Ball State holds off VMI
Ben Breiner
bbreiner@muncie.gannett.com
MUNCIE — Ball State coach Pete Lembo described Thursday night's opener as three and a half hours in purgatory for him, promising to explain the term to any non-Catholics who wanted a refresher after the postgame press conference.
The description ran eerily accurate.
Ball State's season-opening 48-36 win against FCS foe VMI occupied a strange middle ground. It wasn't particularly close, but wasn't the sort of blowout it felt like it could be at points. The Cardinals were never threatened, but almost every move to expand the lead was thwarted in peculiar fashion.
There were fake punts, long drives with seemingly endless third- and fourth-down conversions, big plays and boneheaded drops.
"I told them afterward, I said, 'We never want to get to a point where we're not happy about a win," Lembo said. "They're too hard to come by. But at the same time, this is a game you walk away from humble and you know coming in on Sunday, there's going to be a lot of things you're going to look at and scratch your head about."
In the end it was a win, one closer than expected against a team from a lower subdivision as Ball State's lead shrunk to 10 late in the second quarter and midway through the fourth.
Except any watcher of college football knows early games aren't be-all, end-alls. The Cardinals had different sets of issues in its previous two FCS openers, and they didn't have much predictive ability for how seasons went.
Good and bad: Ball State-VMI
What stood out was the dual nature of the defensive performance.
By most measures, it wasn't pretty. The Keydets (0-1) averaged seven yards per play, with a passing game that hit deep shot after deep shot (including a few special teams plays). The ground game was less successful, but Brice Tucker still had a few runs of longer than 10 yards, often when blockers locked up both the first and second levels of the Ball State defense.
But there were other moments. Reserve cornerback Corey Hall held up well early. The Cardinals made seven tackles for loss and consistently got free rushers just steps from sacks (forcing lobs). But they didn't get home enough.
"The explosive plays were the bulk of the damage," Lembo said. "I did feel like, crazy as it sounds, it felt like we were in control and we never lost our poise."
The offense, likely the mainstay of the team, couldn't escape the up-and-down moments. Quarterback Jack Milas threw for a career high 338 yards, but needed 52 passes to do it while getting victimized by drops. His running game picked up late, with a three-headed crew of Teddy Williamson (74 yards), James Gilbert (61 yards, two TDs) and Darian Green (147 yards from scrimmage, four combined TDs) taking turns.
"What drove me in this game was ... the way my fellow backs were there to pick me up, drive me," Green said. "I've seen them get some good carries and things like that. I just want to come in and raise the level of play."
But things really weren't crisp.
The Cardinals got touchdowns on six of 13 non-half-ending possessions, and twice settled for field goals inside the 10. While VMI connected on bombs, Ball State always seemed just a bit off connecting on deep shots against pressure.
"From our standpoint, we've just got to move the ball," Milas said. "Get first downs and continue to keep moving the ball and getting touchdowns and instead of field goals."
It's the kind of performance that leaves onlookers wondering (with Texas A&M, Eastern Michigan and Northwestern upcoming, clarity could take some patience).
Tailgaters bask in the BSU pre-game experience
There were baseline things that went well: habits on offense and defense, little underlying things that, if they continue, form the backbone of success.
Still, there were enough miscues to make a game against an FCS team closer than any FBS team prefers, Giving up conversions on fake punts, letting a team get first downs after 9-of-12 second half third downs (factoring in fourth downs), these are not ideal by any measure.
One can focus on one side or the other, point to old examples of what it could mean. But in the end, it's a starting point.
If Ball State fixes the smaller things, one can see it serving as a launching point. If they're part of the character of the 2015 Cardinals, it doesn't bode well.
There's 60 minutes of football in the books for the Cardinals. We have our first taste, a template set, but with just one datapoint, it's only a start.