ISU vs. K State Game Thoughts

[FerShizzle]

I think the OL blocks different for Hansen than they do for Sama. They know CH will be on them quick and they just need to open a crease. But with AS they need to open a hole and hold it open. They can’t move on the next level because they are waiting for him to decide to go.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Yes and even with playing soft there's a chance young safeties get burned so it looked like they took the low risk option.

It looked like miscommunication a few times yesterday along with bad positioning.

Then why have 5 DBs in the game if we are going to play that soft? I thought the whole purpose of having so many of them playing was to cut off the short throws and not give up and easy 15 yards on 1st and 20.
Put in another D lineman, and then play back or blitz, speeding up the QB. We are doing the worst of both, not putting pressure on the QB, and not covering the short pass, which leads to easy throws and catches. You have to take something away there, which we are not doing, and we still were getting beat over the top twice yesterday.

 

[madguy30]

Then why have 5 DBs in the game if we are going to play that soft? I thought the whole purpose of having so many of them playing was to cut off the short throws and not give up and easy 15 yards on 1st and 20.
Put in another D lineman, and then play back or blitz, speeding up the QB. We are doing the worst of both, not putting pressure on the QB, and not covering the short pass, which leads to easy throws and catches. You have to take something away there, which we are not doing, and we still were getting beat over the top twice yesterday.

I don't think it's more complicated than 'we have young/new guys and will give up some chunkish yardage in front vs. something way worse depending on the situation'.

The 4th Quarter TD to Brown was a 3rd and 3 and KSU's last TD was a 1st and 10.

The first looked like miscommunication and the 2nd looked like misjudgement/position which can comee from lack of experience.

There may have been some miscommunication even in the chunk yardage plays for positioning on the back end or maybe even in the DL that left receivers that wide open.

It's a long season and the group as a whole may need some time to get those things down.

 

[Statefan10]

We got burnt a couple of times because the safety forgot his number 1 key, NEVER let a WR get deeper than you. On the second TD, you could see he started to rotate up, and then realized the inside receiver had done and out and up, and it was too late for him to recover. That has nothing to do with scheme, just poor play by him.

We were playing way too soft on the outside, and allowed easy throws which KSU took advantage of, which when you have 5 DBs back there should never happen. The corner should be setting on that easy out pass, and if the receiver goes up field, then give him off to the safety that should pick him up.

Freshman got burnt on that play. He’ll learn

 

[inCyteful]

It's easy to say our OL "blocked better" in the second half, and while there is probably some truth to that, I think the combo of making adjustments at halftime and leaning more on Hansen played a huge part. He just seems to follow blocks and attack the hole so much better than Sama does.

This. And I have to wonder if Mauser isn't taking a page from the Heacock playbook - where we are very vanilla in the 1st half and then unleash the hounds in 2nd half when the opponent has a harder time making adjustments - seems that would work for OL blocking schemes as well?

 

[cydnote]

Another observation from the game:

Three of three on forth down attempts. I don't think this is any massive change in Matt's coaching philosophy as it is that the talent level keeps increasing under his tutelage and he is more inclined to take calculated risks than with previous teams, and with greater success. Players make plays. Seems as time goes by we are clamoring less for "should have gone for it" and actually doing it. I'm sure the K St coaching staff had the same mindset during their "debacle" on forth down, and in retrospect, that could have changed the entire complexion of the game--it just wasn't successful. I don't envision Matt as being that bold on that end of the field but rather relying on our defense as he has in the past. We must have been in K St's head from the kick off.

 

[nfrine]

Leading the B12 conference standings.....

 

[WiClone]

Link? I'm not saying he doesn't but how can this be if he didn't get any carries yesterday?

Link? Ye played last year in two games before getting dinged up. He played in the spring game last year and had nearly 100 yards iirc.

If you don’t follow ISU football you should learn to use Google. Find your own damn link.

 

[BCClone]

Yes and even with playing soft there's a chance young safeties get burned so it looked like they took the low risk option.

It looked like miscommunication a few times yesterday along with bad positioning.

The pass defense that irritated me was on a 3rd and long our backers would drop 3-4 yards behind the first down markers. Kstate was able to throw right at the sticks, catch and their first step they were already making the first down. I prefer if the backers have their heals on the first down line and force the throw to either go over them and let the safeties handle it or make them throw short and fight for a first.

 

[CyCloned]

I loved skipping the FG attempt and going for it. If you miss, KSU is trying to tie the game with a fg so most likely worst case is OT. If you‘red up 6 they’re trying to win it with a TD. Happens all the time especially in the NFL. Down 3 they almost always try to tie it Instead of win it.

Being a Cyclone, I could see KSU blocking the FG attempt and returning it for a TD...

 

[MartyFine]

Iowa State and KSU are very very close talent wise. KSU had 17 transfer portal additions this past year and I think that large amount of turnover showed. Iowa State was just a little more polished in the ways the matter. What we used to call the margins a few years ago?

ISU is still developing players in house. KSU sought to go out an buy them, being in the top 20 in transfer portal additions last year. There are other programs in this league who are attempting to do the same, we will see how that goes for them. In an early season matchup like this, it was advantage ISU.

 

[SolarGarlic]

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)

Your observation on Hansen/Sama isn't completely accurate. The run blocking turned with Sama at RB. We then inserted Hansen and got to our bread and butter. A lot of people are forgetting the drive on Eskildsen's TD was basically Rocco/Abu until that pass. We chipped away, then Sama got a 7 yarder. An 8 yarder. Then boom, TD over the top.

 

[SolarGarlic]

The amount of fans already writing off our transfer WR’s is astounding. Not just here but on X as well

There are a lot of dumb fans on twitter. Our most vocal. You could see this coming when the transfers were basically positioned as 1:1 replacements for Higgins and Noel. Townsend barely played and was dinged up. Sowell looked a little overwhelmed and was out for at least part of the spring. To anyone actually paying attention to preseason chatter, we were always going to lean on the TEs and Eskildsen and Overby.

 

[ClubCy]

Link? Ye played last year in two games before getting dinged up. He played in the spring game last year and had nearly 100 yards iirc.

If you don’t follow ISU football you should learn to use Google. Find your own damn link.

Basing all that on 11 carries again North Dakota and Arkansas st plus a spring game?

 

[SolarGarlic]

Iowa State and KSU are very very close talent wise. KSU had 17 transfer portal additions this past year and I think that large amount of turnover showed. Iowa State was just a little more polished in the ways the matter. What we used to call the margins a few years ago?

ISU is still developing players in house. KSU sought to go out an buy them, being in the top 20 in transfer portal additions last year. There are other programs in this league who are attempting to do the same, we will see how that goes for them. In an early season matchup like this, it was advantage ISU.

Yeah, their fanbase was off target in assuming that transfers are always a good thing. In their online discourse, it sounded like they were assuming that they were essentially doing what Texas Tech is attempting or what Florida State did two years ago. Transfers are risky and usually better for depth than stardom, especially in the first game.

 

[SolarGarlic]

I think Dylan Lee gets a fair share of carries this year and I don’t think he takes them from Hansen. Seems to have great vision and cut back ability. He has to be able to help in pass protection, though.

How do you know this? He had like 4 carries against Ark State.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

And Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care

 

[Peter]

My favorite moment was when a Kstate defender (Romaine?) ended up on the ISU sideline after a play and decided to stay to run his mouth and literally the entire team went over there to beat his ass.

 

[Peter]

This never makes any sense to me. Like if you are the better team then you don’t beat yourself period.

 

[Cyclone Pfan]

Hope we see more of the 2nd half OL than the first half OL. It's pretty confusing how they were so much better after halftime, but I'm not complaining!

I think I heard someone say KSU switched to 4 down lineman where they had been running 3 in years past. It confused the linemen (assignment wise) and they made corrections at halftime.