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Jumping out to a 49-3 lead at the half means that things can only go downhill. So I apologize if this write up is overly critical. But the bottom line is that we won this game handily in a dominant fashion, and got to see plenty of youngsters get meaningful playing time. Plus we didnt have any injuries. All in all a good night. Let's break this down.
Offense
QBs had a nice night. I think we saw tonight why, currently, this is Kyle's team. The potential is there for Kyler, but Kyle runs the offense better and has better touch on his throws. Kyler will get there, but he's not quite there yet.
OL had an ok day. Still think that we need a bit more work before we start playing more stout competition. The first team gave Kyle some time but yet again we struggle in short yardage situations (some of that might be due to incredibly predictable play calling). We still need work here...but like last week, we had a pretty clean night...maybe 2-3 penalties?
WRs had a good night and it was incredibly refreshing to see routes over the middle for guys like Boone and RSJ. Kirk is on a different level right now as a true freshman.
RBs...hmmm. We are missing a quick twitch homerun hitter type of guy. Both Carson and White are bruisers...but a guy like Dolezal with the ability to accelerate and hit the hole quickly has the ability to make our offense operate at a higher level and to make our offensive line look better as well. I dont know if Dolezal is capable of being that quick twitch guy against SEC competition--Bradford would have been but unfortunately he's unavailable. I sometimes wonder whether Speedy could be that guy...We've got to find that in the future.
Defense
I'm not going to break this down in a detailed fashion, but aside from the first drive the 1s played very very well. Our 1s are capable of going up against darn near anyone....and that first drive was mostly an issue of defensive alignment. Once we got that fixed, everything stopped.
We also need to talk briefly about our first team defensive backs--specifically De'Vante Harris. I've been telling you that this kid is about to shine. The scheme allows for him to do what he does best, and we saw that through two quick PBUs and a pick 6. Get on the bandwagon now.
The second half of the game got sloppy. We knew that depth was an issue with this team--the talent is there, but the experience is not and we saw that. In total Ball State had 360 yards of offense--240 on the ground. Almost all of that came in the second half, but 240 to ball state is not good enough...I dont care which group of players we have out there. We have to do better, and I'm sure we will.
Overall
Solid night. Like I mentioned earlier, lots of people got playing time, coaches were able to walk away with some stuff to teach from and we had no injuries. Not to mention a 30+ point win. Kyle looked beautiful and I'm jealous of all of you lucky people who got to be there to see it.