SOUTH BEND -- IU football coach Curt Cignetti told reporters earlier this season he's "definitely become more aggressive and attacking" on offense from when he started out more than 30 years ago as a grad assistant at Pittsburgh.

That philosophy was nowhere to be found on Friday night in a 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Cignetti's decision to punt the ball from Notre Dame's 48-yard line while trailing 20-3 with 10:34 to go in the game was met with confusion from the Hoosiers' fanbase and openly second-guessed in real-time on the broadcast.

"It makes no sense," ESPN broadcaster Greg McElroy said.

The network's play-by-play voice Sean McDonough echoed those comments.

"That's a head-scratcher to me," McDonough said.

The conservative approach was especially at odds with the bravado Cignetti expressed before the game when he dropped by the set of ESPN's College GameDay and said his teams don't just beat top-25 teams, they "beat the (expletive) out of them."

Cignetti stood by the decision to punt after the game especially in light of the way his team did end up scoring a pair of late touchdowns.

"I didn't want to punt, but we were doing nothing on offense and our defense was fighting," Cignetti said after the game. "You know, that was the only positive really, that I could draw, is our defense was still fighting because our offense was doing nothing."

Indiana's offense didn't have a first down and had minus-7 yards in the third quarter. Kurtis Rourke had only one completion and was sacked twice. Cignetti had no confidence his offense would convert a 4th-and-long in that moment.

Cignetti also punted multiple times at midfield in the first half.

"I didn't want to go 4th-and-10, you know it's like you're wishing and hoping," Cignetti said. "You have nothing to base it on, that you can convert 4th-and-10 at that point, right? There's still time, if you punt to win the game. That was the reasons why I didn't want to do it, but I felt it was the best move."

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.