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October 25, 2009

TODD GOLDEN: ISU had balance it needed to win

By Todd Golden The Tribune Star Sun Oct 25, 2009, 12:19 AM EDT

TERRE HAUTE — Hell hasn’t frozen over.

The Mayan calendar didn’t turn over three years early.

Dogs and cats are not, to my knowledge, living together.

The Indiana State football team won on Saturday, defeating Western Illinois 17-14 in front of a delirious 6,028 at Memorial Stadium.

A Sycamore football victory might seem like a miraculous, even apocalyptic, occurrence given the sub-farcical doldrums the program has been in since 2004. But trite comments aside, there was really nothing divine about why the Sycamores finally ended their 33-game losing streak.

The Sycamores finally achieved balance. During the pivotal fourth quarter, ISU had its offense and defense working effectively. As in, at the same time.

If that sounds unremarkable, you clearly haven’t seen the Sycamores much over the last two years.

Balance is like a precious metal to the Sycamores, it’s a commodity it rarely mines and it takes advantage of its riches even less. But for once, not only did the Sycamores benefit from it, they struck gold at exactly the right time.

For most of the season, ISU has been an all-defense, no-offense team. An exception was the 38-21 loss at Illinois State, when ISU was paradoxically all-offense and no-defense.

Though the numbers weren’t as skewed as previous games, it seemed as if ISU was destined for another all-defense, low-offense game after three quarters.

The offense had 188 total yards at the end of the third quarter (WIU had 279), but 91 of it came on one Ryan Roberts’ touchdown run. Take the Roberts’ school-record scamper out and the Sycamores had averaged 2.5 yards per play to that point. ISU had four third quarter possessions and hadn’t gained a first down on any of them.

Suddenly, with one successful third-down conversion at the beginning of the fourth quarter, ISU swung its battleship around and steamed over the Leathernecks. ISU averaged 5.3 yards per play on its go-ahead drive, only being forced into third down conversions twice.

Quarterback Ryan Roberts, who rushed for 43 of his 160 rushing yards on the decisive series, looked like the northern version of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. He had three 11-yard runs on the drive.

Buoyed by the offensive success, the defense also reached deep and did something it hadn’t done all season — it put pressure on the opposing quarterback. The Sycamores had just nine sacks for the season going into Saturday’s game and the lack of pressure killed them in the loss to Illinois State the week before, when Redbird quarterback Matt Brown had all day to throw.

But the Sycamores threw bodies at WIU quarterback Wil Lunt.

First, freshman defensive end Ben Obaseki got to Lunt and sacked him to set up a 3rd-and-long. After Lunt miraculously kept the Leathernecks alive with a 4th-and-15 conversion, ISU continued to bring the heat. WIU running back Marla Carley couldn’t avoid the heat when Dillon Painter and Aaron Archie — who had a team-high 15 tackles — knocked him back for a two-yard loss, forcing a 4th-and-14.

Lunt had no chance on fourth down as pressure from the edges forced him into the middle, where defensive tackle Rod Hardy wrapped him up for a definitive sack.

Balance, sweet balance. It’s just the elixir ISU needed.

The Sycamores’ one-sided nature prior to Saturday was the worst attribute any team can have because it causes problems beyond just what happens between the lines.

ISU has mostly fought off the kind of unit vs. unit resentment that can occur when one side is clearly more productive than the other, but even the strongest-willed person would have trouble wondering why one side wasn’t pulling its weight.

Given that, the psychological effect of having both units walk off the field knowing their play augmented the success of the other can’t be over-estimated.

The partying probably went on deep into Saturday night over the death of the nation’s longest losing streak — heck, it could still be going as you read this. That’s a great release for long-suffering ISU players, coaches, fans and alumni alike.

But if this win is really going to resonate, the offense-defense balance ISU achieved in the fourth quarter must be sustained for longer periods of games, not just for once-in-a-blue moon spurts.

Once that balance becomes the norm rather than the exception, then ISU football will truly be on the road to recovery.

Miracle on 33rd Street?

The No. 33, which is the mark where the Sycamores’ football losing streak ended Saturday, might just be Indiana State’s magic number:

• 34th Street is directly to the east of Memorial Stadium, and 33rd Street to the west.

• Indiana State’s basketball record in the NCAA runner-up season of 1979? 33-1

• Indiana State’s football program’s record over the last 34 games? 1-33

• All-time great Larry Bird’s jersey No.: 33

• ISU’s men’s basketball record for consecutive wins? 33

• ISU running back Antoine Brown (No. 33) rushed for 58 yards Saturday.

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