A few more Ball State tidbits ....

[homerHAWKeye777]

I haven't seen more folks mention the following observations, so I thought that I'd share.

- With regard to run-blocking, I liked what I saw from Van Sloten. I couldn't gauge how he was doing quite so well in pass-pro, but I liked how he was getting downfield ... and I liked how punishing he was.

- Brad Rogers still has work to do when it comes to pass-pro. He chipped at an blitzer from the outside ... and did a poor enough job that Vandenberg felt the heat and was forced to throw a bad ball.

- The bad ball that Vandenberg threw was to CJ Fiedorowicz. It was a throw that he should have been able to make in his sleep. Frankly, Vandenberg was feeling more pressure than what really existed. He should have delivered a better ball. While I'm a huge advocate for Vandenberg, this is a nice illustration of the strides that he still needs to make. He still operates at a bit too high of a tempo.

- After Vandervelde left, we saw what will most likely be our starting OL in 2011. I must say that I love its promise. Gettis was at LG and everybody else stayed put. That personnel group seemed to "work."

- Coker seems to have pretty "soft hands." Even in pretty wet conditions, he caught the dump-off pass really "smoothly." In contrast, Rogers seemed to lose focus and dropped the ball that was thrown his way.

- LeBron Daniel is still probably kicking himself ... because he had a wicked highlight reel quality sack slip out of his hands due to the QB's spin move. It was great pressure ... however, he NEEDS to make that tackle. If we were playing Pryor ... we'd then possibly get gashed for huge yardage if our D-lineman misses that tackle.

- Even though Daniel missed the aforementioned tackle, I still like the pursuit that I saw from Bigach. While Bigach still seems to be playing at a 2nd string level ... he shows flashes that he's capable of being 1st string material.

- I remain a BIG fan of Morris. However, the young man has to do a better job tackling. Both on D and on special teams, he didn't tackle as cleanly as he should have. We really need him to clean that up.

 

[Jonesy86]

Even when I watch the same play 6-8X in a row I can't get that detailed in my analysis; perhaps it's because I don't have an in-depth knowledge of the small details of the game. I commend you for picking up on that stuff.

Let's give Rogers some credit, a lot of guys dropped passes, but I agree it looked like he lost focus and was trying to turn up field too early. What was strange to me was that he was getting flipped. Could that be from all the work at fullback?

We saw what Vandenberg can bring to the table that Stanzi doesn't do as well, and that's the bullet he threw to Sandeman for the TD.

 

[CAARHawk]

Homer: It is comforting to know that Vandy will have an uber-experienced line when he takes over next year. Because he hasn't shown that he can deal with the heat of a strong pass rush yet. That just comes with game experience. However, for some guys the game just never seems to slow down. Lots of guys with great arms have not made it because they can't seem to get the game to slow down.

I think that pass to CJ is an actually an incremental area of growth there. Might have been his internal clock going off. He just needs to be able to hear that clock and then stay calm enough to still release a good ball.

I agree with your assessment of Coker. Although the rust of missing most of camp showed, his ability to play relatively controlled was impressive. Really does look to have the tools to allow KOK to do some things he hasn't been able to do with his prior Iowa backs. Still think Rogers will develop into a really strong FB and single back in an extra wide set. My prediction is that he will gash major yardage on delayed draws in obvious passing situations.

 

[HawkinGoferLand]

I agree with your assessment of Coker. Although the rust of missing most of camp showed, his ability to play relatively controlled was impressive. Really does look to have the tools to allow KOK to do some things he hasn't been able to do with his prior Iowa backs. Still think Rogers will develop into a really strong FB and single back in an extra wide set. My prediction is that he will gash major yardage on delayed draws in obvious passing situations.

I like this

 

[Jeebus]

I watched that pass to CJ a couple of times and wondered if CJ was supposed to stop his route there but kept going? Loved CJ's block on one of Coker's long runs.

Thought Rogers did nice work at FB for the most part.

Did you guys notice the look Stanzi gave the sideline after that last TD to DJK? The look was something like " I know that wasn't the play call but I just had to take that shot downfield".

 

[AltoonaHawk]

I re-watched the game again last night and a couple things that I noticed:

On Robinson's first touchdown run, Reiff took out three defenders by himself. He is young and still a little inconsistant, but he shows flashes of first round talent.

On Robinson't second touchdown run, Vandervelde pulled around and there was nobody to block, Reisner, Morse, and Herman took out the entire left side of the Ball State line.