Position Grades: Indiana

Quarterback: A-

It was easily Christian Hackenberg's best performance of 2015. 266 yards passing for two touchdowns and a pair of touchdown runs, to boot. This is what happens when you actually open up the playbook and allow Hack to be Hack. The only knock on Hack today is for his throwing several passes too high on wide-open receivers (hence, the A-minus).

Running Back: C

Nick Scott and Mark Allen both broke a big run of 20+ yards or more, each but finished with rather pedestrian 57 and 42 yards, respectively. The Hackenruns for touchdowns help prevent this grade from being lower.

Wide Receivers/Tight End: B-

The minus is for dropping several balls, but it was great to see nine different Nittany Lions catch a pass in this game. Chris Godwin has some nice timely catches and DaeSean Hamilton went full BaeSean with a TD grab, himself. Oh, did I mention John Donovan actually threw the ball downfield to Brandon Polk? Did I also mention that Polk ended up scoring a TD when he caught the downfield pass? Mind. Blown.

Offensive Line: C-

It was a Jekyll-Hyde type performance for the offensive line today. When they gave Hack enough time to throw, the results were quite good. In the 3rd quarter especially though, they were downright turrible, allowing Indiana defensive ends to run right by them untouched and get to Hack. The run blocking also continued to be rather meh. Really, C-minus is probably being generous.

Defensive Line: A

When your defense holds a team to 155 yards passing and 79 yards on the ground, A's are going to become a recurring theme. Once the passing game was negated, this unit was able to tee off on Zander Diamont/Danny Cameron. Carl Nassib and Garrett Sickels had a couple of really nice sacks, especially when Sickels blindsided Diamont right into the turf, shortly after Diamont 'shushed' the crowd after scoring the Hoosiers' lone points of the day and Anthony Zettel batted a couple of passes to the turf.

Linebacker: A

Solid as usual. Getting Brandon Bell back to help Jason Cabinda and Jason Reeder in run support was huge. They also did a nice job bringing pressure on IU's quarterback whenever Bob Shoop decided to dial up the heat.

Secondary: A

They gave up a few big pass plays over the middle, but other than that, it was a solid performance from a unit that wasn't tested all that much due to the lack of a capable passer lining up under center for the Hoosiers. John Reid notched his second interception of the year, as well.

Special Teams: C-

Perhaps it was due to not having Chris Gulla holding the ball for him, but Joey Julius inexplicably botched back-to-back extra points, making what should've been a more comfortable-feeling 21-7 halftime lead a less comforting 19-7 lead. De'Andre Thompkins had a couple of decent returns and didn't muff any punts and Julius did his usual thing on kickoffs (i.e. booting them right into the end zone) but did kick one out of bounds. Also, getting caught off-guard on that onside kic attempt early in the game was no bueno.