{"id":1010988,"date":"2026-09-26T05:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1010988\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:21:27","slug":"reigning-champion-indiana-hoosiers-survive-major-scare-from-northwestern-in-big-ten-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1010988\/","title":{"rendered":"Reigning champion Indiana Hoosiers survive major scare from Northwestern in Big Ten opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The reigning National Champion Indiana Hoosiers<\/a> haven’t been tested much this season, and boy, did they ever get a test on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Despite being three-touchdown favorites, the Hoosiers found themselves battling the Northwestern Wildcats<\/a> to the very end, eking out a 29-23 win at home.<\/p>\n

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Coming into Friday night’s game, the Hoosiers \u2014 despite getting off to a 3-0 start on the heels of a title \u2014 had dealt with one big criticism dogging them this season.<\/p>\n

Slow starts.<\/p>\n

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\"Turbo <\/p>\n

An early exit for running back Turbo Richard did not help Indiana in what proved to be a tough one against Northwestern. (Photo by James Black\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Head coach Curt Cignetti had to field questions<\/a> about his team’s play early in games against easier opponents.<\/p>\n

So, there was a lot of focus on whether or not that trend would continue as the Big Ten schedule<\/a> got underway against the Wildcats.<\/p>\n

Well, the answer was… kind of?<\/p>\n

The Hoosiers opened the game with a 15-play, 67-yard drive that ate up around half of the opening quarter.<\/p>\n

However, the slow-start bug showed up again when a drive that should\u2019ve ended with points on the board was instead capped by a huge defensive play from Northwestern.<\/p>\n

The Indiana defense managed to bail out the boys on the other side of the ball when Northwestern QB Aidan Chiles fumbled a snap before getting brought down in his own end zone for a safety.<\/p>\n

The Hoosiers battled through an unusual first half with an offense that looked a little disjointed at times and more penalties than you typically see out of them.<\/p>\n

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Worse, they suffered a big blow later in the half when running back Turbo Richard was hit late after going out of bounds and went straight to the locker room.<\/p>\n

There was no call on the play, which made a call against Indiana on a similar play moments later very unpopular with the folks at Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n

Indiana tacked on a touchdown and extra point to take a 12-0 lead to the locker room at the half; of course, it didn’t hurt that Northwestern rushed for -5 yards through thirty minutes.<\/p>\n

But just over halfway through the third quarter, Northwestern paid their first visit to the red zone and managed to get rid of that goose egg.<\/p>\n

Chiles wrapped up that drive, despite suffering what sure appeared to be a dislocated finger, and led the Wildcats to the first points Indiana had allowed since their season opener.<\/p>\n

And the Wildcats weren’t done, with Chiles hitting Griffin Wilde in the back of the end zone at the start of the fourth quarter for an unbelievable touchdown.<\/p>\n

Northwestern head coach David Braun opted to go for two and try to tie it up, but the Hoosiers thwarted them on their first and then their second attempts after a penalty.<\/p>\n

\"Lee <\/p>\n

Indiana running back Lee Beebe Jr. was one of the big stories thanks to a stellar performance that saw him handling the Hoosiers running game with Turbo Richard sidelined. (Photo by James Black\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Indiana answered back with a scoring drive of their own, with Lee Beebe Jr. \u2014 who handled most of the legwork after Richard’s exit \u2014 putting the Hoosiers in the red zone with a 39-yard carry, before punching it in for a touchdown two plays later.<\/p>\n

Penalties were a story for Indiana, who averaged just three penalties per game so far this season, but wound up with nearly triple that.<\/p>\n

Some were costly too, including a holding penalty that set the Wildcats up on the Indiana 4-yardline, and a few plays later Chiles took matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n

Beebe threw down another huge play to put the Hoosiers back in scoring position.<\/p>\n

It looked like the Wildcats were on the cusp of another goal-line stand, but a costly defensive pass interference penalty gave Indiana a fresh set of downs, with QB Josh Hoover<\/a> finding the end zone on a keeper that fooled just about everyone in the building.<\/p>\n

Northwestern tacked on a field goal on the ensuing drive, but Indiana managed to recover their attempt at an onside kick.<\/p>\n

That slow start habit is still going to be a talking point, as it let Northwestern stay in the game.<\/p>\n

And while the injury to Richard is a big concern, Beebe’s play \u2014 he finished with 203 rushing yards \u2014 was a major bright spot.<\/p>\n

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The Hoosiers will play Rutgers next weekend, followed by Nebraska, and then a big one against Ohio State on October 17.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reigle is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reigning National Champion Indiana Hoosiers haven’t been tested much this season, and boy, did they ever get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1010989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1107,7,4725,49,51074,48,8243,118034,381],"class_list":["post-1010988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-betting","tag-football","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-ncaa-football","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-outkick-sports","tag-university"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117335666946211006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}