(01-06-2014 01:30 PM)Policiious Wrote:  

(01-06-2014 11:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(01-06-2014 10:38 AM)exCincy Kid1 Wrote:  P.S. I hate the squibb kick strategy at the end of a game...don't understand why BSU did that with 1:30 to go and the wind at their backs. Kick into endzone and let 'em start at the 25 yard line. BSU's D did such a nice job all night of keeping ASU out of the endzone and then just collapsed in that last series...gotta give credit to ASU QB for making the throws into the wind.

I sort of understand why they did it. If they couldn't get it out of the end zone, we had one of the better kick returners in the country back there. Knighten hadn't thrown a pass successfully more than 5 yards downfield all night. You had to think that the kickoff would be our best shot at scoring.

At the same time, they had gotten touchbacks the last two kicks to that side, so squibbing it didn't make sense.

A kick into the endzone would have made ASU drive 75 yards in a little over a minute. Not that they could not have done it but it would have been more difficult than starting at their own 40.

Not sure if it was a called squib kick..

1. Ball st had trouble kicking all night and struggled to kick to the end zone all night including the kicks with the wind.
2. That kick had a holder which can take some power off the ball
3. The ball bounce at 20 and picked up at 15...returned 25 ish yards.

So stAte got a good return. Both returners for stAte have serious speed and have both returned kicks for td's before. Don't blame them if they did squib but it didn't truely look squib like..

For some reason the tee Ball State's kicker was using couldn't keep the ball upright in the wind, AState had far less trouble with that. Using a holder means one less guy charging downfield.

I knew going in it would be a tough game. BSU has always struggled against mobile QB's in a traditional offense. How the D can slow down navy and army triple options the past couple of seasons and not figure out how to stop a simple one back, backfield into option read is beyond me. I think AState did a good job of scouting that weakness out.

The location of the bowl made it a full on away game. You deal, it's a bowl game but it wold be interesting to see the outcome if these teams played in an Indianapolis based bowl.

40's and windy also didn't help our passing attack.

Fake punt early in the 3rd giving the ball to AState on their 35. WTF!!!!!!!!!! in a game of field position in those conditions how do you think about calling that play. I'm calling out coach on that one.

BSU has struggled all season on kickoffs. I've seen way to many returnable kicks in situations where you can't have that. Sometimes I'd rather have it kicked out of bounds trying to hit the endzone instead of letting a good returner catch a ball on the run at the 10-15.

I've also not seen so many bad snaps all season. Was it rust, or the cold, or nerves I have no idea. But fumbled snaps on the one yard line can't happen.

Overall it just wasn't a good effort by BSU. credit to Astate, they showed up and did what needed to be done to win. They had a solid plan and executed it. Not watching Astate at all this season I can't say how much was new for them. There were situations where it seemed that BSU had no idea what Astate was doing. I can think of several Blitzes that had both Wenning and the O-line confused and players came through untouched.

Another season in the books. I'll take 10 wins. That's never a bad thing but these no shows in bowl games have got to stop. There is a lot of work to be done in the off season...

(01-07-2014 02:00 PM)cardinalcrazie Wrote:  I knew going in it would be a tough game. BSU has always struggled against mobile QB's in a traditional offense. How the D can slow down navy and army triple options the past couple of seasons and not figure out how to stop a simple one back, backfield into option read is beyond me. I think AState did a good job of scouting that weakness out.

The location of the bowl made it a full on away game. You deal, it's a bowl game but it wold be interesting to see the outcome if these teams played in an Indianapolis based bowl.

40's and windy also didn't help our passing attack.

Fake punt early in the 3rd giving the ball to AState on their 35. WTF!!!!!!!!!! in a game of field position in those conditions how do you think about calling that play. I'm calling out coach on that one.

BSU has struggled all season on kickoffs. I've seen way to many returnable kicks in situations where you can't have that. Sometimes I'd rather have it kicked out of bounds trying to hit the endzone instead of letting a good returner catch a ball on the run at the 10-15.

I've also not seen so many bad snaps all season. Was it rust, or the cold, or nerves I have no idea. But fumbled snaps on the one yard line can't happen.

Overall it just wasn't a good effort by BSU. credit to Astate, they showed up and did what needed to be done to win. They had a solid plan and executed it. Not watching Astate at all this season I can't say how much was new for them. There were situations where it seemed that BSU had no idea what Astate was doing. I can think of several Blitzes that had both Wenning and the O-line confused and players came through untouched.

Another season in the books. I'll take 10 wins. That's never a bad thing but these no shows in bowl games have got to stop. There is a lot of work to be done in the off season...

That was typical ASU, and I think it was the reason we were so overlooked this year. We were an awful first half team this season. Led only two games at half (UAPB and Idaho) Were tied in three (ULM, Texas State, Ball State) and trailed by 10 points or less 5 times (Missouri, Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Troy, Georgia State)

We went 8-2 in those 10 games.

The biggest difference was that when we lost our starting QB in the 1st quarter, we were forced to use our backup, who was a great athlete, but really cannot throw the ball. We went back to the 2012 playbook that we had under Malzahn, used tempo and a strong running game to move the ball down the field. Thing is, we did the same thing against WKU for 3 quarters and should have won that game, so Lembo had to have some film...but the playbook was very new. Without Harsin, Thompson was able to give the defense free reign, and that really gave us the edge late.

We were so much better in the 2nd half of games this year it wasn't even funny. I think its one of the reasons our fans were glad in the end that Harsin left. He just wasn't playing ASU football. What we saw Sunday Night was the ASU football that won us 20 games the previous two seasons.

I think BSU fans were deceived by the 7-5 record. We had a lot of players back from a 10-3 team that beat Kent State last year. Our Nose Tackle (projected early round NFL pick) really disrupted your offense. Pretty sure our coaches knew our starting QB was going to be limited so the back up had more reps and time to prepare. I don't think it would have been that close of a game if our starting QB hadn't been hurt. Not smack-talk, just honest. I met 3 Ball St fans on the beach day before the game and they were very respectful and nice. It was a great game and I would be really bummed if we had lost so I understand Ball St fans being bummed. Both teams had a chance to win and played their guts out. Both fan bases should be proud of the kids who played. Good luck going forward

We all learned something..Was a awesome game to watch. CBS rates it as the 9th best bowl this year out of 35..not to bad.

stAte needs to continue their momentum..28-11 in 3 years, 3 conference tittles, 3 bowl appearances and 2 bowl wins!

Ball st I don't know a lot but I know your on a 3rd good season. I hope Lembo stays and continues to build you. You don't want to be like us and lose coaches yearly it kinda sucks.

Only benfit to losing coaches.. We get to upgrade and reform..stAte just hired 2 assistants at 300k plus new HC will make 700k