BLOOMINGTON — The only evidence of Indiana football quarterback Kurtis Rourke’s thumb injury was a bit of tape. 

He ditched the splint and glove he wore against Michigan State in IU’s 20-15 win over Michigan on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Rourke underwent surgery on his throwing hand two weeks ago after breaking a bone in his right thumb. He made a quick recovery for the No. 8 Hoosiers (10-0; 7-0 Big Ten), but protected the thumb in his return to the lineup against MSU. 

He didn’t wear anything on his throwing hand while preparing for the Wolverines. He felt some mild discomfort at the end of a full week of practice, but the rest he got during an off day on Friday had him feeling “100 percent.”

“I had no issues going into today,” Rourke said, after the game.

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Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke and offense ‘near perfect’ in first half 

Indiana looked like it was going to cruise to another double-digit victory on Saturday when it jumped out to a 17-3 lead with Rourke going 14 of 18 for 190 yards with two touchdowns. 

“We were going against a really good defense, that first half we had to be near perfect,” Rourke said. “Made some good reads, big catches and big runs.”

With Michigan starter corner Will Johnson sidelined with an injury, Indiana leaned on the deep ball starting with Rourke’s 26-yard gain in the first quarter to Ke’Shawn Williams along the sideline to get into the red zone.

The Ohio transfer had the tiniest of windows to deliver the ball and Williams made a great individual effort by getting his feet down inbounds after making the leaping two-handed grab.

Rourke throwing a back-shoulder throw to Omar Cooper Jr. for a touchdown two plays later to give Indiana a 7-3 lead.

He extended that advantage with a 36-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Sarratt with 12:10 to go in the second quarter. Rourke didn’t flinch with Michigan’s All-American defensive tackle Mason Graham bearing down on him in the pocket and delivered one of his prettiest throws of the season to Sarratt on a pass that traveled more than 45 yards in the air. 

Rourke closed out the half 3 of 4 on passes of 20-yards or more. 

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Indiana’s offense shows ‘good resolve’ despite struggles 

The consensus after the game was that IU’s offense was just out of sync in the second half. 

Michigan didn’t make any wholesale changes at halftime and didn’t do anything the Hoosiers hadn’t seen on film, but nothing seemed to work.

“For a while there, we had a hard time gaining three yards on offense.” Cignetti said.

On IU’s first offensive snap of the second half, Rourke threw the ball right into the hands of Michigan defensive back Zeke Berry at his own 7-yard line. It was only his fourth interception of the season, but the turnover acted as a wake up call for the Wolverines. 

They forced three straight punts after that. 

“The interception was a bad way to start, and then we had some protection issues, and then we had some opportunities, plays that we normally make, maybe a one-on-one go ball or back-shoulder throw, we fake the bubble and Sarratt down the sideline just can’t quite connect,” Cignetti said. “We had a number of those. And then the sacks. We couldn’t get anything going in the run game. It just wasn’t happening.”

Indiana finished with 10 total yards of offense in the second half and were held to less than 250 yards for the first time since visiting Ann Arbor last year, but no one panicked. 

“I thought we did a really good job,” Cignetti said. “The offense is used to clicking and scoring a lot of points. I thought everybody had good resolve. We stepped up as a team and found a different way to win.”

The offense managed some critical first downs with the game on the line. 

Rourke connected with Williams again late in the second half to put IU in field goal range — Nicolas Radicic hit a 41-yarder with 2:34 to go — and he ran the ball for a first down in the final minutes to prevent Michigan from getting the ball back. 

“These are games that really test you as a team,” Rourke said. “We knew eventually we’d come to a game that it would be close and we’d have to see what we are made of. Really proud of how we handled it.”

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.