Hoosiers hold off Eastern Kentucky 19-13

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana had big plans for opening night.

It wasn't pretty, but at least the Hoosiers won.

Trea Burgess scored one touchdown, Ben Chappell threw for another and the Indiana defense shut down Eastern Kentucky twice in the fourth quarter to preserve a 19-13 victory Thursday night.

"With a team like that, they're going to hang around," Indiana coach Bill Lynch said. "You have to really play well to put them away, and we didn't do that."

It was Indiana's sixth straight home-opening win, and it came in front of the school's largest opening-day crowd in more than a decade -- 36,759.

Most came to see whether the changes at renovated Memorial Stadium and those within the program would do anything to create more success.

There were encouraging signs.

Chappell, the new starting quarterback, was a solid 27 of 36 for a career-high 326 yards with one TD. Receiver Tandon Doss also caught eight passes for 125 yards, a career-high.

The defense, which yielded more than 35 points per game last season, allowed just one touchdown and two field goals, and forced a turnover deep in Indiana territory to keep the lead. It also batted away a 40-yard heave to the end zone as time expired.

But it certainly wasn't pretty.

Lynch's revamped offense didn't produce the kind of rushing numbers he wanted, 31 carries for 73 yards, and Chappell threw two interceptions and failed to produce a second-half scoring drive.

"We could have done a few things better, but it's a win," Chappell said. "We wanted to run it. I think we did that OK, but we can improve on that. And we threw it well."

The Hoosiers played without defensive tackle Deonte Mack and linebacker Ian Reeves, who were suspended for violating team rules. Cornerback Ray Fisher, a converted receiver, did not start because of an issue with the coach, but Lynch did not elaborate.

And Eastern Kentucky, a Football Championship Subdivision team with 31 straight winning seasons, was a worthy challenger.

The Colonels forced three turnovers and limited Indiana to just 32 yards of offense in the third quarter while shutting out the Hoosiers for the final 37 minutes.

When Eastern failed to capitalize on those late scoring chances, though, it again failed to defeat a Football Bowl Subdivision foe -- a streak that dates to 1985.

"We moved the ball pretty well, and then we threw a pick, and from that point on they really controlled the flow of the game until we got it back with about five minutes to go," Lynch said.

Initially, it looked like it would be a festive night in Bloomington.

Fans in the newly enclosed north end zone roared when Indiana opened the game with two scores in three minutes -- courtesy of Will Patterson's safety and Burgess' 1-yard run on the next series.

Chappell then set up a 38-yard field goal for redshirt freshman Nick Freeland and hooked up with a wide-open Damarlo Belcher in the middle of the field to make it 19-7 midway through the second quarter.

After that, though, the Hoosiers had to rely on defense.

Eastern quarterback Cody Watts was 12 of 16 for 171 yards. Watts found Garnett Phelps for a 61-yard TD pass in the first quarter and took advantage of a 40-yard punt return late in the first half to set up a short field goal that made it 14-10.

Colonels backup quarterback T.J. Pryor converted a third-and-11 to set up Logan O'Connor's 31-yard field goal to make it 19-13 midway through the third -- big plays Lynch was hoping to avoid.

"We're not afraid to challenge people, so if you're going to challenge people, play some bump-and-run and blitz the way we did, that's going to happen if we don't get home," Lynch said. "But we made some plays too."

None were bigger than the two plays that saved the game.

Fisher forced a Watts fumble at the Indiana 5 with 11:49 to go and Jammie Kirlew recovered for the Hoosiers, but Pryor's pass as time expired was knocked away by Nick Polk.

"We could have played a better football game, but a win's a win," Chappell said. "We're going to improve next week."