Game 6—Ball State

[zippypitt]

1 hour ago, zipsoutsider said:

Zips 2-0 in the MAC, 3 wins from being bowl eligible.

 

After six games, this team is about where most thought they would be at 3-3.  The next six games make or break their season, Bowden's future with this school, and bowl eligibility.  That schedule contains at least three wins, the question is: CAN THEY DO IT?  Funny how two (2) weeks in college football can add a new perspective to things.  GO ZIPS!!!!

[Blue & Gold]

I'm watching the replay & it was Brian Bell who made the hit on our 4th down goal line stand.

[ZipsVoice]

I liked what I saw, and also am going to bed happy.  The running game by committee worked well, except Van Edwards seemed the weakest in his reps.  I thought Thomas did well today, although the first few series he really got away with a few that maybe/shoulda been intercepted.  But then he did a good job.  I had my binocs on him most of the game and he seemed to be more confident and didn't throw any tantrums.  I disagree with some about Kwads.  Maybe not the best route runner but with that speed and with Thomas' arm, I see lots of TDs ahead for these two.  Andrew Hauser was the defensive player of the game, by far!  He had a million tackles. was everywhere out there.  It was nice to see the insertion of Kato as a change of pace but Thomas was having a solid game, and came back in strong.  But here is the GREATEST news....no turnovers.  Zero, nada, zilch.  And secondly....no meaningful penalties.  a 5 yarder for offsides on #75 that didn't hurt as the Zips scored a few plays later, and a block in the back on an interception return.  I mean, doesn't that impress anyone else on this board??  And the slant passes were excellent calls and well executed as well.  I know the haters are gonna hate and tell me that none of this matters because Ball State was a bad team....but it's still the best I've felt leaving Info in a while....Good night, sleep tight, don't let the b**chers bite.

[zvillezip]

First place Akron Zips!

[zipsoutsider]

7 minutes ago, ZipsVoice said:

And secondly....no meaningful penalties.  a 5 yarder for offsides on #75 that didn't hurt as the Zips scored a few plays later, and a block in the back on an interception return.  I mean, doesn't that impress anyone else on this board?? 

Yes and no. Yes, they played a clean game in terms of penalties and no turnovers. I say no, because I thought the 2 heavily penalized games were absolutely ridiculous and had more to do with the way the games were officiated than it did the Zips, truthfully, especially the Troy game. The game became about the refs and not the players.

 

But your point is fair. We played a clean, disciplined game. 

[Spin]

Nice to see some people have come back in from the ledge. 

 

Fun game to watch, still room for improvement. But it's hard to argue with 2-0 in the conference.

[Blue & Gold]

Though I'm still not happy with the way we lost to both Penn State & Iowa State, all 3 of our losses look more understandable now.

PSU - BCS contender

ISU - beat Okla.

Troy - beat LSU

[Zipgrad01]

My takeaways....

 

RB - Sands and Morgan need to be the 2 guys toting the rock. Sands is the potential game breaker and Morgan is slippery and deceptively quick. VanEdwards is a special teams guy at this point. 

 

WR - the group looks quite a bit better with Wolfe. We need the large receiver that can stretch the field because our other receivers are tiny. Kwan is a hell of a speed matchup problem for a #2 corner to cover in the MAC. Coney had a nice game. Chapman drops way too many passes.

 

QB - Woodson looks to have gotten is arm strength back, but he is still not consistently accurate. This has always been an issue with him, but his running capability always made the defense account for that threat. He isn't running anymore, so a good defense is going to exploit his inaccuracies and make us 1 dimensional. He missed about 4 or 5 td's by overthrowing wide open receivers. We can't do that against good teams.

 

defense - I don't know what to take from this game as Ball State had about the skill player talent of APB. Their offensive coordinator was beyond awful. They got 7-10 yards on every off tackle run, but decided to call and up the middle play for no yards on over half of their running plays. 

 

Overall a fun game. I have been saying for a while that buffalo is pretty decent. We will find out next week when we see how we match up with western. The game with biffalo definitely gives me a much more positive outlook for Saturday. 

Edited October 8, 2017 by Zipgrad01

[Dr Z]

A couple observations from the game

 

- The second week in a row, pulling Kyle was the Zips best run play, see the Sands td run below.

- I think it might be time to tighten up our receiver rotation. Woodson needs more reps with less guys. 

- Again, sick for WB, but the position depth is as the staff described at the beginning of the season. Very capable. 

- Did anybody notice Anthony Winbush, the nation's sack leader yesterday? Congratulations to the Zips game plan, they did exactly what coach Bowden said they were going to do, and executed it to perfection. BTW, Anthony had zero sacks, and only two tackles. 

- It stil concerns me that for three quarters of the game, Milas sat comfortably in the pocket. What did the Zips do late in the game to collapse the pocket quicker? 

- I know Kobie Booker missed a big block right in front of the staff, but overall I saw a lot of good from him yesterday. I hope he continues to progress. 

- Nice job by Woodson and company, protecting the ball. It's invaluable not turning the ball over in a game. 

- While we have become acustome to Gilbert making 13 tackles, congrats to Hauser, with 13 as well.

 

[Blue & Gold]

ABJ: Zips cruise past Cardinals to take MAC East lead

 

Something  I learned... Ball State RB, Caleb Huntley, had 107 first-half yards but ended the game with just 129.

[UA1987]

I don't have much to add except that it was good to see Copeland back on the defensive line as I believe he was injured. Also, Bell is stepping up on the D and I'd like to see Baggett get some time at safety. On the O, you gotta like what you saw of Sands, but the QB over throws have to be corrected. Not sure if it's the speedy receivers that are pulling up a bit on their routes or if Woodson's timing.

 

Weather wise it was hot and sunny with a breeze that would come up and cool you down right on time. Ideal really. The east stands were almost as crowded as the west, so I would say 15,000 in the seats. The voice of Akron may have helped a little on that goal line stand.

 

Lastly, shout out to O'Leary and Foster. The 48 yarder was with the wind but still a nice kick.              

Edited October 8, 2017 by UA1987

[K92]

The opening drive was a thing of beauty.  If Akron could execute like that on a consistent basis, they could run the table.

[LZIp]

Agree with most others. A game I actually enjoyed watching for the first time since at least early last season (I can't really remember). Even though Ball State is probably a bottom 3-4 team in the MAC, it was nice to see us pretty much kick ass.

 

Agree that Sands and Morgan should be top 2 RBs and it seemed to be trending that way via snap count as the game went on.

 

Agree the WR rotation should tightened up. I'm tired of targeting #17. It almost never results in a completion. Chapman really does need to catch the ball better, but I like his YAC ability. In no order, Coney, Wolf, Smith, and Chapman should be the top 4. With some Bickley, Stewart, and possibly Williams sprinkled in to see if any of those guys can make an impact. I'm not super high on Bickley myself, but he has shown to make plays with the ball in his hands. He was a starter at the beginning of the season, but seemed to get injured and is now out of the rotation completely.

 

Pretty pleased with the defense. Bend but not break, and came up with stops when we needed to.

 

How about a shout out to Trevor Brown ( @Zipmlady ). He did a heck of a job on the hyped-nation's-sack leader Winbush yesterday. The whole O-line actually seemed to do a pretty good job.

 

Not sure how I feel about Woody and the overthrow comments. A few of them were to #17, who I said, never seems to be a completion when targeted. Deep throws are never high completion throws to begin with and its not like he is throwing to studs. Wind could have played a factor, the kicker's had trouble getting the ball to stay on the tee. I would probably like to see him connect on 1 or 2 more realistically. Its not like he was missing guys with nobody within 5 yards of them. They might have barely had a step. The throw to Kwad was beautiful.

 

Yeah, yeah Ball St was missing two of their best players. Last time I checked, our offensive and defensive captains are out for the year. I do think their freshman WR and RB have bright futures. Clearly Ball St's two best players on offense yesterday.

 

Sidenote: I was not able to watch the game until late last night. I have never noticed how horrible Reghi and Cherry were!! Reghi must have called Sands a true freshman 10 times, among other errors.

 

Edited October 8, 2017 by LZIp

[Dr Z]

10 minutes ago, LZIp said:

How about a shout out to Trevor Brown ( @Zipmlady ). He did a heck of a job on the hyped-nation's-sack leader Winbush yesterday. The whole O-line actually seemed to do a pretty good job.

Not diminishing Trevor, because he did do a good job, but there was a lot of tight end help lined up on Winbush yesterday. 

[Dr Z]

51 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Caleb Huntley, had 107 first-half yards but ended the game with just 129.

I've  always thought that coaches Amato and Stroud do a good job with halftime adjustments. 

[Dr Z]

21 minutes ago, LZIp said:

I have never noticed how horrible Reghi

He'll be 65 next summer, this year should be it. Hope he enjoys retirement. 

[ZipsVoice]

9 minutes ago, Dr Z said:

He'll be 65 next summer, this year should be it. Hope he enjoys retirement. 

C'mon Doc!  What the heck.....some of us are 65 and not calling it quits....yet!  

 

 

[ZippyRulz]

50 minutes ago, Dr Z said:

He'll be 65 next summer, this year should be it. Hope he enjoys retirement. 

 

But he still has his hair.

 

[UA1987]

51 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

 

But he still has his hair.

 

Looks like Reghi's barber uses a black sharpie or shoe polish to finish his cut. As bad as they are the announcers for the Troy game were worse. 

Edited October 8, 2017 by UA1987

[Lee Adams]

Was at the game. Not going into the stats. This was a game Zips had to win. Nothing new there. BSU was reportedly without 5-6 starters on offense including starting RB and others. They looked it on that side of the ball. Didn't really notice anything I hadn't seen previously from the Zips on offense.They were able to move the ball when necessary on a mediocre defense. 

Wodson still runs hot and cold throwing the ball. Made some really bad throws. But,two of the TD passes were on the button. Woodson worked the ball in a few times when the receivers had little separation. Wish he would cut down on some of the on-field antics though when plays don't go right. Completion percentage does need to improve. Play calling at times seemed to lose focus which affects what happens on the field,obviously. Didn't hurt to much this time however. 

Akron defense played well against a short handed offense. Thats what you are supposed to do. Still gave up way too much on the ground. That will kill them against WMU if it continues.

With OU and Miami losing at home the task is much more clear. Win at least 4 of the next 6 and that gives you a realistic shot at winning the division. 

[72 Roo]

My two cents:

• Raeghi drove me nuts with describing the year of Sands. It was true freshman, RS freshman, RS soph. C'mob Michael get it right and stick to it.
• The Zips were disciplined for the first time this year. The results showed.
• Unsung hero was Boxen. He tied up the middle and created opportunities for the LB's.
• Woody's arm is back, but I don't buy the excuse of tricky wind in missing so many deep open WR's
• The BSU OC was horrible. Makes me glad to have Milwee, ..... not.
• Sands is explosive and earned more carries and a start
• Cato should get more than 1 series per game. It will develop him and give opposing DC's more to prepare for. Loved his outside shoulder pass.
• The OL seems to be improving their run blocking. I have been very critical of them on this issue. I salute them for improving.
• I think the WMU game will come down to which team has more heart.

Go Zips! Keep it going.

[Ham]

I'm not complaining. I thought we were going to throw more to our tight ends?

[Hilltopper]

4 minutes ago, Ham said:

I'm not complaining. I thought we were going to throw more to our tight ends?

On a couple of those deep throws for incompletions we had wide open tight ends cutting across the middle of the field. Woodson needs to quit trying to hit a homerun so often.

[Dr Z]

Multiple times this week, coach Bowden expressed that he wanted more explosive plays. I’m sure Woodson was following a game plan. Hard to argue the results.

[Ham]

I think he also said that we need to use TE more?  I think the biggest affect would push the LB's off the line of scrimmage helping our running game.  A few throws to RB would also help.  I agree that big plays are important, but little plays keep drives going and produce points.