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One thing I like about home games that I am attending... I am not posting here DURING the game... We can definitely light continued frustration fires under each other... that being said... here's just a couple of my personal observations from last night.

1. Wassink has some wheels. I don't think I have seen him run that effectively since he graduated from Grand Rapids South Christian. Utilizing his legs puts more OPTION in our read option! That has to raise the pucker factor in our future opponents defensive coordinators... At this point in our season I don't think it's paramount to keep him in bubble wrap.

2. Passing game... only after reading Lesters post game press notes did I stop scratching my head about what I saw from our passing game. We really only took one or maybe two intermediate shots over the middle. We almost threw a few INT's that were fortunately dropped... Lester indicated he wanted to get the BSU linebackers running sideline to sideline early to beat up their depth... so as to help the running attack. I don't think we go with a similar game plan against Ohio. One problem we still have is the accuracy of the deep ball... HOWEVER.... we weren't getting much separation down field... Ricci got open deep down the sideline and Wassink almost got him killed with a high deep ball that just took too long to get to him...

3. Defense Jeckyl and Hyde appearance... Let me start by prefacing what I saw from BSU with regard to their cut back lanes and how well their OL was playing. BSU is no slouch in the trenches when it comes to run blocking and the RB is stout and not an easy task to bring down with one arm... That being said... we took some TERRIBLE angles on quite a few run plays so some of the chunk plays on the ground and didn't make very good plays on the ball... lots of missed tackles. The ability for BSU to get to the edge most of the game based on bad angles by our secondary was concerning... Need to clean that up... we seemed to string them along the line of scrimmage and then the BSU back or WR would squeak forward for another 5 to 7 yards... frustrating. We were just missing on a number of runs up the middle... Holley was in there a few times but just missed... Ball State has the #2 scoring offense in the MAC...

Positive side... we absolutely dominated that offensive line on obvious passing downs... the only real passing game they had was outs to the sidelines... if they needed to go vertical Plitt was running for his life...

4. Flat after half... it was obvious that BSU came out after half with some fire in their belly and that immediate kick off TD return just gave them a huge boost... Took us basically the entire 3rd quarter to get some fire back... which leads me to my last observation ... which I think was a difference in this teams ability to get itself fired up over the last few years...

Not sure if they showed this on the broadcast... but at one point in the second half during a TV timeout the BSU team (offense) were all huddled with what looked like some sort of piece of wood... and were jumping up and down and chanting really loud... The Bronco huddle (defense) was just silent... for a moment... until they noticed what BSU was doing... then it became a battle of who could appear more excited... who could be the loudest... who could look more fired up. At one point I thought it was going to spew into an on field fight... It was impressive... and that is what Big Lou can add to this team... he's got those guys fired up.... whether they are struggling or not... they never seem to hang their heads. Next play... which is a positive thing.

It was a great game... weather was cold but no wind made kept it bearable. Crowd was abysmal... but what do you expect for an 8pm game on a Tuesday... Id say a few hundred students showed out early... but most left at halftime...

A win is a win... and the game plan can make some things look different than what we expect. We aren't going to go head to head with a team like BSU and blow them off the field... They are on the rise... We still put over 30 points on em... and we held them when it counted at the end and got the W... Need to make continued improvements before Ohio...

GO BRONCOS!

Yeah, that chanting match was kind of bush league on their part. They started all in a circle and then they turned to our team to do it at them. The sign says "Out the mud." It's their slogan this year. They had momentum and then they got cocky. When you have confidence, don't be an idiot and give the opponent any reason to gain any confidence or get angry. I bet they felt dumb about it riding home on the bus. It reminded me of when Akron burned the oar and then we lit them on fire.

I agree it was great to see this team not let their energy level down. Every time last night our body language looked a little down, we fixed it. Big Lou starts jumping and then they get into it lol. I'm glad they've addressed that issue.

Yah that was bizarre.

Happy those didn't turn into any personal fouls. (Notice how those seemed to have gone away....at least it's been a while)

(11-06-2019 11:14 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Yah that was bizarre.

Happy those didn't turn into any personal fouls. (Notice how those seemed to have gone away....at least it's been a while)

Ummm, no. You might have missed the PF at a very critical moment prior to their go ahead touchdown late 4th qtr. about 4:00 left.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-886347-post-16...id16428589

(11-06-2019 11:47 PM)WMUlaxer97 Wrote:  

(11-06-2019 11:14 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Yah that was bizarre.

Happy those didn't turn into any personal fouls. (Notice how those seemed to have gone away....at least it's been a while)

Ummm, no. You might have missed the PF at a very critical moment prior to their go ahead touchdown late 4th qtr. about 4:00 left.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-886347-post-16...id16428589

Ummm, no. I forgot about that, but they weren't a dime a dozen like they have been in the past.

(11-06-2019 11:47 PM)WMUlaxer97 Wrote:  

(11-06-2019 11:14 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Yah that was bizarre.

Happy those didn't turn into any personal fouls. (Notice how those seemed to have gone away....at least it's been a while)

Ummm, no. You might have missed the PF at a very critical moment prior to their go ahead touchdown late 4th qtr. about 4:00 left.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-886347-post-16...id16428589

That PF may have actually been the best thing possible. If it took too much time off the clock to get that TD it would have made it possibly impossible to come back and get the go ahead.