#28 Excel H Sports Ranked Indiana Bowls over Northwestern to remain unbeaten 

    The #28 Excel H Sports Ranked Indiana Hoosiers are 6-0 for the first time since 1967 and became the first team in the FBS to become Bowl Eligible with a 41-24 win over the Northwestern Wildcats Saturday afternoon on Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium in Evanston, IL. Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti is 6-0 as the Hoosier Head Coach and 20-1 in his last 21 games as Head Coach with a 14-1 record in his last 15 games at James Madison before coming to Indiana.

   Indiana will be headed to their 14th bowl game in program history and Cignetti will be the 7th different Head Coach to lead Indiana to a bowl game. The Hoosiers still have six regular season games left and are 3-0 in the Big Ten. Indiana will be off next Saturday before hosting the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2 weeks for Homecoming.  The Hoosiers finished with 529 yards of offense and it’s the third straight game the Hoosiers have finished with over 500 yards and the fourth game this season went they went over 700 against Western Illinois. The Hoosiers have won every game by double digits and have scored over 40 points in five of their six games with 31 in the season opener against Florida international and have scored 285 points on the season averaging 47.5 per game

   Kurtis Rourke 25-33 passing for 380 yards and 3 touchdown passes. Justice Ellison had 14 carries for 69 yards and a touchdown Ty Son Lawton had 10 carries for 52 yards and a touchdown as Indiana ran the ball 35 times for 149 yards. Elijah Sarratt had 7 catches for 135 yards as Ke’Shawn Williams, Zach Horton and Miles Cross all caught a touchdown pass. The Hoosiers never trailed and led 17-10 at halftime. Northwestern tied the game 7-7 8:48 left in the second quarter and the Hoosiers scored when Miles Cross caught a 7-yard pass in the back of the end zone to make 14-7 Indiana with 4:28 left in the second quarter. Northwestern cut to 27-24 with 11:19 left in the game but the Hoosiers scored two touchdowns to put the game away.

  Northwestern is 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten. The Wildcats who have struggled on offense finished with 336 yards of offense but could not hold the high scoring Hoosier offense. Jack Lausch finished 23-38 for 243 yards and 2 touchdown passes. The Wildcats running attack finished with 93 yards on 22 carries with a Cam Porter touchdown run. Bryce Kirtz had 10 receptions for 128 yards and A.J. Henning had 2 touchdown receptions with 6 catches for 67 yards.

  Jack Olson had a field goal for the Wildcats and Nicolas Radicic had 2 field goals for the Hoosiers. The teams combined for 6 penalties for 42 yards and neither team committed a turnover. Indiana controlled the ball for 32 minutes and 9 seconds while the Wildcats had the ball for 27:51. Indiana had 27 first downs to 17 for Northwestern. The Hoosiers defense continues to impress giving 89 points in six games and giving up 14.8 points per game.

   Curt Cignetti will go into the bye week and have two weeks to prepare for Nebraska on homecoming. The buzz surrounding the Hoosiers continues to grow and no question that Memorial Stadium should be sold out with Dylan Raiola and Nebraska in town 2 weeks from now. The Hoosiers have checked one box of the list in early October and that is Bowl Eligibility but there is a lot more goals that the Hoosiers have in front of them.