Over The Pylon

That is how you win a ballgame, kiddies. The collection of people who thought Ball State would walk out of the Scheu with a two touchdown win could probably fit in a small room somewhere in the bowels of the stadium. That’s not what matters and certainly not what happened today, though, as the Cards walk out with a 35-21 win, a 3-5 record, their second straight win, and a heaping helping of momentum.

First and foremost, my initial reaction is “WINS ARE FRIGGIN’ AWESOME!” and much more enjoyable than losses. The last time I was in the post game presser it was after Indiana State and this one was considerably different, considerably more positive, and there wasn’t an uneasy thing sort of hanging in the air as everyone wondered how CPL and the Cards were going to explain that loss away.

My second reaction is that I said all week that Akron is maybe the worst 4-3 team in the country. It’s good to be proven right as Akron showed time and time again in the second half why they are now the worst 4-4 team in the country. The pessimists in the fanbase were convinced that the offense couldn’t move the ball, the defense couldn’t stop the Zips, and it was just a matter of time before even more of the sky continued to fall. The tale of two halves showed what this team is capable of and every good team has a moment people can point to as “The Moment” when things sort of fell into place. Today’s win is certainly capable of just that very thing.

Third, if you haven’t seen Quake Edwards in person, make sure you check out a game before he leaves Muncie after this season. The amount of punishment he both doles out and takes through the case of his weekly running back duties is astounding. The fact that he’s both effective and durable is a testament to both Quake and the training staff. He’s now 9th in the MAC in career touchdowns, 1st in school history for yards, and 2nd in school history for 100-yard games.

Obviously getting five turnovers in one half of football isn’t a sustainable gameplan going forward, but damn it was nice to see today from the Cardinals. Whether it was stalwart defense from the boys in Cardinal and White or Akron just falling apart or some combination of the two is sort of a moot point, as the only thing that ultimately matters is that Ball State beat a MAC East contender that was 4-3 and lauded as a strong conference opponent. Akron coach Terry Bowden, ever the master of the obvious said, “The turnovers and all the mistakes in the second half were our melt down.” Yep.

How about Jack Milas?! While happy as can be that he is coming in to his own at the helm of this offense it does raise some questions about why that move wasn’t made sooner.

Overall, this game was exceptionally odd. Between the three straight interceptions, the other turnovers, questionable spots, shaky reviews, stupid penalties, and a whole host of other things, I fully expected this to fall in line with the rest of 2014 and see the Cardinals fail to be on the good end of any 50-50 type of situation.

The final reaction is that it is a testament to the integrity of these players and coaches to continue to perform week in and week out despite the lack of support they have from the student body and community at large. On a picture-perfect fall Saturday, only 7617 made it out to The Scheu. I understand this team’s record is not the dazzling wonderment it has been in recent memory, but that is absolutely no excuse. Wonderful performance from the team, pathetic performance from the fanbase.

Those are my initial reactions, let’s hear from CPL and select players…

Part 1…

Part 2…

Part 3…

More coming tomorrow for sure like Final Word and an in-depth look at the win, but this feels awfully good. I would normally be dreading a two and a half hour drive home, but between the W and the Pizza King I’ll have along with me, it’s going to be a breeze.

Filed under: BallStateFootball, Consciousness |