It's Monday, and time to turn the page yet again. Hopefully you were able to get past this game on Sunday. I know I am about 95% over it, but a lot of the frustration still lingers. At the same time, I know the players feel worse about it; they are the guys going out there and doing the best they can to win games. As a fan I can say that I was happy about our guys fighting and putting themselves in a position to take a late 4th quarter lead.
Here's the latest on the Cyclones:
- New Depth Chart was released. The big news is that Nate Frere has moved to DT (from NT), and Bailey Johnson will be starting at the NT position. The D-Line had this alignment last week, so this Depth Chart is just being consistent with that. Hopefully it helps, because our D-Line has not been very productive, and it's putting the Cyclones in a bad position during games. On offense Beau Blankenship is now the #2 RB, with Schwartz as the #3. The coaching staff has been big on Beau since fall camp, so this isn't a huge suprise.
- Also this is Homecoming Week in Ames. For some schools this is big, but it never felt like that big of a deal at ISU. At the same time, I've never left Ames, so maybe it means something to those alums that make it back. We have a good shot at picking up a win for Homecoming, which doesn't happen all the time.
- Arnaud told Randy Peterson that he felt like the offense couldn't be stopped. After watching our defense the past few weeks, lets hope that the offense continues to feel this way throughout the season.
- ISU is currently a 3 point favorite against Baylor.
- Week 8's matchup against the Huskers will be at 11:30am on Fox Sports Network.
Other than above, not a whole not is new. Again, the thing to look for is how the team responds after missing an opportunity and losing in a dissapointing fashion again. If they continue to bounce back and fight, that's all we can ask from them, and I think we'll see a couple more Ws this year.
I guess the last thing I will say is that it's impossible to know what would've happened against KSU had the PAT not been blocked and also against KU had Arnaud hit Darks in the endzone. With the KSU game, it likely would've gone to OT, and while the Cyclones had the momentum, it's not like it was a sure thing we would win.
With KU, had Darks caught the ball, ISU would've gone up by 1 or 3 (I'm sure we would've gone for 2, hoping to get up by 3) with 1:30 left. KU was moving the ball at will, so who is to say that they wouldn't have been able to score before time expired? The only reason why ISU even got the chance to try to take the lead is because Reesing made a skip pass on 3rd down. Nine out of ten times, Reesing makes that throw, it's first down KU, and game over.
Many Cyclone fans are pissed because they feel like we should be 5-1. All I am saying is that it's hard to say that we'd even be 5-1. We could've screwed up in OT 2 weeks ago, and KU could've gotten a last second TD as they had enough time to score. The team is getting better. The offense proved me wrong in that they put up the points they did almost out of nowhere. I am looking forward to the rest of the year, and hopefully the Cyclones can knock off a conference foe or two. I am thinking it will start this Saturday in Ames.