ISU vs. K State Game Thoughts

[cyclone1209]

Offense

• Rocco: not his best day admittedly. But when the game is on the line, he just makes huge plays. I'd love for more consistency rest of non conf. His deep balls to Brett E. and Overby were NFL level throws.
• Brett Eskildsen - he is a natural at WR. I think he's going to make a lot of plays for us this year. Runs good routes and has speed. He's going to be a good one.
• Dom Overby - his stutter step and go route was a thing of beauty. Game breaking speed and he's just scratching the surface.
• TE's: our WR room does not have to be elite when Brahmer and Burkle are making plays the way that they did.
• Run Game - I listened to the post game with Chris Williams and the one disagreement I had was he said that "the O line just started to block better in second half." I see this a totally different way. Our run game improved immediately in the second half when we went back to our best running back. Carson Hansen gets in the game and we immediately start to rip off runs of 5 plus yards consistently. Abu, while probably a great kid, just does not find creases for running lanes well. To put an accent on the note of the run game / offensive line room, we just beat Kansas State without our best O lineman (Trevor Buhr).
• James Neal and Tyler Miller were very solid. It will be nice to get Trevor Buhr back soon and we need him.
• Offense Misc. Point: I want us to find a better 2nd string RB than Abu. At a certain point if Abu continues to get stuffed I want to see Dylan Lee more or Aiden Flora.

Defense

• Marcus Neal is a game wrecker. One of the best run defending safeties we have had in ISU modern day football. His tackle for loss on a 4th down was huge
• DL - I thought they played well. Dom Orange was solid, and Ike Ezeguo had a pass tipped. Ike i'm looking for to make more plays the longer this year goes. If there is one concern I have on D, do we have a difference maker who can get sacks this year? That will go a long way in improving our D.
• Carson Van Dinter - I really like this prospect. He was (minus one play) always in position and flying around the ball.
• LB Group - our defense with the 3 / 3 stack works great when our linebackers are as good as we have right now. Kooper Ebel looks so much improved over a year ago and was great. Caleb Bacon and Carson Willich made plays, I like this group a lot. K State is a power run attack and our LB group was stellar.

ST

• Aiden Flora looks like a good kickoff return man. He had one that almost went 40 yards today. Liked him back there. (i'd like to see him get a couple touches at RB each game)

 

[TedKumsher]

I kinda think 3rd quarter Abu is the only reason 4th quarter Hansen worked. Specifically over 4 yards per carry on 6 carries on the 6 minute (less 1 second) touchdown drive to go up 14-7.

 

[ghyland7]

I think the oline DID play significantly better in the second half.

Yes, Hanson seems to have better vision than Sama, but he also had gaping holes to run through. Miller/Black were mauling in the 4th quarter. Once Buhr is back this group will be pretty nasty.

Also, in the first half, a few of the sacks were on the RB and not really the oline.

 

[KennyPratt42]

The o-line was somewhere between average and poor the first half+ and got better and better as the second half went on. When they were pushing k-state off the line in the second half, particularly on the right side, both Sama and Hansen had more success.

Hansen’s runs in the first half were for 2, 5, 4, -1, 1, & 1. The game definitely didn’t play out where when Hansen was in we could run it and when Sama was in we couldn’t. When the line got almost no push neither back had success and when they were controlling the line in the second half they both had success. Hansen absolutely had the better game, but to say one was great and the other terrible is flat out wrong.

 

[Cy4Lifer]

I’m guessing ESPN execs were not happy with the first half, but loved the second!

 

[twojman]

This was a great way to showcase college football for the world. Pretty much everything you could think of, emotionally and about the game of football, happened in the game.

Absolutely LOVED the 4th down play call. Becht is a pretty darn good college QB. Put the game in his hands.

Also, this seemed to be a typical ISU vs KSU game.

 

[NebrClone]

Offense

• Rocco: not his best day admittedly. But when the game is on the line, he just makes huge plays. I'd love for more consistency rest of non conf. His deep balls to Brett E. and Overby were NFL level throws.
• Brett Eskildsen - he is a natural at WR. I think he's going to make a lot of plays for us this year. Runs good routes and has speed. He's going to be a good one.
• Dom Overby - his stutter step and go route was a thing of beauty. Game breaking speed and he's just scratching the surface.
• TE's: our WR room does not have to be elite when Brahmer and Burkle are making plays the way that they did.
• Run Game - I listened to the post game with Chris Williams and the one disagreement I had was he said that "the O line just started to block better in second half." I see this a totally different way. Our run game improved immediately in the second half when we went back to our best running back. Carson Hansen gets in the game and we immediately start to rip off runs of 5 plus yards consistently. Abu, while probably a great kid, just does not find creases for running lanes well. To put an accent on the note of the run game / offensive line room, we just beat Kansas State without our best O lineman (Trevor Buhr).
• James Neal and Tyler Miller were very solid. It will be nice to get Trevor Buhr back soon and we need him.
• Offense Misc. Point: I want us to find a better 2nd string RB than Abu. At a certain point if Abu continues to get stuffed I want to see Dylan Lee more or Aiden Flora.

Defense

• Marcus Neal is a game wrecker. One of the best run defending safeties we have had in ISU modern day football. His tackle for loss on a 4th down was huge
• DL - I thought they played well. Dom Orange was solid, and Ike Ezeguo had a pass tipped. Ike i'm looking for to make more plays the longer this year goes. If there is one concern I have on D, do we have a difference maker who can get sacks this year? That will go a long way in improving our D.
• Carson Van Dinter - I really like this prospect. He was (minus one play) always in position and flying around the ball.
• LB Group - our defense with the 3 / 3 stack works great when our linebackers are as good as we have right now. Kooper Ebel looks so much improved over a year ago and was great. Caleb Bacon and Carson Willich made plays, I like this group a lot. K State is a power run attack and our LB group was stellar.

ST

• Aiden Flora looks like a good kickoff return man. He had one that almost went 40 yards today. Liked him back there. (i'd like to see him get a couple touches at RB each game)

I think we just wore down their defensive line as the game went on. Do not have a feel for how many they played on the line, but they looked tired in the 4th quarter.

 

[Aclone]

I feel like there’s an argument to be made that after the rain, the footing was better in the second half.

Thank you for the breakdown, enjoyed!

 

[TJSClone]

Offense

• Rocco: not his best day admittedly. But when the game is on the line, he just makes huge plays. I'd love for more consistency rest of non conf. His deep balls to Brett E. and Overby were NFL level throws.
• Brett Eskildsen - he is a natural at WR. I think he's going to make a lot of plays for us this year. Runs good routes and has speed. He's going to be a good one.
• Dom Overby - his stutter step and go route was a thing of beauty. Game breaking speed and he's just scratching the surface.
• TE's: our WR room does not have to be elite when Brahmer and Burkle are making plays the way that they did.
• Run Game - I listened to the post game with Chris Williams and the one disagreement I had was he said that "the O line just started to block better in second half." I see this a totally different way. Our run game improved immediately in the second half when we went back to our best running back. Carson Hansen gets in the game and we immediately start to rip off runs of 5 plus yards consistently. Abu, while probably a great kid, just does not find creases for running lanes well. To put an accent on the note of the run game / offensive line room, we just beat Kansas State without our best O lineman (Trevor Buhr).
• James Neal and Tyler Miller were very solid. It will be nice to get Trevor Buhr back soon and we need him.
• Offense Misc. Point: I want us to find a better 2nd string RB than Abu. At a certain point if Abu continues to get stuffed I want to see Dylan Lee more or Aiden Flora.

Defense

• Marcus Neal is a game wrecker. One of the best run defending safeties we have had in ISU modern day football. His tackle for loss on a 4th down was huge
• DL - I thought they played well. Dom Orange was solid, and Ike Ezeguo had a pass tipped. Ike i'm looking for to make more plays the longer this year goes. If there is one concern I have on D, do we have a difference maker who can get sacks this year? That will go a long way in improving our D.
• Carson Van Dinter - I really like this prospect. He was (minus one play) always in position and flying around the ball.
• LB Group - our defense with the 3 / 3 stack works great when our linebackers are as good as we have right now. Kooper Ebel looks so much improved over a year ago and was great. Caleb Bacon and Carson Willich made plays, I like this group a lot. K State is a power run attack and our LB group was stellar.

ST

• Aiden Flora looks like a good kickoff return man. He had one that almost went 40 yards today. Liked him back there. (i'd like to see him get a couple touches at RB each game)

Spot on analysis. A couple of coaching notes: a pitch out, in the rain, in the first quarter of the first game, should not even be in the play book. I love Mouser and Campbell’s aggressiveness, but that was a mistake to allow Rocco to check into that play. However, much to a few “experts” around me’s frustration for not try to push the ball in for a TD at the end of the game - “3 knees” was the perfect call to end the game - they apparently weren’t fans in the CPR days!

 

[Alswelk]

Spot on analysis. A couple of coaching notes: a pitch out, in the rain, in the first quarter of the first game, should not even be in the play book. I love Mouser and Campbell’s aggressiveness, but that was a mistake to allow Rocco to check into that play. However, much to a few “experts” around me’s frustration for not try to push the ball in for a TD at the end of the game - “3 knees” was the perfect call to end the game - they apparently weren’t fans in the CPR days!

Did they bet the over??

 

[keepngoal]

Spot on analysis. A couple of coaching notes: a pitch out, in the rain, in the first quarter of the first game, should not even be in the play book. I love Mouser and Campbell’s aggressiveness, but that was a mistake to allow Rocco to check into that play. However, much to a few “experts” around me’s frustration for not try to push the ball in for a TD at the end of the game - “3 knees” was the perfect call to end the game - they apparently weren’t fans in the CPR days!

The math was there to win by kneeling. You do that every time.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Offense

• Rocco: not his best day admittedly. But when the game is on the line, he just makes huge plays. I'd love for more consistency rest of non conf. His deep balls to Brett E. and Overby were NFL level throws.
• Brett Eskildsen - he is a natural at WR. I think he's going to make a lot of plays for us this year. Runs good routes and has speed. He's going to be a good one.
• Dom Overby - his stutter step and go route was a thing of beauty. Game breaking speed and he's just scratching the surface.
• TE's: our WR room does not have to be elite when Brahmer and Burkle are making plays the way that they did.
• Run Game - I listened to the post game with Chris Williams and the one disagreement I had was he said that "the O line just started to block better in second half." I see this a totally different way. Our run game improved immediately in the second half when we went back to our best running back. Carson Hansen gets in the game and we immediately start to rip off runs of 5 plus yards consistently. Abu, while probably a great kid, just does not find creases for running lanes well. To put an accent on the note of the run game / offensive line room, we just beat Kansas State without our best O lineman (Trevor Buhr).
• James Neal and Tyler Miller were very solid. It will be nice to get Trevor Buhr back soon and we need him.
• Offense Misc. Point: I want us to find a better 2nd string RB than Abu. At a certain point if Abu continues to get stuffed I want to see Dylan Lee more or Aiden Flora.

Defense

• Marcus Neal is a game wrecker. One of the best run defending safeties we have had in ISU modern day football. His tackle for loss on a 4th down was huge
• DL - I thought they played well. Dom Orange was solid, and Ike Ezeguo had a pass tipped. Ike i'm looking for to make more plays the longer this year goes. If there is one concern I have on D, do we have a difference maker who can get sacks this year? That will go a long way in improving our D.
• Carson Van Dinter - I really like this prospect. He was (minus one play) always in position and flying around the ball.
• LB Group - our defense with the 3 / 3 stack works great when our linebackers are as good as we have right now. Kooper Ebel looks so much improved over a year ago and was great. Caleb Bacon and Carson Willich made plays, I like this group a lot. K State is a power run attack and our LB group was stellar.

ST

• Aiden Flora looks like a good kickoff return man. He had one that almost went 40 yards today. Liked him back there. (i'd like to see him get a couple touches at RB each game)

Great analysis! And a great win!

Couple nitpicks

• I think you were being a little easy on the OL. In the first half we could not run AND Rocco was getting pressured on the edges. The strip sack was a blitz that wasn’t picked up, but I think the other sacks were from their edges, and pretty quickly too. Second half the OL was much better
• The rain definitely didn’t help, but I remember two critical drops. One was from Cooper Alexander. I don’t remember who dropped the other. But just want to get that shored up.
• Rocco still gets happy feet under pressure, really bad. That was a problem last year, I was hoping an offseason might help with the footwork, but I still saw some of the bad habits.

Overall really great win! Against a strong opponent to start the season too

 

[bozclone]

This was the first game of the year, so mistakes are expected. My takeaway is that this team has the grit to have a successful season. I felt no panic from either side of the ball during the game. No dwelling on bad plays, just sights forward on what is needed to win. The attitude this team has is special and I think Rocco leads by example. We were the more physically and mentally tough team on Saturday and that is why we won.

 

[OscarBerkshire]

Rocco had a complete misfire that should’ve been a K-State interception. But Rocco doesn’t dwell on his mistakes and immediately made elite plays to put us in winning position again. Absolute gamer

 

[Pope]

If there is one concern I have on D, do we have a difference maker who can get sacks this year? That will go a long way in improving our D.

When we only rush 3 Dlinemen against 5 Olinemen, it's unrealistic to expect them to get sacks. That is, unless we have a freak NFL 1st round draft pick like Will McDonald on the Dline, and those guys are pretty rare.

The whole purpose of defense is to prevent the other team from scoring, and every year John Heacock's defense ranks at or near the top of the conference in this statistic. Our sacks typically must come from a blitzing linebacker or secondary, and the beauty of our defense is the QB usually has no idea where our blitz is coming from.

I admit it can be aggravating to watch the other team's QB have all day to throw the ball on certain plays, but he's taking all day because he's staring at 8 pass defenders.

In short, although sacks are fun to watch, they're not a high priority in our defense. Stopping the other team from scoring is.

 

[burn587]

Spot on analysis. A couple of coaching notes: a pitch out, in the rain, in the first quarter of the first game, should not even be in the play book. I love Mouser and Campbell’s aggressiveness, but that was a mistake to allow Rocco to check into that play. However, much to a few “experts” around me’s frustration for not try to push the ball in for a TD at the end of the game - “3 knees” was the perfect call to end the game - they apparently weren’t fans in the CPR days!

KSU clearly keyed on stopping that short toss after seeing how successful it was for us late last season. I don’t think it would’ve worked had Hansen been in but 1) Sama has to catch that and 2) Rocco fired that in there like a bullet rugby pass and deserves some of the blame, that’s a tough catch at that speed and height with a wet ball.

 

[Pope]

1st and goal inside the 1 yard line with 2 minutes and 18 seconds remaining.

Campbell made the classy (and correct) decision to just go into victory formation rather than beating KState by 10. I wonder what percentage of coaches would have done the same thing.

 

[HFCS]

1st and goal inside the 1 yard line with 2 minutes and 18 seconds remaining.

Campbell made the classy (and correct) decision to just go into victory formation rather than beating KState by 10. I wonder what percentage of coaches would have done the same thing.

Imagine you’re a k state fan.

That’s how you know kneeling is the better call.

 

[Frak]

Imagine you’re a k state fan.

That’s how you know kneeling is the better call.

That was setting up for a late TD drive to give them the win and put Avery Johnson squarely in the heisman race. We took that opportunity away from them.

 

[Alswelk]

That was setting up for a late TD drive to give them the win and put Avery Johnson squarely in the heisman race. We took that opportunity away from them.

Hate never dies.

And, frankly, we had it won. Why even risk it?

It did make the under hit though, so there’s that.