ISU v. Arkansas St. Game Thoughts

Glad to be 4-0, kind of nervous that our defense seems to get worse as the game goes on. We used to lock teams down after half but this year, K State hit us with big plays, Iowa and Ark St were able to run the ball and dominate time of possession in the 2nd half. They both kept Rocco on the side which kept them in the game. We need to get off the field and let Rocco win games. We won't be able to beat good teams if this continues. LB play is still a major issue.
You make some good points, but I think you’re taking too much away from the game yesterday

For the record, we only allowed 6 points in the second half yesterday
 
Play calliing tried to get too cute at the beginning of the game. WTF were we attempting a punt block? Just get the ball and possession and get the defense some rest. We tried to give them a win. And they had some weapons. Lucky.
 
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I thought even in the last two drives ISU got unnecessary with their offensive choices.

Why go for broke on long passes vs. just hitting someone underneath quickly to get the first down?
 
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The cy hawk hangover can be a real thing, and I know they had a bye week between the games a year ago, but they beat them by 45 points a year ago. Nothing about yesterday's game gives me warm fuzzy feelings moving forward. As others have mentioned, the guy yesterday at QB for them was a very solid dual threat QB, but he's nothing close to some of the top guys we are gonna be running into in the coming weeks. Heacock has built up a lot of good will with our fanbase, but I've grown restless with his at times lackadaisical approach. Would love to see our defense become more aggressive, and it seems like we do finally have the talent to be that way at least part time.

It was frustrating, but “lackadaisical” is certainly not a word I’d use to describe Jon Heacock. Or anyone on Campbell’s staff.

I still remember a week after that awful Ohio game we came back home and put together a complete game against an Okie State team that went to the CCG. Beat AZ at home and this will be forgotten about.
 
The cy hawk hangover can be a real thing, and I know they had a bye week between the games a year ago, but they beat them by 45 points a year ago. Nothing about yesterday's game gives me warm fuzzy feelings moving forward. As others have mentioned, the guy yesterday at QB for them was a very solid dual threat QB, but he's nothing close to some of the top guys we are gonna be running into in the coming weeks. Heacock has built up a lot of good will with our fanbase, but I've grown restless with his at times lackadaisical approach. Would love to see our defense become more aggressive, and it seems like we do finally have the talent to be that way at least part time.
Boy there are a lot of caveats from yesterday's game compared to facing them last year the main one being it was at Arkansas State's home stadium on a 100 degree day, which none of us probably fully comprehend how much harder it is to play away compared to home and a TON of 2nd and 3rd stringers played. The answer is pretty simple, these games happen at least once to pretty much every team every year. Chalk it up to the players didn't have their best, coaches didn't have their best and we still found a way to win. Did everybody see Texas yesterday? Or my favorite for all the hawk fans is reminding them that in 2009, Kirks only BCS bowl winning season, they beat UNI 17-16 and Arkansas State 24-21. These games simply just happen.
 
While I agree that the game plan held us back in part, as I think we could have ground them into the dust with power runs and quick and easy tight end routes, I love that Mouser is aggressive. We have been wishing for that for a long time.

There is a difference between aggressive and cute. That game called for power football as they couldn’t stop us. Yet we often did the opposite with throws and weird, slow developing misdirection plays.

Love Mouser and think he’s great but that was not one of his better called games. I am sure he’ll learn from it.
 
He's listed at 6'2", is that considered short for NFL receivers these days?

I wouldn't guess he's that tall, but I only ever see him on TV around other very large people.
 
Also Sama was the better back yesterday I won’t hear an argument
Absolutely loving Sama when he hits the hole he is supposed to, running much tougher this year. However, when he goes off on his own it is a problem. I went and rewatched the Iowa game paying attention to the line and Sama's carries. He never had less than 6 yards when he hit the gap the blocking was designed for, even if the hole was small. He only gained yards twice when he went his own way because he didn't like what he saw. In that game that was roughly half the time. Still did that in this game. He was for example successful when he bounced the ball outside and scored the 10ish yard touchdown, but made his lineman look bad causing the hold when he didn't go where he was supposed to. I'm pretty certain he would have scored if he had squirted through the hole as designed and the penalty wouldn't have occurred. Fortunately, he followed his blockers a play or two later and ran over a defender for the score. Abu if you read this listen to the coaches and follow your blockers. You're on the cusp of being special.
 
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Play calliing tried to get too cute at the beginning of the game. WTF were we attempting a punt block? Just get the ball and possession and get the defense some rest. We tried to give them a win. And they had some weapons. Lucky.
We were trying things against an inferior opponent to work out the kinks. Much worse if we rough a punter in an important game later where the margin to win is small. Coaches gambled on experimenting all game and it almost bit us. Passing early was to try and get our receiver's confidence up. Campbell has always done this early in the year, and it often pays off later in the season.
 
Both the offensive and defensive game plans were underwhelming. Starting the game with 3 passes when Rocco routinely begins inaccurately was a poor decision. And the roll out sack from the 2 yard line was boneheaded. Thankfully we got the TD on Rocco’s scramble.

Going for the punt block instead of getting the D off the field on a hot day was incredibly dumb.
 
I'm happy we got the ground game going at least. Our RBs averaged 6.9 ypc. Of course Arkansas' RBs averaged 11.7 against them, so there's still room for improvement. In the passing game I'm concerned that we're only completing 57.5% against FBS competition. Need to be more accurate and stop dropping passes if we're going to make a run in conference.

Defensively I think we did fine against designed run plays. Their RBs only had 3.6 ypc (statistically we should've won by more). Mobile QBs remain a problem though. I know we probably can't get a premium pass rusher in the portal, but we need an effective QB spy on that side of the ball. Everyone wants to fix it by blitzing more, but that didn't seem to help yesterday.
 
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One guy we should all highlight through the first quarter of the season is Jontez Williams. We haven’t heard anything from that guy which is the biggest compliment a DB can have. He’s got his side of the field on total lockdown.
I noticed several times in the Iowa game and also against ASU that Williams wasn't even on the field. Cooper and Bell were the corners.
 
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