Over The Pylon

Time for Keith Wenning to start a new streak

So last night clearly wasn’t a historic night for Ball State football. It was for Ryan Broyles as he became the all time leading receiver in the Big 12, but we don’t cover Broyles or the Sooners, so that’s not really our concern. Normally, we’d run some lengthy bullet point list of things to take away from this game, but when you get beat down by 56 there isn’t really much to say. Even the things we would normally harp on like the turnovers are almost excused simply because of the pretty extreme difference between OU and BSU when it comes to talent, depth, and efficiency. Add in a pissed off Oklahoma team that just lost their consensus #1 ranking and the need to make a statement before their game against Texas next week and it was a recipe for disaster that Oklahoma happily cooked up.

When the exuberance of the onside kick gave way to anger after a three and out series, I knew it was going to be a long day. Throw in the fact that successful drives were capped by field goals and not touchdowns along with the BSU turnovers and it simply made an upset impossible and keeping it even remotely close extremely difficult.

We made a big deal last night on Twitter about Bob Stoops leaving the starters in once the Sooners were firmly in control, but in hindsight, they didn’t play the entire game, and most Sooner fans told us that his M.O. was leaving them in for a full three quarters of work. And besides that, starters or not I’m not a big fan of another team taking pity or mercy on anyone at the expense of their own development. Though with what I  saw last night from Landry Jones and Ryan Broyles, I’m not sure their offense could improve a whole lot. Defensively, the Sooners were just too fast for the Cards and it showed. I’m sure Keith Wenning is going to have nightmares about Tony Jefferson, but in reality, all three picks were flukey kinds of tips that just fell right. Similar to USF, once those things go against you, it’s hard to maintain hope. Shame to see his stat line of zero INTs end like that.

It seems absurd to take hope and optimism away from a loss like this, but what I saw was still an immense amount of talent on the BSU roster and a ballsy playcalling approach from the coaching staff. To try and extrapolate some sort of season outlook based on the result of a game against one of the three or four best teams in the country seems foolish, so I’m not. Instead, I will focus on the fact that it was hopefully a learning experience for the Cards who now sit in prime position to make themselves contenders for the MAC. At 3-2, I’d say .500 is definitely a probability and four wins and a bowl are not out of the question. Whether those four wins come against the right opponents to land the Cards in Detroit for the MAC Championship I can’t say, but what I can say is the rest of the year should be a memorable ride for the Cardinals and considering the bumpy trips down the road the last few seasons, that’s good enough for me.

Filed under: BallStateFootball, Big 12, WhatWeLearned |