ISU vs. K State Game Thoughts

[BCClone]

Start off 1-0? Check
Conference win? Check
Road win? Check
Trophy in Ames? Check

What a great Saturday!

National championship (Ireland) in Ames? Check

 

[Psyclone Brian]

Anybody else surprised that on that 4th down conversion in the 4th quarter with 8:19 left on the clock, we didn't get called for "targeting" on that head-to-head contact between Avery Johnson & Jamison Patton? That was a true head knocker, and a great play!!!

 

[RagingCloner]

I won’t pretend to know everything about PFF, however from what I can tell, this is extremely encouraging for the first game

 

[cyclone4L]

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

I wouldn’t say I’m writing them off, but I am MUCH higher on Eskildsen and Overby. I LOVED Overby as a recruit and Eskildsen was great in his spots last season. They were awesome yesterday.

I think Sowell will find his way come the middle of the season. I don’t think we see much of Townsend. He didn’t even have a target.

 

[cyclone4L]

I won’t pretend to know everything about PFF, however from what I can tell, this is extremely encouraging for the first game

Thank you for this.

 

[Cloned4Life]

Just rewatching the game. Comments about Sama's approach to the line are really spot on. He seems to start dancing a yard deep and all momentum is lost. Saw the same thing last year. He's big enough he ought to be able to pound the ball forward like Hansen does. Has to change something because unless there is a gapping hole to go through he's defeated before he actually gets to the line.

There's no way you watched the 2nd half, because Abu was great in the 2nd half. He did the correct thing and made the correct move and the correct cut on basically every one of the times he touched the ball. And he wasn't running through gaping holes. Carson was running through gaping holes in the 4th quarter.

 

[Cyclonepride]

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 just get a Lane Danielson feel for Eskildsen. He's going to be good. Our whole defense looks so much better when the linebackers are a strong point. Safeties really have to keep to their assignments in defending the deep ball, but I'm sure yesterday was a good lesson for them on that. Hopefully the linebacker play will relax them on biting on those play fakes too.

 

[Cymark86]

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.

I would hope 100% after they did the math, but I think Miami lost last year by not taking a knee and fumbling.

 

[Chainsaw]

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!

I was really impressed with the coaches at the end of the game.
You will remember that Hansen supposed had scored with 2 minutes 15 seconds (circa) and the clock stopped.
A replay/review determined that he hadn't scored. So I was thinking they couldn't just kneel down three times to end the game because the two minute timeout would make that impossible.
But the coaches realized that when the ball was reset, the clock would start and run down to two minutes before they had to run a play, (and KSU had no timeouts to prevent that).
So then we could kneel down three times and run the clock out.
It's another occasion where I have learned that these coaches are very smart.

 

[jsb]

I was really impressed with the coaches at the end of the game.
You will remember that Hansen supposed had scored with 2 minutes 15 seconds (circa) and the clock stopped.
A replay/review determined that he hadn't scored. So I was thinking they couldn't just kneel down three times to end the game because the two minute timeout would make that impossible.
But the coaches realized that when the ball was reset, the clock would start and run down to two minutes before they had to run a play, (and KSU had no timeouts to prevent that).
So then we could kneel down three times and run the clock out.
It's another occasion where I have learned that these coaches are very smart.

The TV announcers didn't even get that. They kept talking about how you either let us score or play it out. They really thought Kansas State could get the ball back.

 

[Cymark86]

I was really impressed with the coaches at the end of the game.
You will remember that Hansen supposed had scored with 2 minutes 15 seconds (circa) and the clock stopped.
A replay/review determined that he hadn't scored. So I was thinking they couldn't just kneel down three times to end the game because the two minute timeout would make that impossible.
But the coaches realized that when the ball was reset, the clock would start and run down to two minutes before they had to run a play, (and KSU had no timeouts to prevent that).
So then we could kneel down three times and run the clock out.
It's another occasion where I have learned that these coaches are very smart.

I mean, kudos to the coaches, but with how many there are and what they get paid, this should be the expectation. I was sitting on my couch telling the TV to run it down to the 2 minute warning…. And I’m not even on the payroll!

 

[Ankency]

There's no way you watched the 2nd half, because Abu was great in the 2nd half. He did the correct thing and made the correct move and the correct cut on basically every one of the times he touched the ball. And he wasn't running through gaping holes. Carson was running through gaping holes in the 4th quarter.

Agree! Thought Sama looked MUCH better than last year with putting his foot in the ground and getting upfield. When he did run outside he was able to turn the corner. Hansen didn’t do anything in the first half either because there was nowhere for either of them to run. Sama had a very good 3rd quarter as the Oline was starting to wear them down and there were some running lanes. By the time Hansen came back in the 4th quarter the kitties were toast and he had some huge holes to run through. Can we not just be happy that we have 2 really good Big XII quality running backs and stop comparing them! Continue to play them both and if 1 really gets in a good rhythm in a game then ride him. We NEED them both!!

 

[flycy]

In rewatching the game, I didn’t see Sama’s old habits of him dancing and bouncing runs. K State’s front seven won the line of scrimmage in the first half and both backs struggled. Both backs found success in the second half. Hansen is probably a better back, but the difference isnt huge. Sama has improved a lot from the first half of last year.

Definitely agree Sama has improved greatly and that Hansen is the better back. Would also like to see Lee get some touches, hopefully next week we're able to put him in. We need at least 2 preferably 3 or more serviceable backs.

 

[Aclone]

Not all the way to the end of this thread, but…I keep seeing people complain about the defense.

They had what, 13 first downs? And aside from two plays where redshirt freshmen—one of whom was the offensive sout team player of the year last fall—made bad reads, we strangled them.

Hello?

 

[AlaCyclone]

Not all the way to the end of this thread, but…I keep seeing people complain about the defense.

They had what, 13 first downs? And aside from two plays where redshirt freshmen—one of whom was the offensive sout team player of the year last fall—made bad reads, we strangled them.

Hello?

Agree. I thought the defense was salty all day, especially against the run.

 

[cyfanatic13]

I was really impressed with the coaches at the end of the game.
You will remember that Hansen supposed had scored with 2 minutes 15 seconds (circa) and the clock stopped.
A replay/review determined that he hadn't scored. So I was thinking they couldn't just kneel down three times to end the game because the two minute timeout would make that impossible.
But the coaches realized that when the ball was reset, the clock would start and run down to two minutes before they had to run a play, (and KSU had no timeouts to prevent that).
So then we could kneel down three times and run the clock out.
It's another occasion where I have learned that these coaches are very smart.

I mean, kudos to the coaches, but with how many there are and what they get paid, this should be the expectation. I was sitting on my couch telling the TV to run it down to the 2 minute warning…. And I’m not even on the payroll!

Yeah 99.9% of coaches are doing the same thing we did in that scenario and the .1% that aren't are idiots.

The TV announcers didn't even get that. They kept talking about how you either let us score or play it out. They really thought Kansas State could get the ball back.

I always wonder if announcers are just that dumb or if they're trying to keep people interested in the game as long as possible. It took way too long for them to "realize" the game was over

 

[acoustimac]

There's no way you watched the 2nd half, because Abu was great in the 2nd half. He did the correct thing and made the correct move and the correct cut on basically every one of the times he touched the ball. And he wasn't running through gaping holes. Carson was running through gaping holes in the 4th quarter.

Yeah…he did run through big holes. Believe me I paid attention. But you all loved him last year when I said the same thing and he went on to be perfectly average doing exactly what I mentioned then. Oh well…

 

[Aclone]

Rewatched the game today. It is crazy to me how much depth we use on this team. We rotate guys in and out at every position except QB and OL.

This is something newer fans won’t get. For years, we were nebu jurybaway from disaster, because the roster went one deep, even on good teams. The Ace Bowen, or Knott and Klein lindbackef groups? This as Tiggy.

That way all across the board. Even in CMC’s early years, one OL down meant a walkon was playing, and massive position shifts to compensate.

I like this much better now!

 

[bozclone]

This is something newer fans won’t get. For years, we were nebu jurybaway from disaster, because the roster went one deep, even on good teams. The Ace Bowen, or Knott and Klein lindbackef groups? This as Tiggy.

That way all across the board. Even in CMC’s early years, one OL down meant a walkon was playing, and massive position shifts to compensate.

I like this much better now!

It gets a little hairy at times, but it develops players and it keeps a large number of the roster engaged. If the staff feels you are ready to play, they find a way to play you. I think it is part of the formula to succes at Iowa State

 

[jsb]

This is something newer fans won’t get. For years, we were nebu jurybaway from disaster, because the roster went one deep, even on good teams. The Ace Bowen, or Knott and Klein lindbackef groups? This as Tiggy.

That way all across the board. Even in CMC’s early years, one OL down meant a walkon was playing, and massive position shifts to compensate.

I like this much better now!

I know that we all know this, but how we managed to win 11 games with the lack of linebackers we had was amazing.