By Nick Jenkinson-SCINN Sports Director
The #5 Indiana Hoosiers escaped with a 29-23 win over the Northwestern Wildcats Friday Night on a Sold-Out Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. The Hoosiers are 4-0 and 1-0 in the Big Ten and will hit the road for the first time taking on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights Next Saturday Night in Piscataway, New Jersey at 8 PM on the Big Ten Network. Northwestern drops to 2-1 and 0-1 in the Big Ten as the Wildcats will Open the Remodeled Ryan Field next Friday Night hosting Penn State at 8 PM on FOX.
The Hoosiers are 31-2 under Curt Cignetti and 18-1 in the Big Ten Since Cignetti arrived in Bloomington. Indiana becomes the third Big Ten team since 2000 to win 20 straight games joining Ohio State who won 24 straight in 2012-13 and 23 straight in 2014-15. Curt Cignetti is now tied with John Pont for 7th on the all-time wins list at IU. Cignetti sits 2 wins behind James Horne and Tom Allen who have 33 wins and 4 wins behind James Sheldon with 35 wins. Lee Corso is 10 wins ahead of Cignetti with 41. Bo McMillin sits second with 63 wins, and Bill Mallory is the winningest coach in IU Football History with 69 wins. Cignetti has an overall record of 150-37 in 16 seasons as a head coach.
Indiana is now 19-0 all time at home and 10-0 at home in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers extend the Longest Winning Streak in the Nation to 20 games, but this one was not easy. Indiana did not trail for the entire game, but they have a lot to work on as they hit the road for two games before coming home on October 17, to face the Ohio State Buckeyes in what will be the biggest game of the season. Northwestern leads the series 47-37-1 and The Hoosiers have won three in a row, and this was the first matchup between the two teams in Bloomington since 2019. The Hoosiers improved to 10-5 all-time in Friday Night Games.
The Hoosiers got the ball to start the game and struggled to start the game as the Hoosiers had two pre snap penalties called on Center Bray Lynch and Curt Cignetti called a timeout to settle his team down. After the timeout Indiana was able move the ball as Turbo Richard ripped off a 33-yard run to get the Hoosiers to the Wildcats 45-yard line. The Hoosiers continued to move down the field, but Northwestern stopped the Hoosiers on fourth down at the 1-yard line. Northwestern Quarterback Aidan Chiles fumbled the snap in the endzone and Daniel Ndukwe tackled Chiles in the endzone for a safety and a 2-0 lead with 7:20 left in the first quarter. Indiana outgained Northwestern 144-1 in the first quarter as the Hoosiers had 50 passing yards along with 94 rushing yards and 7 first downs. The Wildcats had one-yard rushing yard with zero passing yards and no first downs.
Indiana scored 10 points in the second quarter, and the Hoosier Defense extended its streak to 11 quarters without giving up a touchdown which is the longest single season streak since 2015 when Michigan had 13 quarters of shutout football. Nico Radicic return after missing the last two games with a rib cage injury as he hit a 43-yard field goal to give the Hoosiers a 5-0 lead with 13:06 left in the second quarter. Josh Hoover threw his 11th touchdown pass of the season when he found Nick Marsh on an 8-yard score with 5:04 left in the second quarter to give the Hoosiers a 12-0 lead going into the locker room.
Turbo Richard ran the ball 9 times for 68 yards and was knocked of the game after getting hit out of bounds that was not called. Richard did not return and Lee Beebe Jr. picked up the load and ran the ball 24 times for 209 yards and a touchdown. Indiana outgained Northwestern 243-51 in the first half. Northwestern got on the board with 6:34 left in the third quarter when Chiles found Gavin Wilde on a 4-yard pass to make it 12-7 Indiana. Nico Radicic hit his second field goal of the night from 22 yard with 2:06 left in the third quarter to give the Hoosiers a 15-7 lead heading to the fourth quarter. Through three quarters Indiana outgained Northwestern 320-182.
Northwestern opened the fourth quarter with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Chiles to Wilde for the second time in the game, but the Wildcats could not convert the two-point conversion as the Hoosiers maintained the lead 15-13 with 14:54 left in the fourth quarter. Indiana responded as Lee Beebe Jr. found the endzone on a 4-yard run with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter to make 22-13 Hoosiers. Northwestern scored when Aidan Chiles who escaped the Hoosier Defense all night scored on a 7-yard run to make it 22-20 Hoosiers with 5:10 left in the game. Josh Hoover found the endzone when he called his own number on a 1-yard score with 156 left in the game to make it 29-20 IU.
Northwestern scored on a Jackson Kleather 42-yard field goal with 58 seconds left to make it 29-23 The Wildcats try the onside kick, and Isaiah Jones recovered the ball for the Hoosiers and Indiana ran the clock out and held on the entire game to remain unbeaten on the season. Josh Hoover finished 19-29 passing for 201 yards 1 touchdown and no interceptions Charlie Becker caught 7 passes for 98 yards as the Hoosiers finished with 472 yards of total offense.
Aidan Chiles was 22-29 for 293 yards, and 2 touchdown passes and no interceptions. Indiana held Northwestern to 32 yards rushing on 27 carries as the Wildcats finished with 325 yards of total offense. Luke Dehenicke had 7 catches for 140 yards. 15 NFL Teams had scouts in attendance for this game with the Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets, Denver Broncos, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Commanders, Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Steelers, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills all in Bloomington to watch a Northwestern Team who gave Indiana all they could handle but the Hoosiers managed to respond every time Northwestern scored.
There is a lot of work to do for Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers as they head east to Rutgers Next week. Indiana will get tested after that with a road trip to Nebraska before Ohio State comes to town in three weeks. The Hoosiers are now focused on Rutgers as the next game, and they will continue to focus on the things they need to clean up for another opportunity to go 1-0 next week.