BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Two games into the season and Indiana already has slipped into a disturbing pattern. The Hoosiers can't seem to hold onto leads.

        Scoring isn't the problem — two weeks ago, they led North Carolina State 21-3, and last week, they jumped in front of Kentucky 20-7 — but defensive lapses and a few crucial mistakes cost them both games in the closing minutes.

        “Obviously we're disappointed coming out of the Kentucky game, having done several things extremely well but making enough mistakes in all three phases to cost the ball game,” Indiana coach Cam Cameron said Tuesday.

        “We've addressed that with our team and looked at it and obviously we'll learn a lot from that game as we did from the North Carolina State game, two similar situations,” he said from Bloomington during the weekly Big Ten teleconference.

        The 41-34 loss at Kentucky came after a fumble by quarterback Antwaan Randle El was returned 21 yards for a touchdown with less than two minutes to go. The week before, North Carolina State scored the go-ahead touchdown with 54 seconds to go, then the Wolfpack got the 41-38 victory when a field-goal attempt by Andy Payne was blocked as time expired.

        The Hoosiers (0-2) play Cincinnati (2-1) Saturday. They last played in 1998, when Indiana beat the Bearcats 48-14 in Cincinnati.

        “You can analyze it and overanalyze it, and we've talked about it as a staff,” Cameron said of the Hoosiers' late-game fades this season.

        “We've scored a lot of points these first two weeks, and obviously that will get increasingly difficult. We've got to continue defensively to believe in what we're doing and keep from giving up the big play. It comes down to basically that,” Cameron said.

        The Indiana offense is led by Randle El, who needs 175 yards rushing to become only the sixth player in major college football history with 2,000 yards rushing and 4,000 yards passing for a career. The high-scoring Hoosiers this season are averaging 36 points a game, second in the Big Ten and 18th in the nation.

        Defensively, however, the Hoosiers rank 106th in total defense and 108th in scoring defense.

        “It's not like these are 14-13 close games or 12-10 or 21-20,” Cameron said. “We're doing a lot of good things (offensively), and our defense has just got to continue to improve. Once we get our defense tightened up, I think everything is going to fall in place.

        “Our team has a lot of confidence,” he said. “You can see that the way we play and start ball games. We just haven't done a good job, for whatever reason, finishing ball games and making plays we need to make at the end.”

UC's task: Stop IU QB Blowing leads IU's problem

Giants 7, Reds 3
Box, runs
Wild card? Don't even think about it
Bengals ticket holders consider class-action lawsuit
Receivers are NFL's new TD-makers
Numbers behind the NFL passing explosion
Results of our Bengals poll
Complete Olympics coverage at Cincinnati.com/olympics
Are you watching the Olympics on TV? Tell us what you think
Local boxer dominates opener
Two local rowers advance to finals
DAUGHERTY: Good or bad, U.S. lacks Karolyi's fire
Ky. Speedway expands schedule for 2001
Herman wins SOPGA Open in pro debut
Highlands plummets in national polls
Complete prep football coverage at Enquirer.com/prepfootball
Ohio high school results
High School Highlights
Ohio football computer ratings
N. Kentucky high school results