Rants and Raves: ISU

If you like offense, Saturday night at The Dana was the place for you.  With the teams totally 105 points collectively, defense was hard to find.  It was a chilly day of tailgating followed by a cold night in the stadium but the Jackrabbit offense did not disappoint. Lets take a look at this weeks Rants and Raves.

Rave: The Jackrabbit offense is so multidimensional.  They can run or pass with equal efficiency.  They finished with 293 yards rushing and 229 yards passing. Three players had at least 75 yards rushing and the team finished with a whopping 6 ypc average.  To start the game, the Jacks were passing it all over the field.  At the start of the second half, they were pounding the ball with physical runs from Mikey Daniel and Isaac Wallace.

Rant: As good as the offense was they can still "clean it up."  The quarterback read exchanges between Taryn and his running backs wasn't clean enough which resulted in 2 fumbles.  The Jacks were fortunate to only lose 1 of these fumbles but this is an area they can certainly improve going forward.

Rave: I'm really happy for Kal Hart on his strong performance on Saturday.  Kal works incredibly hard and is a team player as evidenced by his excellent run blocking.  He has also been really nice to talk to in brief moments when I attend practice so it was great to see him catch four passes for 57 yards on Saturday.  I would expect this type of performance to continue.

Rave: I thought the #605Hogs had another strong game.  Credit to Eagan Lickiss for another really good start at guard.  Also, Jack Domandle and Aron Johnson stepping in and performing when injuries knocked out Wes Genat and Tyler Weir was a good sign.  Lets hope Wes and Tyler heal quickly and can return for the remainder of the schedule.

Rant: Well... the defense.  Hmmm... Anytime you give up 51 points something is wrong.  I had heard this week that the defense is pretty banged up and battered.  I think this was pretty evident on Saturday.  They looked tired, a step slow, and struggled to consistently make the tackle on first contact.  I'm concerned about Rozeboom's arm/elbow, Snyder's knee, and all the rest of the injuries we don't see/know about.   Unfortunately, there really isn't time to recover with Youngstown, Northern Iowa, and Illinois State representing the next three opponents.

Rant:  It looks like the communication is off between the corners and safties.  There looked to be plenty of confusion about who had who or who had what zone.  One thing that has caught my eye is how much the safties are being subbed in and out.  Right now, it seems like Josh Manchigiah is playing at the highest level of the group.  Leave him in the game if he is one of the guys consistently in the right spot.  However, they still need one other playmaker who can emerge along side of him.  The mental errors and break down in communication is not something you want to see four games in to the season.  However, the secondary looked great during fall camp.  I'm confident they can get it going again.

Rave:  Krockett Krolikowski and Xavier Ward are playing so dang well for a pair of underclassmen.  They are very physical and both move really well.  Indiana State's offensive line had a distinct size advantage but that didn't stop this duo from causing the ISU offensive line problems.

Rave: Adam Anderson continues to perform at a high level.  He made a couple tough catches again and was tough as nails knowing that contact was coming.  I'm really happy that his hard work is being rewarded with this type of breakout season.

Rant: I really dislike all the arm chair quarterbacking that happens and it is a reason why I try not to be too critical on any specific plays.  In the fourth quarter, I probably would not have called the quarterback power as the Jacks were trying to kill the clock.  However, if the play is executed correctly and the Jacks reach the first down then Coach Eidsness looks like a genius.  Fans have been questioning the swing passes to the running backs in previous weeks but this week it resulted in two touchdown passes.  Again, plays aren't going to work every time.  Nobody has ever played or called a perfect game so it is senseless to think it is going to happen. 

Rave: Congratulations to Taryn on setting the SDSU career passing yards record.  He is a great representative of SDSU and everything this program stands for.  I look forward to him breaking the remaining records that are within his range.

Rant/Rave: Great call and execution on the fake field goal.  It is evident that Chase is a very good athlete.  At the time I thought that it was weird to burn the fake on a game where we were in control.  However, it turned out to be very needed.  The rant portion of this comes from the two kickoffs that landed out of bounds.  This just can't happen, especially when the Jackrabbit kick coverage unit has been outstanding this season and allowed just 15.4 yards per return on Saturday.

Rant: Lets cut the music between plays, especially when the Jackrabbits are on offense.  This isn't an NBA game and kills the atmosphere.  Knock it off sound guy/gameday crew, its a bush-league tactic that I don't think anyone in the stadium enjoyed.

Rave: I thought the Jackrabbit fans who were in attendance made plenty of noise on third down.  It was a small crowd but they tried to bring the energy to bring the defense to life and I think the defense responded. 

Game Balls
Offense: #605Hogs
The group allowed just 1 sack and paved the way for 6 ypc.  Taryn had a clean pocket for most of the night and I don't recall too much contact on the quarterback at all.  This group appears to really be gelling.  We'll see what happens going forward but Domandle and Johnson held their own.

Defense: Krockett Krolikowski
Had four tackles and one sack and was very disruptive.  It makes a world of difference when your defensive tackles can collapse the pocket and not give room for the quarterback to step up.

Special Teams: Preston Tetzlaff
Only had one tackle on Saturday but I love the way he plays special teams.  He reminds me of how Dalton Cox and Jessup Workman approaches special teams.  He plays with so much effort and passion. He is a big reason why the kick coverage unit has been so good in 2018.

Go Jacks!
Matt