The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Division I-AA edition.

[Dan Rydell]

Impressions from the game yesterday.

The Good:

*  The new videoboard is outstanding.  It makes the old videoboard look like a 13" TV. 

*  The new player's entrance is cool.  Rolling up the door with the smoke pouring out is a great touch...good way to keep from exactly copying the tunnel walk or other school's entrances.

*  Special teams.  Won us the game. 

*  Ian Campbell.  Showed some ability rushing the passer...reminded me of Jared Allen for the Chiefs over the past couple of years.

*  Norwood.  Looks like TE is going to get a lot of catches this year.

*  At least we're not Colorado.  Unlike the Buffs, it looks like our Cats are good enough to consistently compete for I-AA championships.

The Bad:

*  The defense.  Too many tackles by Justin McKinney, not enough by the linebackers.  I couldn't tell exactly from where I was, but I wonder if this was a result of the D-Line not occupying enough blockers and the LBs getting blocked out of the plays as a result. 

*  Byron Garvin.  Picked on repeatedly.  Good thing we're not playing Tech this year.  They could hang 200 on us.

The Ugly:

*  Absolutely horrible coaching decision by the Illinois State coach to go for 2 at the end of the game.  They outplayed KSU the whole game except on special teams, and threw it away with that play call.

*  The offense.  Seriously, WTF?  This is what we get from a former offensive coordinator and oline coach?  Horrid oline play and no running game?  And one of our two quarterbacks who were so good that they made three other quarterbacks leave the program, when he did get time to pass, consistently threw the ball at the feet of the receivers.  Meier showed no ability to throw the out patterns last night, which, if I understand correctly, is a staple of the WCO.   

*  Unsportsmanlike conduct.  Horrible call by the official on the dive into the end zone.  Let them play. 

*  My language.  My apologies to those sitting around me when the official made the above call. 

Conclusion

My apologies to everyone for my preseason prediction.  Obviously, I drank entirely too much purple kool-aid in the weeks leading up to the season, which led to my wildly overoptimistic prediction that the Cats would go 4-8 this year.  I clearly overshot the realistic expectation for wins by two.   

[catsfan20012002]

Absolutely horrible coaching decision by the Illinois State coach to go for 2 at the end of the game.

You go for the win on the road and the tie at home. I had no problem with the decision and no I'm not just saying that because I'm a KSU fan.

[Beijing Cat]

I say kick the PAT at home and go for 2 on the road is 99% right. My problem is that everyone else in the stadium knew we couldn't score so take us into OT. On the flip side of that maybe Denver saw his guys wearing down and wanted no part of OT.

I didn't have a problem with his call. He scores the 2 and he buries us.

[Andy]

i thought he said some of his players were banged up (including that great wideout) and he wanted to get out with no more injuries.  or maybe it was a player that said that cause the rest of their season was more important than this game.

i bet they aren't saying that if they are playing a top 25 team.

[ds43fan]

The ugly

Me on in the stands wachin the O-Line i  was screaming HEY I GOT AN IDEA!!! LETS USE OUR HANDS TO BLOCK!!! I'VE SEEN OTHER PEOPLE DO IT

And the Random Official's calls against us probably made me almost kill the poor guy infont of me..my bad

The Good
Leon Patton

[michigancat]

Wasn't Garvin our good corner last season?

I remember Baldwin getting burned repeatedly at Tech and other games.

[ksuno1stunner]

Garvin won us the game

bless his soul

[Fausto]

From my seat in Sin City, the Good, Bad and Ugly:

Good:
- A K-State win
- Perfect in ESPN's College Pick-em
- 5-3 in my plays...1 paylay paid
- La Tech WR Jonathan Holland


Bad:
- Brent Musberger doing a Notre Dame game.  If I wasn't already sick this would have done it.
- Cal is Lee Corso's national champion?  Knew that was bad from the beginning
- Hey Sooners, that was a fumble!
- James Cox's performance.  Or wait, is that good?


Ugly:
- UAB Cheerleaders

[PoetWarrior]

You have to go for 2 if you are in Illinois St.'s position, it's an unwritten rule.

Meier's arm is incredibly weak, Freeman can do everything he did yesterday and most of it better.

[Dan Rydell]

You have to go for 2 if you are in Illinois St.'s position, it's an unwritten rule.

Would Texas go for two in that situation against KSU?

[Saulbadguy]

Garvin won us the game

bless his soul

He gave up what..2 TD's?

[PoetWarrior]

You have to go for 2 if you are in Illinois St.'s position, it's an unwritten rule.

Would Texas go for two in that situation against KSU?

No, because Texas is not a 1-AA team who is playing a 1-A on the road, and has narrowly lost three years in a row to 1-A teams.

I-AA teams have to do that.

Period.

[michigancat]

You have to go for 2 if you are in Illinois St.'s position, it's an unwritten rule.

Would Texas go for two in that situation against KSU?

No, because Texas is not a 1-AA team who is playing a 1-A on the road, and has narrowly lost three years in a row to 1-A teams.

I-AA teams have to do that.

Period.

Not when they're kicking I-A BCS Big Boy's ass.

[Houstoncat93]

You have to go for 2 if you are in Illinois St.'s position, it's an unwritten rule.

The rule only applied when we didn't have OT.  It was a stupid call be their coach.

[cas]

Impressions from the game yesterday.

The Good:

* The new videoboard is outstanding. It makes the old videoboard look like a 13" TV.

* The new player's entrance is cool. Rolling up the door with the smoke pouring out is a great touch...good way to keep from exactly copying the tunnel walk or other school's entrances.

* Special teams. Won us the game.

* Ian Campbell. Showed some ability rushing the passer...reminded me of Jared Allen for the Chiefs over the past couple of years.

* Norwood. Looks like TE is going to get a lot of catches this year.

* At least we're not Colorado. Unlike the Buffs, it looks like our Cats are good enough to consistently compete for I-AA championships.

The Bad:

* The defense. Too many tackles by Justin McKinney, not enough by the linebackers. I couldn't tell exactly from where I was, but I wonder if this was a result of the D-Line not occupying enough blockers and the LBs getting blocked out of the plays as a result.

* Byron Garvin. Picked on repeatedly. Good thing we're not playing Tech this year. They could hang 200 on us.

The Ugly:

* Absolutely horrible coaching decision by the Illinois State coach to go for 2 at the end of the game. They outplayed KSU the whole game except on special teams, and threw it away with that play call.

* The offense. Seriously, WTF? This is what we get from a former offensive coordinator and oline coach? Horrid oline play and no running game? And one of our two quarterbacks who were so good that they made three other quarterbacks leave the program, when he did get time to pass, consistently threw the ball at the feet of the receivers. Meier showed no ability to throw the out patterns last night, which, if I understand correctly, is a staple of the WCO.

* Unsportsmanlike conduct. Horrible call by the official on the dive into the end zone. Let them play.

* My language. My apologies to those sitting around me when the official made the above call.

Conclusion

My apologies to everyone for my preseason prediction. Obviously, I drank entirely too much purple kool-aid in the weeks leading up to the season, which led to my wildly overoptimistic prediction that the Cats would go 4-8 this year. I clearly overshot the realistic expectation for wins by two.

To me I don''t see anyy reason not to go for two, If you don't make it you lose. So what. Did anybody expect them to win. If you go for it and make it, you win. Mainly because of our crapty offense that didn't score a TD all game.

[Dan Rydell]

No, because Texas is not a 1-AA team who is playing a 1-A on the road, and has narrowly lost three years in a row to 1-A teams.

I-AA teams have to do that.

Period.

The better team shouldn't go for two in that situation.  Doesn't matter if it's Texas or Illinois State.

[PowercatPosse]

Totally agree with Garvin getting picked on.  He stunk last night. 

Archer had 14 tackles and Diles had 10.  That seems like a good amount of tackles considering they threw 38 times.

Good things ----
1. Campbell was the best Ksu player on the field last night.
2. Norwood looked good catching and running after the catch
3. Special teams were good all around and made 2 HUGE plays for scores
4. Discipline was good.  Only 1 holding and 1 false start. 
5. We did not had our opponent a very short field for a score (something we did a lot last year)

bad things ---
1. OL was terrible in run blocking
2. OL was bad in pass protection, especially the left side
3. Meier was way off the mark on 4 or 5 passes
4. Offense had to settle for 4 FG tries and did not score a TD
5. Defense gave up a few 3rd and longs in the 2nd half

Despite getting outgained and outplayed, we won because of special teams and the fact that we did not shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb mistakes, drop balls,  numerous penalties. 

[PoetWarrior]

The fact that they did go for 2 should tell us a little something about what they thought of us.

[AzCat]

You can't fault ISU for going for the win on the road.  Particularly when they were completing around 2/3 of their passes and gaining almost 3 ypc, odds were that they'd convert and take the lead.