Rants & Raves: ISU



The Jacks (7-3, 4-2) dropped a game to a good team in Illinois State team (7-3, 4-2).  But man, what a weird game!  It felt like the Jacks had really taken momentum when they went up 18-10 on their first possession of the 3rd quarter.  Then everything went wrong.

Rants & Raves
Rant: I was disappointed from the moment I walked into the stadium and saw how empty it was.  I can't imagine how the players felt as they ran out of the tunnel to the south endzone and saw MAYBE 100 students, then they had to stare at the 1/3 full east bleachers.  As a fan, I'm sorry players that we have so many apathetic fans.  To the fans, if you have complained about ticket prices in the past but didn't show on Saturday (2 tickets for $20) then you just wanted an excuse and you're not committed to helping this program take the next step. 

Rave: Ben Dinkel continues to impress me.  3 punts for 165 yards which is good for a 55-yard average.  His ability to punt both rugby style and traditional is so impressive.  He can sky punt and he can really drive the ball downfield.  It has to be a challenge for the opposing return men.

Rant: The fumbles.  The Jacks fumbled the ball 5 times and lost 3.  This has been a problem all season.  We've talked about it in the blog and on the podcast since the Minnesota game.  This team has to start taking care of the ball.  At this point, I don't know if it is correctable in-season.  Opponents know that we have ball security issues.  They are ripping and tearing at the ball.  We also still have guys who are carrying the ball through traffic pretty nonchalantly.  Fumbles have put our defense in bad situations throughout the season but yesterday was just too much to overcome. 

Rave: Jaxon Janke showed how powerful he is again yesterday.   He had 2 receptions for 61 yards and I would love to know his yards after contact (yac).  He is such a physical player. 

Rant: I know overall we struggled to run the ball but I thought it was odd that we came out passing the ball.  It felt like in the second quarter when we started to feed Pierre and Mikey that good things were happening.  Obviously, the turnovers in the second half limited our opportunities but I think we have to stick with the run a bit more. Mikey was having a good game and his power runs looked effective out there.   

Rave: Speaking of Pierre, congratulations to him for breaking the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight season.  I'm excited to see what he can do in his next two years.

Rave: Speaking of records... Congratulations to Christian Rozeboom for breaking the all-time tackles mark at SDSU.  He has been a true pleasure to watch and I'm really going to miss him next year.

Rant: I was shocked by how the TEs of ISU were able to get open.  They came into the game with just 4 catches on the season.  They had 4 receptions on Saturday alone.  Taula especially looks like a nightmare as he had 3 rec for 47 yards.  Gillum had a big 17-yard catch early in the first half. 

Rave:  Keaton Heide's pocket presence is really impressive.  He does a good job of staying calm and just stepping up and trusting his guys.  He got whacked a couple of times because he was holding on to the ball for too long but overall, I'd rather have him hang tight then give up on the play and run too early.  The next step for him is finding the check down receivers a little more quickly.  There were times where the back was wide open in the flat. 

Rant: The fake field goal and the decision to go for two so early in the game were head-scratchers at the time and looked even worse in the fourth quarter.  Obviously, there are no guarantees on a field goal but a fake in that situation seemed pretty obvious and the Illinois State players admitted they knew it was a fake. 

Rave: Welcome back Wes Genant! It was great to see him out there and the velocity he has on his snaps.  It was also a benefit to have Matt Clark back at his natural guard position.  We'll see how the Jacks manage Genant's three games going forward.  I think we'll certainly need him next week against UNI's stout front. 

Rant: This is another area we've talked about continually... penalties.  The Jacks had 6 for 52 yards.  The only penalty that was called yesterday that I disagree with is the holding on Aron Johnson in the 3rd quarter during Deyon Campbell's trick-play touchdown run.  Otherwise, the penalties all looked pretty legit.  Two weeks ago our offense had a false start and it put the team in a terrible position.  This week the defense lined up in the neutral zone which negated a big goal-line stop.  ISU got the ball back 1.5 yards closer and scored the next play.  Both these mistakes really really hurt. 

Rave: Effort.  I thought the team really competed hard.  Mistakes were made but the effort was always there.  I'm proud of that. 

Rave: There are still two games left to get right.  UNI will be a battle.  USD will be a battle.  This team has all the talent it needs.  I firmly believe this is the most talented Jackrabbit team from top to bottom of the roster that we have ever assembled.  We haven't seen their best yet and they have yet to play a complete game.  If we win the next two, I like our chances to still get a top 8 seed, a first-round bye AND compete for a national championship.   I still believe in this team and can't wait for next Saturday!

Game Balls
Offense: Cade Johnson
Defense: Christian Rozeboom
Special Teams: Ben Dinkel

Go Jacks!
Matt

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