When Indiana plays Ohio State in football, nobody goes into the game expecting the Hoosiers to out-athlete the Buckeyes. Ohio State has benchwarmers who were higher rated recruits than Indiana’s best players were.
Indiana’s receivers keep making all sorts of circus catches vs. Ohio State
Simmie Cobbs Jr., in particular, is putting on a show.
And yet! Indiana receiver Simmie Cobbs Jr. has utterly clowned the Buckeyes during the first half of their season opener on Thursday night. The redshirt junior made a couple of one-handed catches in man coverage in the first half, and he topped off that half by skying for a casually brilliant touchdown grab over OSU’s Denzel Ward.
The touchdown was a gorgeous display of route-running, as well as that harder-to-quantify-but-you-know-it-when-you-see-it skill: going and getting it.
Cobbs also made this one-hander against cornerback Kendall Sheffield:
And earlier, he hit the Buckeyes with a different one-handed snare on the sideline.
Plus, Indiana’s first touchdown of the night was this bit of toe-draggery by tight end Ian Thomas. It was initially ruled an incomplete pass, but it was a hell of a catch.
That Indiana’s doing this is, frankly, very surprising.
The Hoosiers had a good defense last year, and they figure to have a good one this year, led by Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year candidate Tegray Scales, a linebacker. But their offensive line is mediocre (it’s been getting bodied against Ohio State’s superior front), and there’s really no running game to speak of.
Quarterback Richard Lagow is sturdy, and the Cobbs-led receiving corps is legitimately good. But the Buckeyes have better athletes all over the place, and Indiana’s pass-catchers have spent the first half of the season opener clowning them.
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