MUNCIE, Ind. — This one stung, but it was a different type of sting than Ball State felt at Indiana.
It was just two weeks ago that Ball State went into South Bend as 34.5-point underdogs and gave No. 8 Notre Dame all it could handle. That did nothing but raise the bar for the rest of this 2018 season, which is why last week’s 38-10 loss to the Hoosiers was disappointing. “That’s not Ball State football,” Mike Neu said after the game.
So Neu vowed to correct those things. And 15,873 fans showed up at Scheumann Stadium on Saturday to see the version of the Cardinals that went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country on Sept. 8. Only they didn’t get it.
Ball State, a 3-point favorite, lost a pair of leads and ultimately suffered a 28-20 loss at the hands of Western Kentucky. This one was discouraging because the Cardinals could've, and frankly should've, won. They finished the non-conference portion of the schedule 1-3, meaning there is very little margin for error if the team is to make a bowl game for the first time in five years.
Mid-American Conference play begins with Kent State coming to town next week, which brings us to this question: Are we going to see the Ball State team that throttled Central Connecticut State and competed with Notre Dame? Or the one that fell flat at Indiana and left too many plays on the field against Western Kentucky?
“We’re 1-3; I expect better in our non-conference schedule,” Neu said. “But most importantly, we’ve got to make sure we’re working on the mistakes that have been made and can’t be showing up consistently. We’ve got to get those things cleaned up. It takes each guy recognizing when he watches the tape to say, ‘Hey, there’s something there I need to clean up or that I can do a better job of.’
“Listen, it’s certainly not what I envisioned going into the season. But everything in our conference is right in front of us.”
(click web address below for full article)
https://www.thestarpress.com/story/...am-we-see-next-week-vs-kent-state/1399852002/
It was just two weeks ago that Ball State went into South Bend as 34.5-point underdogs and gave No. 8 Notre Dame all it could handle. That did nothing but raise the bar for the rest of this 2018 season, which is why last week’s 38-10 loss to the Hoosiers was disappointing. “That’s not Ball State football,” Mike Neu said after the game.
So Neu vowed to correct those things. And 15,873 fans showed up at Scheumann Stadium on Saturday to see the version of the Cardinals that went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country on Sept. 8. Only they didn’t get it.
Ball State, a 3-point favorite, lost a pair of leads and ultimately suffered a 28-20 loss at the hands of Western Kentucky. This one was discouraging because the Cardinals could've, and frankly should've, won. They finished the non-conference portion of the schedule 1-3, meaning there is very little margin for error if the team is to make a bowl game for the first time in five years.
Mid-American Conference play begins with Kent State coming to town next week, which brings us to this question: Are we going to see the Ball State team that throttled Central Connecticut State and competed with Notre Dame? Or the one that fell flat at Indiana and left too many plays on the field against Western Kentucky?
“We’re 1-3; I expect better in our non-conference schedule,” Neu said. “But most importantly, we’ve got to make sure we’re working on the mistakes that have been made and can’t be showing up consistently. We’ve got to get those things cleaned up. It takes each guy recognizing when he watches the tape to say, ‘Hey, there’s something there I need to clean up or that I can do a better job of.’
“Listen, it’s certainly not what I envisioned going into the season. But everything in our conference is right in front of us.”
(click web address below for full article)
https://www.thestarpress.com/story/...am-we-see-next-week-vs-kent-state/1399852002/
