Indiana Football Week 5 Stock Report: Who’s trending up? Who’s trending down?

It was a *win* for Indiana football on Saturday against Akron — albeit in four overtimes. While the performance was well below what the standard has been at Indiana, it pushed the Hoosiers to 2-2 on the year.

Heading into Big Ten play, there are major questions surrounding Indiana football and what the product will look like come this weekend against Maryland.

After week four of the season for Indiana, who is trending up? Who’s trending down? We take a look at some players and position groups here.

TRENDING UP

Cam Camper: The lone member of the offense that is trending up is wideout Cam Camper. Camper came into this season with some questions surrounding how healthy his knee was after recovering from an ACL injury. The past two weeks, Camper has been fantastic for Indiana. He has not only been a huge addition to the deep attack, but he’s been one of the few playmakers that Indiana has been able to see consistent production from. Camper has seven receptions for 177 yards and a touchdown in the past two weeks, including numerous 40+ yard receptions. On the season, Camper has 249 yards on 13 receptions. He ranks ninth in total yards and fifth in yard per catch average.

Secondary: After being one of the biggest question marks heading into the season, the Indiana secondary has been terrific thus far. Outside of the first half against Louisville, where it gave up two big plays, the secondary has been one of the strongest groups in the entire Big Ten. After last week when the unit had three interceptions and a touchdown, Indiana has six interceptions on the season — ranked second in the league. Phillip Dunnam, who has three interceptions, is tied for the most in the nation. As a whole, Indiana ranks ninth in the country in defensive passing efficiency. Louis Moore has two interceptions and Nic Toomer has one. Moore, who had two against Akron, was named to the Pro Football Focus Defensive Team of the Week for his play. It’s another critical test for the Hoosiers this week when the secondary faces Taulia Tagovailoa who leads the Big Ten in passing yards.

TRENDING DOWN

Tayven Jackson: Jackson had his first rough game of the season in his third career start — second since being named the official starter. He was 11-of-26 for 190 yards with one touchdown and one interception. His completion percentage was 78.2 percent in his first two starts, something that went to 42.3 percent last week. While he has the fifth highest quarterback rating (139.0) in the Big Ten, there were a number ‘growing pains’ Jackson saw against Akron.

“I think for me, I missed some signals. So I gotta be better at that,” Jackson said. “I got to be able to put this offense in a situation where we can execute, play fast and play explosive. I didn’t do a very good job of that (on Saturday).”

“It was a tough night. Definitely wasn’t his best,” Tom Allen said. ” … We had some open receivers we didn’t hit. We had three critical drops. One where it would have been a touchdown early on. Just lack of focus. That’s really what it is. So those three drops hurt us. And then just not being able to execute. So just growing pains, without question.”

On the season, Jackson is up to 749 yards passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He has a 62.8 percent completion rate and has thrown one touchdown in each of the last two starts.

Offensive Line: After an inconsistent performance against Louisville, it wasn’t much better against Akron. Tayven Jackson was sacked three times, a season high, last week and was hurried numerous other times as well.

It was a mix of poor offensive line play, and poor pass protection from the tight ends and running backs. Overall, it was a collective poor effort for the Indiana blocking.

“You know, up front didn’t block well at all. Probably our worst performance of the season on the offensive line as far as running the football,” Allen said. “There’s more than just them that were affected. There are tight ends and the quarterbacks and the reads and different things we do. But, obviously, not near good enough.”

In addition to blocking, it was another goal line situation in which Indiana failed to convert. Another 4th-and-goal presented itself and the Indiana football offense was unable to punch it in — the second straight game.

“You’re at the goal line, you’ve got to score touchdowns and not have to kick field goals,” Allen said. “Obviously, got stopped on the 1 before. We chose to kick a football from inside the 1. But, yeah, it starts up front. Got to block better.”

MOST TO PROVE

Walt Bell: A consistent trend. Walt Bell was once again the hot topic of conversation following Indiana’s week four win. It was another poor play-calling game and another performance where the offense was not in rhythm or effective in any area.

Indiana was out gained by 200 yards and had one of the worst second-half offensive performances in recent memory. Four of the five second-half possessions before overtime consisted of the following: three plays for three yards, three plays for two yards, three plays for six yards and three plays for zero yards.

Indiana was 3-of-14 on third downs, averaging 7.7 yards per third down, and had just four drives longer than four plays all night. They had eight drives that resulted in a three-and-out.

“Well, obviously, on Saturday, it was not (good). We did not score points offensively. We did not take advantage of situations offensively. And you can look at different reasons for that. But the bottom line is at the end of the day, it’s the job of the offense to score,” Allen said. ” … It’s play calling. It’s technique. It’s the scheme adjustments. It’s everything we need to do to be able to maximize our guys and help us get the ball in the end zone. At the end of the day, we’re performance based assessment, and we’ve got to perform as players and as coaches. So the goal is to get the ball in the end zone offensively so we can win football games. So got to get better.”

“Yeah, I think everyone knows it wasn’t very good and wasn’t good enough,” Bell added. “At the end of the day we have to do the job. It’s my responsibility to get the players to do their job well … I’m not going to pass blame on anyone else, it’s my job.”