Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti doesn’t hide his disdain for penalties.
He points to his past teams that were among the least penalized in their respective divisions as a point of pride.
Cignetti would normally be fuming over the Hoosiers being flagged 14 times for 127 yards regardless of the outcome despite a 42-13 victory over UCLA, but a handful of those calls against his defense left him scratching his head.
“I don’t want to comment about it too much about it all,” Cignetti said after the game. “But I watched some of those on replay, and I’m like, that’s targeting? You want your guys to play physical. How do you make a good tackle? And play physical?”
DOYEL:IU just made a statement — Hoosiers are legit under Curt Cignetti
INISDER:IU fans should clear their holiday calendars. This is a bowl team.
IU football roughs up UCLA QB Ethan Garbers
Indiana defenders lived in the backfield Saturday night and harassed UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers throughout the game.
The Hoosiers were credited with 24 quarterback pressures by Pro Football Focus and pressured Garbers on 17 of his 29 dropbacks. Garbers struggled as a result with 137 yards (14 of 23) and an interception.
Indiana kept up the relentless pressure through some overzealous officiating that resulted in a pair of questionable roughing the passer penalties, the first of which was called on linebacker Jailin Walker towards the end of the first quarter.
Walker blitzed up the middle with UCLA facing a 3rd-and-7 from IU’s 41-yard line.
He put his left arm up in hopes of disrupting Garbers’ pass attempt and made slight, incidental contact with the quarterback’s helmet in the ensuing collision. The cameras caught Walker shaking his head after the officials announced the call.
“It’s hard, but it’s the game of football,” Walker said after the game. “There’s going to be some flags called, we just got to play the next down, and just keep our head focused, lock in and do our job.”
UCLA got a fresh set of downs in field goal range at IU’s 26-yard instead of facing a 4th-and-7 near midfield. The Bruins had a chance to add points on the board at the end of the drive, but missed a 41-yard field goal.
The other roughing the passer penalty was called on Lanell Carr Jr. late in the third quarter during a UCLA drive that saw the teams combine for six penalties.
Carr beat UCLA tackle Garrett DiGiorgio around the right side of the line with a little shimmy move that gave him a free run at Garbers. The defensive end threw his hands up in confusion after being flagged for what appeared to be a routine sack.
NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay said Carr was punished for driving Garbers into the ground and landing on top of him.
“Arguably, of course,” McAulay added.
Targeting penalties not going to change IU football’s physical approach
Indiana had two players (CJ West and D’Angelo Ponds) ejected from the game in the second half for targeting. The targeting calls were more clear cut, but the officials picked up a targeting flag on UCLA that upset IU’s sideline.
Sometimes I gotta get on the coaches to make sure there’s no frustration,” Cignetti said. “It’s over, it happened. You may not agree with it, I’m sure there’s quite a few I don’t agree with, but you got to get ready to play the next play so it doesn’t snowball on you.”
West was called for targeting on the first snap of the second half when he had a helmet-to-helmet hit on Garbers as the quarterback tried to recover a fumbled snap. The 6-2, 317-pound defender was trying to make a ball on the loose ball as well.
The call on Ponds came at the start of the fourth quarter.
He broke up a pass intended for J. Michael Sturdivant inside IU’s 5-yard line, but lowered his shoulder into the receiver’s head.
“He’s in the act of trying to catch a pass, that makes him defenseless, so he’s protected from forcible contact from the helmet, shoulder and forearm,” McAulay said.
Both defenders will be required to sit out the first half against Charlotte next week, but IU doesn’t sound like it’s going to alter its approach.
That’s the standard, playing nasty, playing physical,” Walker said. “Every game you just got to bring that nastiness.”