IU football passes its first real test of 2026 season with a win over Northwestern
- Ian Plaskoff
- 40m ago
Throughout Indiana’s 29-23 win against Northwestern on Friday, a growing sense of angst was palpable inside Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium.
Indiana did not look like its usual self. Penalties, missed throws and defensive failures piled up. Missed opportunities were aplenty. Northwestern threatened all night. Fans were frustrated and concerned and left the stadium unsatisfied.
The Hoosiers won. IU is 4-0 this season and 1-0 in conference play. They have won 20 games in a row and hold the nation’s longest winning streak. Curt Cignetti is 25-0 against unranked opponents, 19-0 at home and 18-1 in Big Ten play as head coach of the Hoosiers.
Indiana did what it has done in all but two of the 33 games under Cignetti.
Many would say Indiana’s play was uncharacteristic and concerning. It was uncharacteristic because the characteristics are based on one season of improbable excellence and another season of irreplaceable perfection.
Expectations must be managed. Not every game will be perfect.
“It’s a good win. You can lose those games very, very easily,” Cignetti said. “I’m sure everybody’s disappointed because they still have the national championship hangover, but I can’t do anything about that.”
A season ago, Indiana won its Big Ten opener 63-10 against then-No.9 Illinois at home. The answer to the first test was given in emphatic fashion. Indiana had the makings of a special team. Illinois may not have been as good as advertised.
Indiana’s performance on Friday doesn’t mean the 2026 team is far worse than the 2025 team. It just says it isn’t as far along yet.
“This is what this game is all about. It’s about how you respond. It’s not going to be perfect and you’ve got to have the mental toughness to to move forward with it,” Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover said. “…this is a long season and I know that where we want to be as a team in the future is not where we’re at right now. And that’s how football is. It’s how this goes. Our job is to get better each and every week.”
Indiana did a lot of good things against Northwestern. The Hoosiers dominated the statistical categories, just not the score.
The Hoosiers put up 472 yards of offense and 271 yards on the ground. Lee Beebe Jr. became Indiana’s first player with 200-plus rushing yards in a game since 2018. Defensively, Indiana had four sacks, seven tackles for loss and held Northwestern to 32 rushing yards.
Indiana did have eight penalties and missed big chances in the passing game. Northwestern moved the ball extremely well in the second half. The list can go on.
If you evaluate this performance against the traits and qualities established by the previous two Cignetti teams, it will certainly look poor. Anything compared to those teams will be inferior. It is important to contextualize. Not every game is going to be a blowout. Not every game is going to be a cruise to the finish.
“I tried to tell everybody Northwestern’s a good football team, but people weren’t buying that,” Cignetti said. “But two years ago at this time, people said Indiana’s a good football team and people weren’t buying that stock either.”
Indiana held a Northwestern offense that had averaged 37.5 points per game coming in to zero points in the first half and 23 for the game. Northwestern averaged over 200 rushing yards per game coming in. It finished with 32.
Excluding the safety, Indiana scored 27 points on a Northwestern defense that allowed just seven points to Colorado last week. It scored two red zone touchdowns on a Northwestern red zone defense that only allowed one in its first two games.
“This is really the first test in this season and there was no panic on the sideline,” Hoover said. “We were all sitting there after even some missed opportunities and talking about, hey, let’s go get the next one.”
Expecting Indiana to do in 2026 exactly what it did in 2025 is unrealistic. Some teams take longer to figure it out. That appears to be the case in Cignetti’s third year.
Indiana won a hard-fought football game against a good opponent. It showed flashes of greatness and spotlighted areas that need fixing.
Luckily for IU fans, that was not the national championship game. It was not the Big Ten championship game either. It wasn’t even the only regular-season game on the schedule.
The Hoosiers have eight more regular-season games to play and, most importantly, survived their first real test with a win.
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