ODU vs. Indiana Recap

By David Asbury

Mixed Results to Start the Season
On Saturday, the Old Dominion Monarchs started the season against #20 Indiana Hoosiers, a team that was talented enough to make the College Football Playoffs last year.  They are talented enough to do it again too.  That is why we should not panic by the 27-14 loss.  In fact, with that score, the Monarchs covered the 23-point spread.  ODU had a chance in this game, but interceptions cost them.  Playing a team as talented as Indiana, the Monarchs could not afford to lose the turnover battle.

Colton Joseph is clearly the highlight of the game.  He led the team in rushing with 179 yards, two touchdowns, both from very long runs.  CoJo's masterful fake handoff fooled the IU defense on multiple occasions.  It was good enough to fool the announcers and cameraman on occasion too.  It will be very deadly going forward.  Another highlight to the offensive line was the pass protection.  The offensive line had a good overall game against a top P4 team and allowed only one sack.

This is CoJo's offense. Photo Courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

But the rest of the offense needs some work.  The other running backs were mostly stuffed, and ran for only 39 yards.  The passing game was also pretty awful.  Joseph threw for only 96 yards completing only 50% of his passes and throwing three interceptions.  The first interception was an off-target throw.  But the other two hit receivers hands for IU players to catch on a tip drill.  So Joseph does not deserve all of the blame.  AR Gladding led the receivers with four catches for 35 yards.  Someone has to rise up and be a playmaker at receiver.  It can still happen, but did not happen in this game.

Turning to the defense, the stats would tell you they struggled allowing 502 yards, 193 passing yards and 309 rushing yards.  But stats are not everything.  The defense had a bend-but-don't-break mentality and stuffed the Hoosier's offense in the red zone multiple times.  Jason Henderson had an amazing tackle for a loss to end one of their drives.  The Hoosiers left a lot of points off the board and the defense deserves a lot of credit for that and for ODU covering the spread.  Besides Henderson, Mario Easterly deserves recognition for his team-leading 13 tackles. 

Easterly is becoming a top contributor on defense. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

Overall, this game went somewhat as expected.  My 31-17 prediction seems pretty spot on with a 27-14 score.  The running attack with Colton Joseph was lethal.  But the passing attack needs a lot of work.  Receivers need to help their quarterback more.  The defense allowed for a lot of yards against what could be a top-10 offense.  But they rose to the occasion when it mattered most, in the red zone.  This ODU squad has some growing to do but still looked pretty good against a Playoff-caliber team and that's something to be proud of.  The Monarchs will learn from the experience and be ready to take on lesser opponents with a lot more confidence.  Old Dominion could still be one of the Sun Belt's best teams.