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Game 8—@Ball State Cardinals


Dr Z

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10 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

 

I hope he can finish out the season. Was anything said about Warren?

 

He was dressed but listed as out.

 

7 minutes ago, Buckzip said:

Huge win. Very surprised TB was aggressive late. Love it. 

Not surprusing. Last year we depended on the defense to win, th8s tear it's the offense.

 

15 minutes ago, a-zip said:

Best receiving corps we've ever had.

100% agreed. Jeff Bowden was a terrible receivers coach 3 years ago, now, no one else talks about him.

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I am seeing a lot of this on Twitter from Ball State Fans. What happened?

ᒪE᙭I ‏@lexlumpkin  22m22 minutes ago

The University of Akron has the most disrespectful football team I've ever seen.

 

Jake Bartelson ‏@JakeBartelson  23m23 minutes ago

Now Ball State parents jawing with Akron players again....bad look.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, dre22era said:

I am seeing a lot of this on Twitter from Ball State Fans. What happened?

ᒪE᙭I ‏@lexlumpkin  22m22 minutes ago

The University of Akron has the most disrespectful football team I've ever seen.

 

Jake Bartelson ‏@JakeBartelson  23m23 minutes ago

Now Ball State parents jawing with Akron players again....bad look.

 

My guess, knowing how player parents get, is that they were the ones being disrespectful. The players shouldn't have responded, though.

Edited by ZachTheZip
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8 minutes ago, dre22era said:

I am seeing a lot of this on Twitter from Ball State Fans. What happened?

ᒪE᙭I ‏@lexlumpkin  22m22 minutes ago

The University of Akron has the most disrespectful football team I've ever seen.

 

Jake Bartelson ‏@JakeBartelson  23m23 minutes ago

Now Ball State parents jawing with Akron players again....bad look.

 

 

Sounds like fans were sore losers and mouthing off at the players

 

 

Edited by zipsoutsider
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42 minutes ago, ZachTheZip said:

 

My guess, knowing how player parents get, is that they were the ones being disrespectful. The players shouldn't have responded, though.

That would explain Natson's gesture to the stands after his big 4th Q catch.

 

What a difference Woody makes with this team.

Edited by Blue & Gold
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8 minutes ago, Buckzip said:

He's a grad student too. If he still has more classes maybe he would be up for it too. 

If you are a fifth year senior, I don't think you can ordinarily get a medical red shirt. If he was a 4th year senior, then he could, I believe. The 5 year clock only stops ticking for military or religious service.

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Great team win, today. The first half felt like everyone was adjusting to different personnel but they seemed to gel towards the end of the first half. We are a different team with Tommy Woodson. It's not just his arm, it's his fire.  He knows when to hold it, and when to throw it. He picked up a couple of nice first downs with his feet today at key times. I love that we can have the confidence to put the ball in his hands to throw a big pass at the end of the 4th to seal the deal.

 

JoJo Natson continues to be a workhorse for us and a warrior. I love that other teams cannot focus solely on Jerome or Natson without paying for it with Coney or Wolf. It was also nice to see Newman Williams catch a couple, but he seemed to hobble out a bit after his second catch. I hope it was no big deal. Nice to see Jerome Lane looking more like Jerome Lane, again. I like that we are keeping TC5 engaged. You never know when he might be needed, again, but also, he does gives a good look inside of the 10 yard line and in 4th and sort situations.

 

The OL and run game were impressive. So much for having the second least experienced OL at the beginning of the season. These kids are playing their butts off, and we lose none of them this year. Quigley did a very nice job playing for Gathney, today.

 

When you look at the stats, the thing that sticks out to me is that all of our tackles are coming from LBs and secondary. None from a DL, today. I think what it means is that Chuck Amato pulled off some defensive scheme magic today to shut down a productive run game with a patched together unit.

 

I have heard people belittle the team's record, saying we have only beat losing teams. Ball State is a .500 team and they probably won't end up with a winning record, looking ahead at the rest of their schedule, but they are no slouch, either and have played well this season.

 

This team has overcome a lot of adversity this year and they continue to find ways to win. Part of it is a higher level of talent, and part of it is a different culture. I am not sure if it is me or if it is noticeable, but TB seems much more personally connected to the players this year. He is celebrating with them when they come off the field after a great play and there seems to be more personal interaction. There could be a host of reasons for this (more reasons to celebrate, no longer deeply grieving losses of nephew or Tank, he was more involved with recruiting these kids, etc..)

 

The Good:

  • 100% conversions (all TDs) in the Red Zone
  • 0 interceptions thrown
  • Nearly even time of possession
  • 8/12 on 3rd down, 2-2 on 4th down conversions
  • Offense gave up 0 sacks to the second leading sack defense in the country
  • Team rushed for 177 yards, Van Edwards over 100 yards, set up the HB pass from Morgan. Both RBs stepped up played a big game for us. Van Edwards is explosive and starting to move to another tier of RB.
  • Trick plays worked - Woodson lined up, as a WR,  TC5 rushed for 1st down, pass from Morgan to Wolf
  • Lane was more productive.
  • Alvin Davis and Ulysees Gilbert are beginning to emerge as defensive threats. Kyron Brown, Jordan George, and Larry Hope are also playing well for us. Featherstone is also making an impact. 
  • 2nd half play calling made Milwee look like a genius.

 

The Not So Good:

  • 8 penalties for 51 yards, 3 from Letuli for illegal formation - not sure if it was a ref with a bug up their butt or if Letuli was doing something wrong. Seems odd to start getting them at this point of the season. Maybe he was so distracted by how badly the TV announcers butchered his name. Ekkins was getting an earful from TB about this. We had another illegal substitution on defense. We have to fix this It has been an issue for 2 straight games. The revolving door defense is surely contributing to this, but after 2 games, we need to find a way to address it. The revolving door is the new reality, for now and we have to make it work. We can't afford to give up those types of penalties.
  • 1st half run defense was like a sieve. Kickoff tackling wasn't tremendous.
  • Bizarre play calling for final drive of the first half. Let's hope a reporter actually asks about that drive this week.
  • Had to depend on a couple of reviews being upheld on fumbles. Thankfully, they both fell our way, but let's do a better job hanging on so we don't have to depend on good officiating.

Side notes:

  • Neither team gave up a sack today.
  • Bowden said something to the effect, "Losing teams talk about injuries, winning teams talk about the next man up." on the post game interview.
  • We wore that same uniform combo at Marshall.
  • Ball was listed as out, but was dressed. Hopefully, that means he will be back, soon. He might have had a 200+ yard day, today.
  • Camara went down in the 4th. He is the back-up DL. We really can't afford to lose any more guys there. I hope he is OK.

Let's go to Buffalo next week and become bowl eligible for the second consecutive year!  :thumb:

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1 hour ago, zipsoutsider said:

If you are a fifth year senior, I don't think you can ordinarily get a medical red shirt. If he was a 4th year senior, then he could, I believe. The 5 year clock only stops ticking for military or religious service.

Yes you can. Otherwise it would just be a redshirt. That's the whole point of it

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On top of it, looks like he redshirted his freshman year because of an injury, which would make it a pretty cut and dry case for a sixth year if he wanted it. 

 

That said, I'd much rather have him back this year with this team. We could give WMU a run in Detroit with a healthy team 

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I really don't know what to make of this game. First off it is obviously a win, a conference win, and I think we all know those don't come easy.

 

However, our defense still looks very suspect, and I don't see signs of it getting better. I don't think we consistent pass rush (or any at all). Pittman is not a playmaker, I think we know his role by now. He will probably get a shot in the NFL, but he doesn't look like a future NFL player out there in my opinion. Boxen is probably our best DT and obviously he is hurt. He is like Pittman imo - solid, but not an all-conference type player at this point in his career. Hamilton hasn't really done much this year. I will say Jest has a very bright future and I hope he keeps playing more snaps. Marcus probably played about 10 snaps today and was in the backfield a few times, but even if he keeps playing (which I doubt he will past maybe next week), I don't think he's anywhere close to 100%. Venkus plays hard. I just don't see us getting much production from the DL going forward unless Marcus makes a drastic recovery or Pittman finally breaks out.

 

The LBs can be hard to watch sometimes. I saw Bell chasing a guy from behind and he hesitated/slowed down for no reason before the tackle attempt. I don't know if it's the scheme, lack of talent, lack of execution, but we just aren't getting much from our LBs. I did see they had a lot of tackles today but I just want to see more plays being made. Ulysses is a promising player and is fast, how often are we blitzing him? We weren't very creative with Brown/Marcus either last year like I thought we could have been, but I obviously wasn't complaining with the results then. We have to try something else to get some pressure/make plays. 

 

Our offense should be really good. And we are at times. But then you look at a performance like today's 1st half (especially how tentative we were on the last drive), and I just don't have complete faith in Milwee. Our skills players are unbelievable though. The talent we've had here the past two years is special. The OL played really well, but has to stop with the penalties. I saw Bowden getting really heated on the sideline after the three on one drive.

 

Overall, I think we pretty much know what we have in this team. Our offense is explosive, and can put up points in a hurry when our key players are healthy. They can also be inconsistent, and the success is dependent on the health of Woodson/Natson/Lane. We have proven we can be productive at RB without Ball, although having a healthy Ball should only add more firepower. Our defense is a pretty vanilla, bend but don't break scheme. We have to find out how to get off the field and get our O back out there. There's no reason why Ball State should be 10/19 combined on 3rd/4th downs. We have some really promising young players who are getting a ton of playing time early in their careers (Edwards, Gilbert, Davis, Jest, a couple more I think I'm missing). All this being said, there's no reason why we can't handle Buffalo and Bowling Green, and if we can split Toledo and Ohio (preferably Ohio) we are looking at another really good/potentially great season. 

 

Edited by akron4ever
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