SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY OF THE GAME
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Indiana quarterback Jack Tuttle, a player who looked at UW coming out of high school before signing with Utah and subsequently joining the Hoosiers, made his first college start Saturday.
His final numbers weren't spectacular: 13 of 22 for 130 yards and two touchdowns.
Yet the redshirt sophomore appeared poised from the start, had just one mistake when he lost a fumble on a third-down sneak and most important took advantage of the Hoosiers two trips into the red zone.
The first trip ended with Tuttle finding tight end Peyton Hendershot for a 1-yard touchdown in the second quarter to cap a 53-yard drive and help the Hoosiers take a 7-0 lead.
The second trip ended with Tuttle hitting Whop Philyor for a 7-yard score in the corner of the end zone to help Hoosiers take a 14-3 lead with 11:03 left in the third quarter.
That play, capping a seven-play, 75yard drive to open the third quarter, gave Indiana a lead that turned out to be insurmountable.
OFFENSIVE PLAY OF THE GAME
Indiana's lead was just 7-3 early in the third quarter when the Hoosiers generated their biggest offensive play of the game.
One play after UW linebacker Jack Sanborn was called for roughing the passer to give the Hoosiers a first down at their 44, Tuttle dropped back and looked deep down the right sideline for Fryfogle. Cornerback Caesar Williams appeared to be in good position, toward the UW sideline. The throw was on the inside, however, and Fryfogle won the 50-50 ball to give the Hoosiers a first down at the UW 21.
That was the lone catch of the game for Fryfogle, who came in with 33 catches for 652 yards and seven touchdowns, but it turned out to be critical.
Tuttle found Philyor for the touchdown five plays later, on third and goal, and the Hoosiers had a double-digit lead.
DEFENSIVE PLAY OF THE GAME
The Hoosiers entered the day leading the Big Ten in takeaways (18, including 16 interceptions) and sacks (20). They got their first takeaway, which set up their first score, thanks to a sack/forced fumble by defensive back Tiawan Allen.
Allen blitzed off the right side of the UW formation and came in clean, in part because right tackle Tyler Beach and right guard Logan Bruss both blocked the end. Quarterback Graham Mertz said he anticipated the blitz was coming based on UW's formation and what the Hoosiers had shown on film.
“I thought we'd pick it up,” he said.
Jack Tuttle passes the ball as Wisconsin's Isaiahh Loudermilk closes in Saturday.
With Beach and Bruss blocking the same defender, Allen came in and applied a jarring hit to knock the ball loose. Linebacker James Miller recovered the ball at the Hoosiers' 47 with 51 seconds left in the first quarter. The Hoosiers turned that mistake into a 7-0 lead by driving 53 yards in 12 plays, with Tuttle hitting Hendershot for the 1-yard score.
That score gave the Hoosiers 65 points off 19 takeaways this season.
Indiana's Haydon Whitehead punted five times Saturday and averaged a respectable 40.2 yards.
The more important number is that he placed four of his punts inside the UW 20 and his last punt of the first half was the best effort, downed at the 1. UW trailed, 7-3, and had 1 minute 20 seconds to try to move the ball into scoring position but pinned at the 1 the staff played it cautiously. Mertz sneaked for 1 yard on first down. Then after Indiana called its final timeout of the half, fullback John Chenal gained 3 yards to the 5. Mertz then knelt down on third and 6 and time expired.
INSIDE THE HUDDLE
When UW had the ball, Mertz spent much of the game heading to his sideline to get the calls face-to-face. The reason? Indiana was calling out UW's calls after seeing the play signaled in from the sideline. “We had a couple different calls where we got our signal in and you heard, ‘outside zone,'” Mertz said. “When that happens, you've got to play the game. It's a chess match. You've got to go the sideline. Obviously, it's different but it had to be done tonight.”
UW opened the game with cornerback
Donte Burton matched up against Fryfogle, Indiana's best receiver. The first throw to Fryfogle was an incompletion and on the second Burton was called for interference. UW switched up after that and put Williams on Fryfogle.
With Stephan Bracey out, Devin Chandler handled kickoff returns. Chandler averaged 19 yards on two returns. UW's special teams committed three penalties in the opening half, two on the kickoff-return unit and one on the kickoff-coverage unit. Brutal.