Florida International surrenders first-half lead, falls to Indiana
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Indiana's Nate Sudfeld tried to take matters into his own hands Saturday night.
He gladly accepted some help form Jameel Cook Jr.
After running for two touchdowns and throwing a 16-yard TD pass for the go-ahead score with 10:02 left in the game, Sudfeld watched excitedly from the sideline as Cook intercepted a fourth-down pass at his own 4-yard line and sprinted 96 yards to seal the Hoosiers' 36-22 victory over FIU.
The numbers looked good.
Jordan Howard ran 27 times for 159 yards -- his second straight 100-yard game since leaving UAB for Indiana. Sudfeld finished 19 of 33 with 234 yards and one interception. Even the criticized much-maligned defense came up big, forcing three turnovers including Cook's long return, which is tied for the fourth longest in school history.
The result: Indiana is 2-0 for the first time in 2012.
But it sure wasn't easy.
Indiana's high-powered offense couldn't get into the end zone until Sudfeld scored on a 5-yard run with about 5 minutes left in the first half. The Hoosiers didn't take the lead until Sudfeld made it 19-14 on a 1-yard run with 5:49 left in the third quarter. They needed Sudfeld's perfectly-timed pass and Mitchell Paige's nifty run for a 16-yard score to retake the lead, 29-22, early in the fourth and couldn't put the game away until Cook capped the Hoosiers' goal-line stand with 3:59 left.
FIU (1-1) certainly had chances to pull off a stunning upset.
The Panthers led 14-13 at halftime and after Jeremiah McKinnon picked off Sudfeld late in the third quarter, the Panthers drove 90 yards and retook the lead on Alex McGough's 28-yard TD pass to Dennis Turner. Alex Gardner's 2-point conversion run made it 22-19.
Indiana tied the score on Griffin Oakes' 40-yard field goal.
Three plays later, McGough lost the ball at his own 16-yard line, Marcus Oliver fell on it and Sudfeld quickly broke the tie.
The Panthers weren't finished yet.
FIU got four chances from inside the Indiana 10 to tie it, but on fourth-and-goal, the scrambling McGough got hit as he threw and Cook wound up in the right spot to pick off the fluttering pass and make a game-changing play.
McGough was 21 of 37 for 249 yards with three TDs and one interception. Thomas Owens caught nine passes for 166 yards and two TDs -- not quite enough to prevent the Panthers from falling to 0-9 all-time against Big Ten schools.
