LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Well, there Indiana goes again. Cupcake City. Blowing the doors off some hapless team from Illinois. 63-10? Who was it this time? Southern Illinois? Illinois State? Illinois Wesleyan? You’d think they would get tired.
What’s that? This just in.
That’s the Illinois flagship the Hoosiers just devoured in front of a Memorial Stadium record crowd of 56,088 in Bloomington. This was no cupcake, it was Champaign (Urbana).
This was No. 9-ranked Illinois, the highest-ranked team the program has had this deep into September since Dick Butkus was playing linebacker in 1960. This is Illinois’ best team in my lifetime, and as the internet reminds me daily, I am not a young guy.
"We've done what we wanted to get done," Indiana coach Curt Cignetti told NBC immediately after the game. "Dominant game. We played from the first play till the last play. It's a good win. We've done a lot of great things here in a short amount of time, with the crowd and support and all that. It's another step forward for us."
It also was the school's largest-ever victory margin over a nationally ranked opponent.
No. 19-ranked Indiana finished this game with seven straight touchdown drives. It ran through Illinois like a really easy corn maze. It piled up 579 yards of offense while holding Illinois to 161, including a rushing margin of 312-2.
Fernando Mendoza treated the Illinois defense like it was an FCS school. Worse, actually. He finished his night with 17 straight completions and 21 of 23 for 267 yards and five touchdowns. He was out of the game at the end of the third quarter.
Defensively, Indiana spent so much time in Illinois’ kitchen that the NCAA is investigating it for impermissible meal plans. It sacked Illinois quarterback Luke Altmeyer seven times. It held the Illini to minus-7 rushing yards through three quarters.
The Hoosiers, even without starting back Lee Beebe Jr., ran all over an Illinois defense that came into the game ranked No. 13 against the run. The Hoosiers bullied Illinois at the line of scrimmage.
Khobie Martin led the way on the ground for Indiana with 12 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns. Elijah Sarratt had nine catches for 92 yards and two scores. Omar Cooper Jr. had six catches for 78 yards and a score.
All of this, mind you, is going on while Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is pacing the sidelines with the kind of irritated look of a man who just found out somebody spray-painted “PURDUE” across his equipment shed.
So this is where we are. Indiana is on its way to being a playoff team, again. They’ll have road shots at No. 6 Oregon and No. 2 Penn State. Most likely, they’ll need to win one of those and not lose any game they’re not supposed to lose. Which is getting way ahead of ourselves.
But also, it isn’t. There’s going to be a heck of a correction in the AP poll this week. Was Illinois overrated? Probably a bit. And the Illini were banged up. But nobody is that banged up. They weren’t 63-10-in-a-league-game banged up.
Indiana travels to Iowa this week. The game won’t be easy. Or maybe it will. Maybe this is just what Indiana does now. Beat the crap out of people. In football.
It’ll take some getting used to.
Something tells me, in Bloomington, they’ll manage.
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