ATLANTA, Ga. (WDRB) – All season, they said that Indiana couldn’t possibly be this good. They were right. Indiana wasn’t this good.
It was better.
The No. 1 Hoosiers didn’t just beat Oregon in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Friday night. They took the Ducks’ feathers, their pride and their game plan, and scattered them all over Mercedes-Benz Stadium like cream and crimson confetti.
Final score: Indiana 56, Oregon 22. And it wasn’t even that close. The game was 11 seconds old when D’Angelo Ponds read Dante Moore’s first pass like the opening line of a bad novel, jumped the route and danced 25 yards into the end zone. That was the prologue. The rest was poetry — penned by Fernando Mendoza, Indiana’s Heisman-winning quarterback, who opened 15-of-16 passing for 172 yards and four touchdowns. His quarterback rating had to be measured in scientific notation.
IMAGES | Indiana football dominates Oregon in Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl
By the time Oregon crossed the goal line again — halfway through the third quarter — Indiana was already booking flights to Miami.
That’s where the Hoosiers are headed next: to the College Football Playoff Championship. To a stage this program never even dared imagine.
Let’s say it plainly. Indiana — the program with the most losses in major college football history heading into this season — is now 15-0 and playing for a national title.
No flukes. No bounces. No miracles. Just football, played better than just about anyone has played it all season. No turnovers. Four touchdowns in five drives. Twenty-one points off three Oregon giveaways. The scoreboard sang a simple tune: Don't beat yourself, and you can beat anybody else.
Maybe everybody else.
There wasn’t much drama.
After throwing their early interception, the Ducks put together a 75-yard scoring drive that took up 7 ½ minutes to tie the score and stabilize themselves on their next drive.
Hoosier fans showed out as Indiana took on Oregon!
After punting on their second possession, Indiana forced an Oregon three-and-out — and then began pillaging. A Dante Moore fumble at the Oregon 3. Another at the 21. Both recovered. Both turned into touchdowns.
The Hoosiers scored touchdowns on five straight possessions: An eight-yard pass from Mendoza to Omar Cooper Jr. A Kaelon Black one-yard run. A Charlie Becker 36-yard TD grab. An Elijah Surratt two-yard scoring catch. And a 13-yard Mendoza pass to E.J. Williams Jr.
Even Indiana’s missteps fell forward. Mendoza lost the ball in the first half but recovered for a 20-yard loss. No worse damage done. And in the second half, at the end of an 18-yard scramble, he fumbled again, but Jadon Canady recovered and Indiana went on to score again.
Mendoza was so good, they might give him another Heisman.
And in the stands, delirium, over what was the losingest program in history, now one win away from being remembered forever.
Indiana fans filed into the cavernous Atlanta stadium like it was part church service, part national holiday All of the names were there. Baseball star Kyle Schwarber was honorary captain. Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur and a guy who paid for an early semester at IU with a chain letter, came to soak in what his alma mater’s football team has done.
He wasn’t there to take credit, but to hand some out.
“As much as I’d like to take credit, it’s all about the organization,” Cuban said, pointing to athletic director Scott Dolson, president Pam Whitten, and head coach Curt Cignetti. “There’s a lot of people who can throw money at a problem. But if you don’t know how to solve your problems, if you don’t know how to put together a team and organization, it doesn’t matter.”
This wasn’t a money deal. These players aren’t the best players money can buy. One website estimated that Oregon was made up of 80 percent “blue chip” players. Indiana’s percentage? Eight.
Doesn’t matter. Hasn’t mattered.
And then there’s Garrett Ewald — a photographer for The Daily Hoosier, part believer, part spiritual groundskeeper — who brought Holy Water from a retreat center outside Bloomington and quietly anointed Indiana’s end zone and sideline before every postseason game: the Big Ten title game, the Rose Bowl, and now the Peach Bowl.
Holy ground.
What started as a fairy tale has become a forecast.
“People and a plan,” Curt Cignetti said earlier in the season, when asked about what enabled him do what he has done at Indiana.
But goodness, what a group of people. And what a remarkable plan.
More Indiana Football Coverage:
PREGAME | Mark Cuban credits 'organization and strategy' for Indiana football’s rise
CRAWFORD | Pray to play: Indiana's Mendoza looks inward, and upward, for pregame edge
CRAWFORD | Production over Potential: Indiana offense runs on something better than stars
CRAWFORD | Indiana's Curt Cignetti promises — he's smiling on the inside (sometimes)
CRAWFORD | Indiana’s defense is no illusion — but it thrives on creating them
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