Lee Beebe Jr. rushes for 203 yards and No. 4 Indiana holds off surprising Northwestern 29-23
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Lee Beebe Jr. rushed for 203 yards, including a 70-yard burst that set up Josh Hoover's game-sealing 1-yard TD run with 1:56 to play, and No. 5 Indiana held off surprising Northwestern 29-23 on Friday night.
The defending national champion Hoosiers (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) extended the Football Bowl Subdivision's longest active winning streak to 20 games and the longest home winning streak to 19 — but it was a struggle until the final seconds.
Northwestern was within 15-13 early in the fourth quarter and had two chances to tie the score because of a pass-interference call on its first 2-point attempt. But the Hoosiers stopped quarterback Aidan Chiles on a designed run to preserve the lead.
Following a facemask penalty on third-and-19 that gave Indiana a first down, Beebe ripped off a 39-yard run and then ran for a 4-yard TD with 9:39 left to make it a two-score game. After Northwestern cut the deficit to 22-20, Beebe ran 70 yards to the Wildcats 5-yard line. Six plays later, Hoover scored.
Jackson Kleather made a 42-yard field goal with 58 seconds left to make it a one-score game, but the Wildcats (2-1, 0-1) but couldn't recover the onside kick.
Hoover was 19 of 29 for 201 yards and a touchdown, Charlie Becker had seven catches for 98 yards and Beebe had his second 100-yard game of the season after Turbo Richard left with a lower right leg injury in the first half.
Chiles was 22 of 29 for 293 yards and touchdowns. He also rushed for a score.
The Wildcats opened the game with a goal-line stand, but Chiles fumbled the snap on their first offensive play and Rolijah Hardy tackled him in the end zone for a safety.
Indiana made it 5-0 on Nico Radicic's 43-yard field goal early in the second quarter and extended the margin to 12-0 with Nick Marsh's 8-yard TD catch with 5:04 left in the first half.
But that's all the Hoosiers could muster in a half in which they held Northwestern to 51 total yards and minus-5 yards on the ground.
Northwestern: The Wildcats couldn't get anything right offensively in the first half, but coordinator Chip Kelly turned Chiles loose in the second half and it got them back into the game. The failed 2-point try and the defense's failure to get off the field coast them late.
Indiana: Poll voters penalized the Hoosiers last week, dropping them one spot following a 38-0 rout of Western Kentucky. And this was as vulnerable as Indiana's defense has looked in more than a year. Whether it's an aberration remains to be seen, but it's likely the Hoosiers will drop in the AP Top 25 again.
Northwestern: Has another big test next Saturday, hosting No. 13 Penn State.
Indiana: Visits winless Rutgers next Saturday in its first away game of the season.
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