COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 5 Indiana had a chance to match up with a perennial college football power Saturday at Ohio Stadium.

It came up short.

Punctuated by special teams mistakes and pass protection issues, coach Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers fell 38-15 to No. 2 Ohio State. Indiana’s James Evans let in a goal just before halftime, which led to an Ohio State touchdown three plays later. The same special teams unit allowed a 79-yard punt return touchdown early in the third quarter. The Hoosiers would never recover.

Indiana fell to 10-1 overall and 7-1 in Big Ten play, with a matchup against Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry game next Saturday. With this win, the Buckeyes are in the driver’s seat to face No. 1 Oregon in the Big Ten championship game, followed by a home game against Michigan. Both Indiana and Ohio State can still reach the College Football Playoff, which will release another set of rankings Tuesday night.

“In life, all good things eventually come to an end,” Cignetti said. “I give Ohio State a lot of credit. They dominated the football.”

An Indiana offense that started Saturday with the nation’s second-highest scoring offense finished with a season-low 151 yards. And after taking the Heisman Trophy into consideration, Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke was sacked five times and completed just 8 of 18 passes for 68 yards, zero touchdowns and a fumble. Indiana’s defense also allowed a season-high 38 points.

Cignetti said Ohio State’s pressure was nothing Indiana hadn’t seen and practiced all week, and that their inability to absorb the blitzes was a combination of factors. Rourke acknowledged that Indiana regularly practices silent counts, but Saturday was the first time she used them in a game.

“I think you tie it to the noise and having to count quietly,” Cignetti said. ‘The center couldn’t hear it. Then the speed at which they do that, compared to our scout team and the pressure of the moment. Our guys just didn’t respond very well. Simple. Sometimes we had missed assignments. Sometimes we had communication errors. Sometimes we were physically defeated. But it wasn’t that nice.”

Entering the most daunting road environment of the season in the 102,780-seat stadium, it would be important for Indiana to prevent Ohio State from seizing any early momentum. Indiana’s defense did just that, and the offense followed suit. It forced an Ohio State three and out to start the game, with tackles from Rolijah Hardy, Terry Jones Jr. and Aiden Fisher – all players Cignetti added to the roster before the season.

Rourke missed wide receiver Myles Price on his first pass, a deep ball that could have been a touchdown if he had hit it on the pass. But Rourke shook it off and completed a 13-yard pass to Price over the middle to convert 3rd and 9. Indiana converted two more third downs, a 19-yard pass to Elijah Sarratt and a three-yard rush from Judge Ellison.

Those conversions in critical situations allowed Ty Son Lawton to make a two-yard touchdown run on the fly. Indiana took a 7-0 lead with 6:52 left in the first quarter.

The rest of the first half was one big swing after another. Pressure from Indiana defensive lineman James Carpenter led to an intentional grounding penalty on Ohio State quarterback Will Howard on third-and-35. But Howard dodged pressure on the next play to complete a 25-yard pass to Carnell Tate. On 4th-and-10, he found Tate for a 24-yard pickup.

But just as Ohio State threatened to tie the game, Indiana scored four straight runs. On 4th-and-1 from the two-yard line, Mikail Kamara led a swarm of Hoosiers closing down all rushing lanes for Quinshon Judkins, forcing a turnover on downs.

Indiana faced another crucial 3rd and 1 on its next possession, but right guard Bray Lynch was called for a false start. Cignetti said by all indications, Ohio State was offside on the play, which should have given Indiana a first loss. Instead, the Buckeyes sacked Rourke on the next play, leading to an Indiana punt.

“I’m not sure they made the right decision,” Cignetti said. “…I’m not saying the game would have been different during that conversation, that’s not what I’m saying at all. That’s where the game really changed, I would say, around that point. We couldn’t protect the quarterback, there were communication errors in pass pro. Every time we dropped back to pass, something bad happened. And it seemed like we were in that end zone to our left for five years. It felt like a nightmare.”

Howard found his rhythm on Ohio State’s next drive, completing 5 of 5 passes. His fifth was an 11-yard touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka, who exploited Indiana defensive end Lanell Carr Jr. and dropped back into coverage. That tied the game at 7-7 with 7:22 left in the half.

The momentum swings were far from over. On 3rd and 8, the Buckeyes pressured Rourke from his blind side and fired the ball loose on contact. Ohio State’s Ty Hamilton pounced on the fumble, setting up the Buckeyes with optimal field position at the Indiana 18-yard line.

But Indiana’s defense was once again up for the challenge. Defensive lineman CJ West charged through and tackled Judkins for a loss of four yards. On 3rd and 14, Indiana cornerback D’Angelo Ponds tipped Howard’s pass, and linebacker Jailin Walker intercepted it at the Hoosiers’ 11-yard line.

Indiana’s offense struggled to absorb Ohio State blitzes throughout the second quarter. The Buckeyes’ third sack of the day put the Hoosiers behind the chains, facing 2nd and 18, and halted the drive. Indiana lined up to punt, but punter James Evans dropped the snap. He picked up the fumble but was immediately tackled for a turnover on downs.

And three plays later, Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson punched in a four-yard touchdown to give the Buckeyes a 14-7 lead with 21 seconds left in the half. Indiana got down on one knee and faced its first halftime deficit of the season.

‘It’s a good thing I’m only seven. That’s how I felt,” Cignetti said. “And all we had to do was put our feet back on the ground and settle down a little bit, and that the longer the game went on, the pressure would shift to them if we could stay within reasonable distance. But then they had those that we just couldn’t respond to. We started to get a little ground game going, but we made a pass, got sacked and were way behind the chains.

On the one hand, Indiana was fortunate not to trail by more points at halftime, as Ohio State went scoreless on two chances inside Indiana’s 25-yard line. On the other hand, the game probably would have been tied after the first 30 minutes if Evans had dropped his punt cleanly. But after two quarters, an Indiana offense that ranked second nationally in scoring had just 53 yards and zero in the second quarter.

The special teams mistakes continued immediately in the second half. After an Indiana three-and-out that included a delay of the game penalty, Ohio State’s Caleb Downs blew past the Hoosiers for a 79-yard punt return touchdown. Indiana’s special teams unit got to him quickly, but he broke a few tackles and followed key blocks on his way to the end zone.

And suddenly, what could have been a 7-7 tie at halftime turned into a 21-7 Ohio State lead with 12:44 left in the third quarter – Indiana’s largest deficit of the season.

“The dropped punt is absolutely the same as a touchdown and the punt return. There may have been a few nicks in the back that weren’t called, but that’s the deal,” Cignetti said. “Yes, it’s not good football.”

Indiana’s offense stalled again on the second drive of the second half, going three and out. The Buckeyes took over and built their longest drive of the game. With 10 plays and 75 yards, Howard capped the drive with a play-action touchdown pass to Jelani Thurman. With 28 unanswered points, Ohio State extended its lead to 28-7 with 6:02 left in the third quarter.

Two more punts ended Indiana’s third quarter, in which it collected just 36 yards on four drives. Lawton’s 21-yard rush in that stretch accounted for more than half of the Hoosiers’ third-quarter yards. The quarter ended with an Indiana three and out, with Rourke being sacked twice.

“They were just taunting us,” Cignetti said. “I don’t know if it was the silent count that was activated by the guard; they were able to time some blitzes and we couldn’t protect the quarterback and we probably threw the ball a little bit more. I didn’t try to run the ball. We have achieved nothing in attack. That’s really what happened. We didn’t do anything on offense, probably for five or six series.

Ohio State took a significant chunk of the clock out with its first drive of the fourth quarter. Although the Hoosiers kept them out of the end zone, the Buckeyes extended their lead to 31-7 with a 45-yard field goal by Jayden Fielding. Nearly six minutes ticked away on the 11-play drive.

After eight dismal drives after the touchdown on the first possession, Indiana went 75 yards on 15 plays. Lawton capped the drive with a two-yard touchdown, and Omar Cooper Jr. caught the two-point conversion, cutting Ohio State’s lead to 31-15 with 1:53 to play.

But the Buckeyes didn’t stop there. Indiana’s side kick attempt failed and Henderson rushed 39 yards before sliding down to the one-yard line. Howard plowed into the end zone on a one-yard quarterback sneak. That would be it as Ohio State took a 38-15 lead with 35 seconds left to play.

“I was proud of the way we fought back and got within two scores, 31-15, but I didn’t like that we gave up the point and the easy touchdown at the end,” Cignetti said. “But they won. They deserved to win. They are a great football team. And combined with the noise, it made it a very, very challenging day for us. And I give them nothing but praise.”

Looking ahead, Cignetti said he doesn’t make the College Football Playoff decisions, and Indiana’s focus is on Purdue, a team it hasn’t beaten since 2019.

But should Indiana, based on his body of work, get one of the twelve spots?

“Is that a serious question? I’m not even going to answer that one. The answer is so obvious,” Cignetti said with a wink.