Over The Pylon

Some teams write off their out of conference schedule as simply the precursor to the meat and potatoes of their conference foes. Most will consider a majority of their non-conference schedule easy wins, save for maybe the payday game that some schools have to play or an arch-rival in-state opponent that tradition dictates you suit up against. This year’s out of conference slate hardly struck fear in the hearts of Cardinal nation, with most assuming at worst it would be a 2-2 out of conference season, most likely a 3-1 mark, and 4-0 wasn’t out of the question given Iowa’s seemingly annual inability to beat a good MAC squad. On Saturday, Ball State lost their 3rd and final out of conference game for 2014 33-24 to the Army Black Knights and the 2014 non-conference season comes to a disastrous close.

The ins and outs of Army are inconsequential, most notably because the far-reaching implications of that loss and the team response to it is so mind-bogglingly critical that I can’t adequately describe it. This program until week three of this season was a program on the rise, the next great MAC dynasty, and players and staff alike were heralded as the conquering heroes that the last three seasons exhibited. The loss to Iowa was easily written off as a bigger, tougher, stronger opponent. The loss to Indiana State? Harder to just write off but there were some significant fluke luck and freak plays. The loss to Army? Now we are reaching when we point to the weather. Even Pete Lembo said the rain made the ball too heavy to have a significant downfield threat.

So there’s been lots of reasons people could point to as to why this Cardinal team now sits at 1-4 and needing a miracle over the next 7 weeks to be competitive for a postseason appearance. None of them especially matter in they eyes of a fanbase that has been apathetic more than it has been supportive and at times seems like they are looking for a reason to not come out to Scheumann Stadium. A demoralizing loss to WMU on Saturday for Homecoming would conveniently fit the narrative of “Same old Ball State.”

So our Final Word this week is less about Army, but more about where we are at, or the status of the program so to speak. Your Final Word…

precipice (n.)
a situation of great peril

Some other things I takeaway from the start of this season…

• Some seem to have given up on this team and believe that this is a throwaway year a la 2009. I don’t see that being the case at all and am certainly not in that camp. Number one, last season didn’t see the kind of success that 2008 did and the drop off isn’t as severe. So there’s that.
• Having said that, I think the amount of people who buy in to this team could dramatically fall off with a loss on Saturday. It’s Homecoming week and I remember a Western Michigan Homecoming game in 2010 that I actually left at halftime because it was just awful to sit through. For the sake of the attendance the rest of the season, I hope Saturday is a convincing win.
• Your Homecoming weather forecast is partly sunny with a high of 59* as of this writing. That’s better than the rain originally forecast, but as most of us know, if you don’t like the East Central Indiana weather, just give it an hour or so and it will change.

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