The Morning After: Picking Up the Pieces After Losing to Ball State

Where do we start? (picture: www.gousfbulls.com)

Where do we start?  USF is now 2-2 (0-1) after falling yesterday to Ball State, 27 to 31.  The Bulls had issues all over the field, from bad match-ups on defense, penalties that kept drives alive, and the offense again sputtering when they need to do it the most.  Let's try to dig through the rubble to see what happened and where we go next.

To start with, 11 penalties on the day killed the team.  Giving up 112 yards kills the offense and allows the opponent to stay on the field.  We saw it many times, such as the holding calls, the phantom leg whip, killed offensive drives.  The defense, battling injuries, had a few calls go against them, keeping drives alive.  The personal foul on Jeff Hawkins on a kick-off was probably one of the dumbest things I've seen in a long time. The team did not play with discipline at all in this game and if the coaches are not doing something real soon on this, they will continue to flail out there.  Now let's go to each side of the ball and break it down.

Special teams:  Bonani was solid, JBK had just one punt, and Kloss looked ok in kick offs.  Although, the coverage team allowed huge returns a few times and the blocking package on the PAT attempt in the second quarter failed, third time this season that has been allowed.  A dumb moment was the Bulls running Bonani out to attempt a 57-yard field goal, calling a time out, then sending out JBK to punt.  Not really sure what the coaching staff was thinking there, but it wasn't the smoothest move I've ever seen.  Overall, they played decently, but protecting and the coverage teams are still bad.

Offense: Let's start up front.  The Bulls came out after shuffling the line (Popek to LT and Edwards to LG) and ran the ball 12 straight times, establishing the mind set of pounding the rock and going right at them and it did work out for the most part.  The line struggled however when they had to go back in pass protection.  On a certain play, Daniels stepped back and had 2 defensive linemen on him already (thank goodness he escaped that one).  The line has been bad most of the year, allowing a lot of pressure and not helping Daniels at all.  While we want to put it all on Daniels, it is not fair.  The man can't even step back without running for his life. 

Murray had 18 carries for 68 yards on the day.  Lindsey Lamar had 11 for 55 yards.  Marcus Shaw carried it just once (why).  Daniels led the team with 14 carries for 75 yards. 

Daniels on the day completed 19 of 30 passes for 312 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.  The first INT came on a last second hail marry pass at the end of the second half and the other at the end of the game when he threw to a wide open defender and Mitchell was about 10 yards up field.  Daniels did have some bone headed plays, not throwing it away, scrambling and losing yards, but he didn't have any help from the line in this one.

Mitchell led the day with 6 receptions for 99 yards.  Lamar had 5 for 80 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Murray had 2 for 29 yards.  Andre Davis had 2 for 21 yards and a touchdown as Ball State covered him most of the day.  D'vario Montgomery had 1 for 25 yards.  Derrick Hopkins had 1 for 18.  Evan Landi had 1 for 10 and Deonte Welch had 1 for 10 yards. 

Overall, the offense sputtered at the worst times, did not run plays correctly, and just did come through late when they needed it the most.

Defense: Where do we start?  The secondary had 2 injuries, Kayvon Webster and JaQuez Jenkins, which forced them more into zone coverage, but the match-ups were terrible like this.  First, the front 4, after leading the nation last year for a while in tackles for loss, did not record one tackle for loss, not one, against Ball State.  Keith Wenning had all day to throw back there and there was just no pressure generated.  Whether this is scheme, coaching, or just being beaten, it's probably all three, but it was bad.  The linebackers, especially Lattimore and Cliett, were matched up with slot receivers, a huge mistake that allowed Willie Snead and others to carve us up late and get big first downs on 3rd and long, the same story from last week.  The secondary allowed big gains and just could not get off the field.  Chris Bivins, burning his redshirt, made his debut, recorded a tackle, but was in for just 3 plays (what was the point there).    Overall, Lanaris led the team with 10 tackles.  Lattimore had 9, Luke Sager had 7, Mark Joyce had 7, Jon Lejiste had 7, and Sam Barrington.   The team had 0 pressure, no tackles for loss, and once again, no interceptions.  The lack of pressure and turnovers is keeping them on the field too long and the bad coaching, putting the wrong people in zone coverage, is killing them.  Things have to be changed back there or it could be along season. 

FSU is coming to town next week, this could be real interesting.