BLOOMINGTON — Although Indiana managed to score touchdowns on eight of its first 10 possessions Saturday night, en route to a statement-making 63-10 home victory over No. 8 Illinois, the 17th-ranked Hoosiers needed a special teams spark to kick their scoring into motion.
“We were talking about it all week, how in big games, I just like to make plays for the team, and I felt like that was a big play, and I just did my job coming off the edge,” Indiana junior defensive back D’Angelo Ponds said of his early first quarter punt block and score that gave the Hoosiers a 7-0 lead they’d ride the rest of Saturday night’s beatdown. “It was a good play called by the coaches.
“In our first Big Ten game (of the year), we wanted to make a statement, and I felt like we did that. It was great to just hear the crowd road. It was surreal. I felt like it was a game-changing play, definitely. I felt like we as a team stepped up from there, and I feel like it changed the game.”
Both teams’ offenses started empty, leading to a pair of punts, and the same continued with the Fighting Illini’s second possession, which began on its own 36-yard line. Facing third-and-13 on its own 33, Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer failed to connect on a deep pass over the middle, and out trotted punter Keelan Crimmins.
Ponds set up on the left edge of the line unaccounted for, and the All-American defensive back ran freely and easily got his mitts on Crimmins’ kick from the 22-yard line. Uncertain initially whether he’d actually blocked it or where exactly the ball had ended up, the IU corner’s eyes eventually spotted the ball rolling around inside the Illinois 15. He managed to scoop it on the 11, and with a deft spin move managed to slip through the hands of Crimmins and scamper into the endzone for the first of nine IU touchdowns.
The Hoosier offense would score on eight of its next nine drives, all touchdowns, a fact IU coach Curt Cignetti and members of his team credited, in part, with the momentum swing of a special teams spark that Ponds helped deliver.
“That flipped the momentum,” IU linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “I think we had some momentum there with the three-and-out on that possession, but then you send an All-American corner off the edge and let him go block it. It’s always good to have a guy that can run that fast and block like that and make plays.”
With a defense that registered seven sacks and two net yards rushing Saturday night, paired with an offense where seven different skill position players logged scores — paced by five passing touchdowns from starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza on 21-for-23 passing for 267 yards — and where the Hoosier rushing attack logged 312 yards, it was Indiana’s all-around special teams action, several players said, that helped accentuate Indiana’s dominance.
Along with Ponds’ block and score, punter Quinn Warren also helped pin the Fighting Illini on their own 2-yard line with one of his two punts on the night early in the first half.
“Special teams was something we had to take advantage of in this game. (Illinois) has a really good special teams unit, and we just had to make sure ours was elite and better than theirs,” Fisher said. “When we talk about it, (special teams) is the tip of the spear. You have offense, and then defense and then special teams at the top, so being able to use that as a weapon, and for us to be able to negate theirs, I think that was huge for us.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: D’Angelo Ponds blocks punt, scores touchdown: Indiana football vs Illinois
