by After four straight losses, Ball State desperately needed a reset, and a road trip to Dix Stadium to face a winless Kent State team proved to be exactly what the doctor ordered.
While the Cardinals quickly erupted into their Ball State fight song following their 2-point win over the Golden Flashes, Head Coach Mike Neu swiftly reasserted focus towards the importance of finishing games.
“It was a great job by our guys fighting all the way to the end to get a win on the road, but obviously, it is easy to point to a few mistakes that were made at the end that gave those guys an opportunity,” Neu said.
Despite a messy conclusion to the contest, giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals are confident their first road win of the year will help them get back on track. They will have their hands full next week, however, facing a Vanderbilt team that beat the number one ranked team in the nation just one week ago.
With Ball State earning its second win of the season just as it reaches the season’s midpoint with a record of 2-4, here are three takeaways from Ball State’s win over Kent State:
1. Too Close for Comfort
While the Cardinals halted their four-game skid with a win over the Kent State Golden Flashes, redshirt junior running back Vaughn Pemberton noted the team got careless in the fourth quarter, giving the Golden Flashes a chance in the game’s final minutes. One of these mistakes came from Pemberton himself, who ran in a 41-yard touchdown with 1:13 left on the game clock when he could’ve taken a knee at the goal line to end the game early.
“It was tough in the moment, but right after I came over to the sideline, I was like, ‘Man, I probably should have gone down’,” Pemberton said.
This mistake paired with a late hit from senior linebacker Keionte Newson proved to be pivotal down the stretch, and Neu says it was surprising to see from two of his veteran players.
“There are no excuses,” Neu said. “You just have to know when you’re in that situation, your football intelligence has to take over. I told those guys that after we had a great moment together in the locker room, I said, ‘Obviously there are some things I need to get covered with everybody in here tomorrow morning so we can become a smarter football team if that situation happens again’.”
2. Season-High Seven Sacks Sets the Tone for the Defense
Senior linebacker Brandon Berger led Ball State with three sacks in a game where blitz packages proved to be a significant factor throughout the game.
“This year I’ve gotten to play more snaps than I have in my whole career at Ball State, and it felt really good for it all to come to fruition this year, like today, and get three sacks,” Berger said. “We needed a win bad.”
The Cardinals forced the Golden Flashes to rely mostly on their passing game, and while Kent State wide receivers Luke Florea and Chrishon McCray both came up with big games, Ball State’s defensive line was able to generate a collection of impactful plays.
“That’s what we’re out there to do,” Berger said. “We need to be the ones leading the defense.”
3. Ball State Dominated the Ground
When the game script allows him to be utilized, Ball State senior running back Braedon Sloan always produces. Today was no exception. Sloan earned 97 all-purpose yards, leading the Cardinal offense with 76 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
Throughout the game, Ball State consistently used their ground game in a way that we haven’t seen so far this season. In games against opponents like James Madison and Miami (FL), the Cardinals have been forced to rely heavily on redshirt freshman Kaiden Semonza, but Sloan always seems to make the most of his opportunities, which is why Neu noted he prefers when they can lean on the team’s veteran offensive linemen and give Sloan more to work with to relieve the passing game.
“We knew we were going to have to lean on the run, and we felt strongly about that going into the week,” Neu said. “We felt like we had an advantage with our offensive line, and our guys knew upfront we were going to have to run the football in order to get ourselves a victory here today, and down the stretch, I think those guys stepped up.”
Ball State finished their matchup against Kent State with a season-high 191 rushing yards compared to 67 for the Golden Flashes.
