D
Derek Young
Guest
OFFENSE
We thought they might use just one of the quarterbacks but that was not the case. While Skylar Thompson started again and played much more of the first half in this one than he did a week ago, Alex Delton was still given two drives. Unfortunately for Delton, they did not go well. He threw an interception after staring down a receiver for far too long, which is why the linebacker was in the passing lane to begin with. His second drive, he found a way to get sacked in a clean pocket for a loss of five yards. Unfortunately, that was the difference. It essentially took points off the board because Blake Lynch’s field goal was just a couple yards short, the very yards Delton gave up by running out of bounds for a loss instead of throwing it away and following it up by being sacked for a loss of five when he had good protection.
What you think you gain from having Alex Delton in the game isn’t exactly coming true, either. He had six carries for four yards in the first half. The junior did not play one snap in the second half.
To be fair, Thompson wasn’t amazing. He didn’t make the critical and hurtful mistakes but he didn’t go out and blow anyone away, either. His ball placement was decent after under-throwing Zuber on a deep shot early in the game. Not over-throwing it gave Zuber a chance to make a play on the ball but it also allowed the safety time and an opportunity to break it up.
The Wildcats had some success running the ball but really struggled to crank out a consistent passing attack. They also were a bit out-matched athletically and failed to make plays in the open field.
When the running game didn’t go well, sometimes the offensive linemen weren’t even getting to the spot. Scott Frantz pulled from the left tackle spot on an Alex Delton run and was too slow to the hole and ended up behind Delton, who couldn’t afford to wait any longer on his blocker. The same thing happened again earlier when Alex Barnes waited but had to go before Abdul Beecham made his way in front.
K-State’s offensive line was probably better when considering the opponent, but still not good enough. And it's also hard to compliment a unit when Kansas State had to fight like heck just to run for 100 yards.
The passing game is just a lack of anybody getting open at a regular clip. Considering the opponent and defensive front, the pass protection was good enough today for those numbers to be better. Instead, they were unbelievably poor.
Mississippi State’s defense had no respect for the downfield passing game of the Wildcats. They could crowd the box and sit on every route. They could do anything they wanted to do because they were not particularly afraid of anything that K-State would throw at them.
A wrinkle that our Chris Nelson did like from K-State, is when both Alex Barnes and Dalvin Warmack were on the field together. If Mississippi State kept their base defense in, it allowed Kansas State to spread the field and attack through the air. And if the Bulldogs went nickel, they could motion Warmack or Barnes back to the backfield and run the football.
Despite all those struggles, the Wildcats were still advancing the ball into Bulldog territory regularly. But every time they did, they couldn’t finish the drive and instead went backwards.
DEFENSE
The name of the game today was the defense not being nearly as effective as they were a week ago against South Dakota. And that is probably putting it lightly. We believe the opponent had much to do with that.
Regardless of who the opponent is, though, you won’t help your team nearly enough if you can’t get off the field on 3rd and 17.
Unfortunately, a lot of the problems were missed tackles. And missed tackles are most always a culprit of either poor fundamentals, poor effort or being totally out-matched in terms of athleticism. While a tiny amount of the issues was likely driven by fundamentals, they weren’t due to a lack of effort and instead being out-athleted significantly. The Bulldogs were bigger, faster and stronger. Even when got tackled by K-State, it didn’t mean they weren’t going to add a few more yards onto the play before going down.
It was less x’s and o’s and more so the jimmies and joes.
The Wildcats did throw in a few different zone blitzes on the day. But none were successful. In fact, the Bulldogs were readily prepared and just ran towards the very edge that had been vacated by the defensive end that dropped back into coverage.
Another problem that was re-occurring was the defensive tackles getting too wide, or being easily blocked that way at least, while the linebackers backed off into coverage, leaving the Wildcats susceptible to the draw up the middle from either Nick Fitzgerald or Kylin Hill. The Bulldogs just had freedom to run a lot of different things because the interior of K-State’s defensive line was not impacting the game.
The best player on the defensive side of the ball for the Wildcats was definitely Elijah Sullivan. He blew up a blocker on third down to disrupt the play and force a punt, he made an impressive open-field tackle on third down to force a punt and his quarterback hurry caused Fitzgerald to throw the interception to Wyatt Hubert.
Sullivan’s injuries likely kept him off the field for any other playing time. He had to leave the field with help from the trainers on two separate occasions.
Like we anticipated, the K-State defense handled the passing game and their consistent pass rush had a lot to do with that. But they were so out-matched when the Bulldogs got their athletes in space and when Mississippi State ran the ball, that it didn’t matter.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There were no mistakes essentially made, although Duke Shelley would have had a score on one of the returns if Isaiah Zuber holds his block better. Blake Lynch was one for two on field goals, only missing his attempt of 52 yards just before the half.
The punting game improved once Andrew Hicks was removed in favor of Bernardo Rodriguez. All Rodriguez did was pin Mississippi State inside the 10 on his first two punts.
However, the kickoff coverage probably wasn’t as sharp as we are accustomed to seeing.
PERSONNEL
Sam Sizelove still played a bit more linebacker than Elijah Sullivan and started the game. Sizelove plays in about every package except for their third-down nickel defense when Sullivan enters the game to flank Patton.
Wyatt Hubert was the third defensive end still, today. And he was effective but still missed a few tackles in critical situations. He entered the game for Reggie Walker, initially. Eli Walker subbed in for Kendall Adams and they basically had a 50/50 distribution in snaps.
Jordan Mittie started at defensive tackle instead of Joe Davies but their snap distribution was similar to the season opener. Kevion McGee did not play in the first half and A.J. Parker wasn’t removed from the game.
Josh Rivas replaced Abdul Beecham at offensive line in the second quarter. And he didn’t leave the game and started the third quarter as the team’s left guard in place of Tyler Mitchell.
Blaise Gammon got the start at tight end with Nick Lenners out for the season. Isaiah Harris was the fourth receiver after returning from suspension.
Running back Justin Silmon never returned the game after whiffing on a back-side block that crushed Skylar Thompson and caused him to fumble (though the call was overturned).
OVERALL CONCLUSION
Kansas State didn't lose this because of a lack of effort or being horribly out-schemed or anything. They were just dominated in the trenches and were far less athletic at the end of the day and that makes it much easier on the opponent.
They don't have an identity crisis or anything like that. They know what they want to do. They're just not good enough to do it, right now.
We thought they might use just one of the quarterbacks but that was not the case. While Skylar Thompson started again and played much more of the first half in this one than he did a week ago, Alex Delton was still given two drives. Unfortunately for Delton, they did not go well. He threw an interception after staring down a receiver for far too long, which is why the linebacker was in the passing lane to begin with. His second drive, he found a way to get sacked in a clean pocket for a loss of five yards. Unfortunately, that was the difference. It essentially took points off the board because Blake Lynch’s field goal was just a couple yards short, the very yards Delton gave up by running out of bounds for a loss instead of throwing it away and following it up by being sacked for a loss of five when he had good protection.
What you think you gain from having Alex Delton in the game isn’t exactly coming true, either. He had six carries for four yards in the first half. The junior did not play one snap in the second half.
To be fair, Thompson wasn’t amazing. He didn’t make the critical and hurtful mistakes but he didn’t go out and blow anyone away, either. His ball placement was decent after under-throwing Zuber on a deep shot early in the game. Not over-throwing it gave Zuber a chance to make a play on the ball but it also allowed the safety time and an opportunity to break it up.
The Wildcats had some success running the ball but really struggled to crank out a consistent passing attack. They also were a bit out-matched athletically and failed to make plays in the open field.
When the running game didn’t go well, sometimes the offensive linemen weren’t even getting to the spot. Scott Frantz pulled from the left tackle spot on an Alex Delton run and was too slow to the hole and ended up behind Delton, who couldn’t afford to wait any longer on his blocker. The same thing happened again earlier when Alex Barnes waited but had to go before Abdul Beecham made his way in front.
K-State’s offensive line was probably better when considering the opponent, but still not good enough. And it's also hard to compliment a unit when Kansas State had to fight like heck just to run for 100 yards.
The passing game is just a lack of anybody getting open at a regular clip. Considering the opponent and defensive front, the pass protection was good enough today for those numbers to be better. Instead, they were unbelievably poor.
Mississippi State’s defense had no respect for the downfield passing game of the Wildcats. They could crowd the box and sit on every route. They could do anything they wanted to do because they were not particularly afraid of anything that K-State would throw at them.
A wrinkle that our Chris Nelson did like from K-State, is when both Alex Barnes and Dalvin Warmack were on the field together. If Mississippi State kept their base defense in, it allowed Kansas State to spread the field and attack through the air. And if the Bulldogs went nickel, they could motion Warmack or Barnes back to the backfield and run the football.
Despite all those struggles, the Wildcats were still advancing the ball into Bulldog territory regularly. But every time they did, they couldn’t finish the drive and instead went backwards.
DEFENSE
The name of the game today was the defense not being nearly as effective as they were a week ago against South Dakota. And that is probably putting it lightly. We believe the opponent had much to do with that.
Regardless of who the opponent is, though, you won’t help your team nearly enough if you can’t get off the field on 3rd and 17.
Unfortunately, a lot of the problems were missed tackles. And missed tackles are most always a culprit of either poor fundamentals, poor effort or being totally out-matched in terms of athleticism. While a tiny amount of the issues was likely driven by fundamentals, they weren’t due to a lack of effort and instead being out-athleted significantly. The Bulldogs were bigger, faster and stronger. Even when got tackled by K-State, it didn’t mean they weren’t going to add a few more yards onto the play before going down.
It was less x’s and o’s and more so the jimmies and joes.
The Wildcats did throw in a few different zone blitzes on the day. But none were successful. In fact, the Bulldogs were readily prepared and just ran towards the very edge that had been vacated by the defensive end that dropped back into coverage.
Another problem that was re-occurring was the defensive tackles getting too wide, or being easily blocked that way at least, while the linebackers backed off into coverage, leaving the Wildcats susceptible to the draw up the middle from either Nick Fitzgerald or Kylin Hill. The Bulldogs just had freedom to run a lot of different things because the interior of K-State’s defensive line was not impacting the game.
The best player on the defensive side of the ball for the Wildcats was definitely Elijah Sullivan. He blew up a blocker on third down to disrupt the play and force a punt, he made an impressive open-field tackle on third down to force a punt and his quarterback hurry caused Fitzgerald to throw the interception to Wyatt Hubert.
Sullivan’s injuries likely kept him off the field for any other playing time. He had to leave the field with help from the trainers on two separate occasions.
Like we anticipated, the K-State defense handled the passing game and their consistent pass rush had a lot to do with that. But they were so out-matched when the Bulldogs got their athletes in space and when Mississippi State ran the ball, that it didn’t matter.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There were no mistakes essentially made, although Duke Shelley would have had a score on one of the returns if Isaiah Zuber holds his block better. Blake Lynch was one for two on field goals, only missing his attempt of 52 yards just before the half.
The punting game improved once Andrew Hicks was removed in favor of Bernardo Rodriguez. All Rodriguez did was pin Mississippi State inside the 10 on his first two punts.
However, the kickoff coverage probably wasn’t as sharp as we are accustomed to seeing.
PERSONNEL
Sam Sizelove still played a bit more linebacker than Elijah Sullivan and started the game. Sizelove plays in about every package except for their third-down nickel defense when Sullivan enters the game to flank Patton.
Wyatt Hubert was the third defensive end still, today. And he was effective but still missed a few tackles in critical situations. He entered the game for Reggie Walker, initially. Eli Walker subbed in for Kendall Adams and they basically had a 50/50 distribution in snaps.
Jordan Mittie started at defensive tackle instead of Joe Davies but their snap distribution was similar to the season opener. Kevion McGee did not play in the first half and A.J. Parker wasn’t removed from the game.
Josh Rivas replaced Abdul Beecham at offensive line in the second quarter. And he didn’t leave the game and started the third quarter as the team’s left guard in place of Tyler Mitchell.
Blaise Gammon got the start at tight end with Nick Lenners out for the season. Isaiah Harris was the fourth receiver after returning from suspension.
Running back Justin Silmon never returned the game after whiffing on a back-side block that crushed Skylar Thompson and caused him to fumble (though the call was overturned).
OVERALL CONCLUSION
Kansas State didn't lose this because of a lack of effort or being horribly out-schemed or anything. They were just dominated in the trenches and were far less athletic at the end of the day and that makes it much easier on the opponent.
They don't have an identity crisis or anything like that. They know what they want to do. They're just not good enough to do it, right now.
