From
a post in the YSU thread:
It's true we need to handle kick returns much better on both sides, but I think the biggest difference for ISU was just that they were able to make the big plays.
Specifically, they'd get to second or third down, somewhere around their own 35-40 yard line and they'd go long with receivers and hook up for a big gain and sometimes TD. At one point early in the 3rd quarter, ISU had just gotten to their 40, it was 2nd and 7 and my dad turned to me and said "this is right about where they go for a long one"....next play, ISU's WR Warrum goes long for a 45 yard pickup. That was the drive that ended in the fumble that was picked up by Warrum and walked into the end zone.
If you look at the plays that they scored on, many of them were "big" plays...here's all their scoring plays:
65 yard run, 9 yard run, 41 yard pass, 65 yard pass, 19 yard run, 0 yard fumble recovery, 83 yard run
More than half of their points came on plays that started over 40 yards away. Receivers just burned us and we had a lot of trouble tackling their QB and RB. But, they are one of the best running QBs and RBs in the FCS, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy.
Wind also played a big factor in field position, was coming in strong from the northwest and blowing towards the south through the stadium (you could see the ref's pants flapping most of the game). Seemed like more of our punts ended up having to go into the wind than theirs. I'll have to run the numbers and see this afternoon.
EDIT - ok, went through and checked when the punts and kickoffs happened, totaled up for each team how many were with the wind or against the wind. We had 8 kicks into the wind and 2 kicks with the wind. ISU had 7 kicks with the wind and 4 kicks against the wind, so I'm sure that helped somewhat. There were a couple of Luke Otto punts that were going ok but when they reach the top of the arc, just dropped like a rock. I think that was one in the 3rd that was fair caught after only going 33 yards. Otto had 5 punts with an average of 31.8 yards per punt and a long of 34.
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
