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Bill Lynch watched the Indiana defense closely last weekend.
Yes, he noted that Arkansas State scored 34 points against the Hoosiers' maligned defense and rally three times to get within two points in the fourth quarter.
He also called it progress.
''I thought, overall, our defense played much better,'' Lynch said during his weekly availability Monday. ''We kept the ball in front of us, we didn't give up any of the big plays, we tackled better and I thought our front guys played the run well.''
It's a good start, but Indiana (4-2, 0-2 Big Ten) is about to find out if an improved defense will be good enough to get them to a bowl game.
The Hoosiers return to conference play this weekend with a trip to Illinois, where they are 1-11 since 1979, and then finish the season with five straight Big Ten games in five weeks. They need two more wins to become bowl eligible, something they've done in league play only three times since 2001.
Their unforgiving schedule includes trips to Wisconsin and Purdue, where they have struggled for the last decade, and a home game against Penn State in Maryland. They also host Northwestern and Iowa.
And with eight Big Ten schools averaging 25 or more points per game, the Hoosiers know they must play better than they did during the first half of the season.
''We feel like we did a lot of good things,'' safety Mitchell Evans said after Saturday's 36-34 victory. ''We think we're a good defense.''
The numbers suggest otherwise.
Minnesota, which just fired coach Tim Brewster, is the only conference school allowing more points per game than Indiana's 28.7. Only 31 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision are allowing more yards per game than the Hoosiers' 400.7 and only 35 teams are yielding more yards rushing per game than Indiana's 169.8.
Not good.
So over the last several weeks, Lynch and his coaching staff made tackling the top priority, and Lynch said he counted fewer miscues Saturday.
''They had a long first drive and give them credit, they made a lot of plays and converted some third downs,'' he said. ''But for the most part, after that drive, we played very well. We ran to the ball and kept the ball in front. We had good pursuit and we didn't have as many missed tackles. We had the fewest number of missed assignments.''
But Saturday's game exposed another potential problem area for the Hoosiers - kick coverage.
The Red Wolves had kickoff returns of 71, 62 and 50 yards, each of which allowed Arkansas State to start drives deep in Indiana territory. Arkansas State converted the short fields into two touchdowns, turning the ball over on the third trip.
Clearly, Lynch now has to get that fixed.
''Some of it will be scheme, some of it will be personnel and some of it is just executing and playing better, like getting off blocks and fundamental things,'' he said. ''It'd be different if we'd gone through six games of just really poor kick coverage. Then I'd be a lot more concerned. We just didn't cover well on Saturday. We've got to correct that.''
It would certainly help the Hoosiers as they make their second-half run.
''The previous two weeks were rough, but we feel like the defense played well (Saturday), given the short fields,'' linebacker Jeff Thomas said. ''We tackled well, we played the game right and it should help us going forward.''
