-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cameron Coffman. Coffman played well overall, going 24-of-35 for 251 yards with two touchdowns, but eventually fell to an injury.

After that, the Cardinals came back and took a 38-25 lead in the third quarter. Third-stringer Nate Sudfield then brought IU back into the game with a 70-yard touchdown to Cody Latimer for the score. They would return with another touchdown by Shane Wynn to reclaim the lead at 39-38.

After that, it was the Cardinals’ game to win and they took advantage of it. The secondary messed up big in the game and it’s becoming more and more clear that head coach Kevin Wilson‘s seat as being the head coach is getting really hot. It’s obvious that Indiana isn’t going to get that far this year, with 3-9 being a likely record.

IU can just hope for the best, but finishing out games like this isn’t the way to go. Facing Northwestern next week, it doesn’t seem like the Hoosiers can really stand a chance all that much. They can make it close, but that’s it.

This is what your season is probably going to look like now, Hoosiers fans. Get ready for it.

/sighs

Josh Dhani is a Featured Columnist for Rant Sports. You can also see him at his website, FootBasket. You can read more about him here. Follow him on Twitter @JoshDhani.