Kent State Good, Bad, & Ugly
Thank you bye week! That was a huge improvement over what took place in the season opener but there’s still plenty of work to do before this Saturday’s game at Miami. The Wildcats controlled the Golden Flashes throughout winning 37-0 and scored their first shutout since 2006. The defense is looking solid, although the truth will be seen in a few more days. Continue reading to see what else was Good, Bad, and Ugly from the game vs. Kent State.
The Good
Defense… As of today, the Kansas State Wildcat defense is ranked #1 overall in total defense. That’s right. #1. I guarantee that not one person on earth could have told you this would be the case. Now it’s only two games into the season and our opponents are a combined 1-5 (with the only victory over Missouri State) so don’t get too excited, but after the atrocity that we had to witness from the Wildcat defense last season, I think we deserve to have a fleeting moment of joy. Saturday at Miami is going to show us the full story of this unit and I’m excited to see a true test. The defense is the heart of this team right now and held up their end on Saturday limiting Kent State to 199 yards of total offense and a big goose egg on the scoreboard. Again, I know it was Kent State, but the defense is a big positive right now, which is way ahead of what I thought might be the case after last season.
Ground Game… Games like this are funny. I can’t recall one incredible run outside of Klein’s 46 yard dash from the Wildcat 3 yard line early in the first quarter but K-State still ended up carrying the ball 42 times for 219 yards. There was nothing spectacular happening but pounding the ball controlled the clock and worked all night long. It wasn’t particularly pretty, but it wasn’t ugly either. It didn’t have any Sproles magic, or Daniel Thomas workhorse power, but it was effective and did what was necessary. As much as I love excitement, the vanilla run game is working for now. Hopefully some more wrinkles are being added this week and the success of the ball carriers will continue on.
A. Brown… I was skeptical of all the hype that surrounded ABrown this summer but he is proving to be a man among boys. His performances so far have been outstanding and I don’t think it’s because of the competition either. More on this to come in the future.
The Bad
Second Half Slumping… K-State put up points quickly in the first 30 minutes of the game but couldn’t get anything going after half. I was expecting to see a final score with K-State around the 50 mark after entering halftime leading 34-0 but instead a field goal was all that came from the final two quarters. I’m going to re-watch the game to get some more insight, but there should have been at least another TD or two scored. I didn’t notice any huge defensive adjustments that were made by Kent State so my assumption is either HCBS decided to keep the rest of the playbook hidden or that everyone was satisfied with what had already taken place. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but I’d rather see some confidence building plays heading into our first major test.
Zone Read… Watching the zone read execution drove me nuts all game long. At first I thought Klein was simply making a mistake but his technique was so consistent that it must be designed. A normal zone read involves the quarterback holding the ball into the running backs stomach and making a decision to give or keep based on what the defensive end does. If the end crashes down on the running back, the quarterback keeps and runs outside. If the quarterback sees the end staying with him or even simply staying at home at the end of the line of scrimmage, he gives and allows the running back to go up the middle. This creates a decision the defensive end has to make and allows the space for one offensive player or the other to create something in. If you watch Klein running the zone read, you’ll notice that he consistently slid with the running back 3 or 4 steps until making a decision. Maybe I’m missing something but that seems to completely nullify the entire point of running a read play. The end didn’t have to make any decision but to go where both the running back and quarterback were headed together each time. I think it worked against Kent State because their players simply weren’t fast enough but against the next teams on the schedule there might be some big trouble brewing. Someone please inform me if I missed something!
Penalties… 9 penalties costing 70 yards is no good. Against a team like Kent State that doesn’t have a huge impact but starting Saturday that could be the difference between going bowling or taking a nice long winter break.
The Ugly
Bryce Brown’s Doghouse… How deep a hole is this guy in? I think there’s a possibility he’s still got a little injury funk but the most likely explanation is that he’s being shown that nobody cares who he was coming out of high school. I mean Tyler Lockett got more carries than Brown did Saturday. That makes him number 5 on the carries depth chart. I really want BBrown to succeed and not just beause it will make the Wildcats better. He’s a local kid who has seemed to go through some tough things which and there’s nowhere better for a second chance then under Bill Snyder. I hope whatever it is; BBrown gets it figured out and goes crazy.
Where to go from here
Saturday at Miami is going to be the real deal. The Hurricanes handed it to Ohio State last weekend which shows they have the ability to do some major things this year. If the Wildcat defensive unit can continue to play at a high level against much better competition we are going to be ok no matter what the outcome against Miami is. If Saturday proves our defense has appeared better than reality, there’s trouble ahead.