NCAA Football: Ball State at Northwestern

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The Skip Report: They Found a Way

9/27/2015 5:44:00 PM | Football

By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor

THEY FOUND A WAY even though it was their least-inspired and least-impressive effort of this young season.

"Obviously a hard-fought victory and we'll take it," Pat Fitzgerald would say after his 'Cats escaped Ball State by five on Saturday night at Ryan Field. "I felt throughout this week in trying to convey to the guys just how difficult this challenge would be, I obviously didn't get them ready to play the way they're capable of in the first half. But I thought we responded. . . . I'm proud of the guys. They persevered. Guys stepped up. We found a way to win."

THEY FOUND A WAY even though a full seven of them had to be assisted off the field by the training staff after getting injured in this game. One of them, the defensive tackle C.J. Robbins, would return to play again. But offensive tackle Geoff Mogus, offensive guard Connor Mahoney, superback Garrett Dickerson, defensive end Ifeidi Odenigbo and safeties Godwin Igwebuike and Kyle Queiro would not return. He believed the last had suffered a broken arm, Fitzgerald would later say. "But that's about all I've got right now from the standpoint of an injury report," he then added.

THEY FOUND A WAY even though that spate of injuries left them with both a reshuffled offensive line and little-used junior Terrence Brown at safety. That line responded well enough that the 'Cats finished with 290 net rushing yards and 546 yards of total offense. As for Brown, said senior safety Traveon Henry, "We've really instilled the idea that the next man up has to be ready to go whenever it's his time to shine. Terrence is a guy that hasn't really gotten a lot of game experience. But when he stepped in, he stepped up."

THEY FOUND A WAY even though their defense surrendered more touchdowns to the Cardinals (two) than it had through its team's first three games (one), and more points (19) than it had over that span as well (16).

THEY FOUND A WAY even though their offense had just one shining moment through this one's first half. This came on its sixth possession of the game when quarterback Clayton Thorson found superback Dan Vitale streaking down the right hash for a 66-yard score.

THEY FOUND A WAY even though that offense filled the rest of that half with mistakes and turnovers. Its first possession included a holding penalty by Mogus and ended when Thorson's fumble after a 13-yard run was recovered by the Cardinals. Its second possession included a false start penalty and a drop by receiver Miles Shuler, who was behind his defender and open inside the Cardinals' 20. Its third possession was a three-and-out, its fourth ended when a miscommunication between Thorson and Shuler resulted in an interception, and its fifth was another three-and-out. Now came its one shining moment. But then, on its sixth possession, Thorson tried to make a play after corralling a bad snap and fumbled it over to the Cardinals on the 'Cats 22 with 1:03 remaining in the half. On the very next play their receiver Jordan Williams beat corner Nick VanHoose on a post, which gave Ball State a surprising 10-7 halftime lead.

THEY FOUND A WAY by reappearing for the second half refurbished and revitalized. "When I brought the group up at halftime we had about nine minutes left after we had made our adjustments-- we didn't have to make a whole heck of a lot of adjustments-- we had to just go out and play," Fitzgerald later recalled. "So we had about nine minutes (until they had to return to the field) and I had our guys get together with their position groups and talk about what we had to do and how we were going to do it. Then we came out with the mindset that we're going to find a way to win and that's what we did."

THEY FOUND A WAY behind Thorson, who was a far different quarterback in these second 30 minutes than he had been in the first 30. He was 4-for-4 on their opening drive of this half; the last a 21-yarder to Vitale in the right side of the end zone. He hit Mike McHugh on a short slant for 21 early in their next possession, which ended when he found Austin Carr in the end zone after a fly down the left boundary. That 25-yarder put the 'Cats up 21-10 just seven minutes into this half, and then it was time for Justin Jackson. He would end this night with 189 yards on 33 carries and a big chunk of them came now, when he opened their next possession with a 62-yard dash down to the Cardinals' 13. The 'Cats would stall here and settle for a Jack Mitchell field goal, but something had clearly changed for their quarterback. "I think he trusted himself and took what the defense gave him," Fitzgerald would say when asked about that. "It's a process at quarterback. It's never the same. Every rep isn't the same. I think he's handled the ebb and flow very, very well. He's a young man who's growing, growing into the position."

"I started going through my progression," Thorson himself would say when asked the same question. "In the first half, I was guessing a little bit. I just wasn't doing what I'm coached to do. In the second half, I started to do that and it started to work. It's funny how that works out."

THEY FOUND A WAY even though Cardinal receiver Williams continued to bedevil the 'Cat DBs. He would end with eight receptions for 133 yards and here, with his team down 14, he beat VanHoose on a jump ball in the back of the end zone to pull his team to within eight late in the third (the extra point attempt was blocked). "We knew on tape he was a great player," Fitzgerald would say of him. "In my opinion, he's a steal in the MAC (Mid-American Conference). He's a Big Ten player. . .(and) our corners knew they were going to throw it deep eight to 10 times. We knew that. We worked it. But we found a way to win. That's all that matters. A pretty good test for those two guys (VanHoose and Matthew Harris), though."

THEY FOUND A WAY even though Mitchell missed a 26-yard chip shot early in the fourth, and even though the Cardinals pulled to within five with their own 36-yard field goal at 4:34.

THEY FOUND A WAY by taking the ensuing kickoff and grinding. Jackson got them one first down with an 11-yard burst and then, on 3rd and 3, he got three to give them another with just over three minutes remaining. He now lost one and gained three, but here, on third-and-eight from the 48, Solomon Vault took a delayed handoff and rambled for 14. A play later Ball State burned its last time out and so, even though the 'Cats would eventually punt, the Cardinals' only recourse was trickeration when they finally got the ball back on their nine with just 11 seconds remaining. It didn't work. "We knew we were going to have to get a few first downs to win the game," Jackson would say when asked the offense's mentality on this last drive. "We knew we hadn't played exactly as we wanted to through the entire game. But we knew what happened before didn't really matter. We just had to finish."

THEY FOUND A WAY and now, starting Saturday against Minnesota, comes the Big Ten portion of their program. "Definitely our maturity's showing," Dan Vitale would finally say when asked what he had learned about these 'Cats during their 4-0 run through the preseason. "Last year or the year before that, we might not have won a game like this. So we're finding ways to win, which you need to do in Big Ten play. Every game is going to be hard.

"So I think we're doing a good job of finding ways to win."