The ball sat one yard shy of the first-down marker deep inside Liberty territory. It was early in the second quarter of Ball State's 27-23 loss Saturday, but the Cardinals were already trailing the No. 18 Football Championship Subdivision team by 11. They needed to continue the drive; to put points on the board.
Coach Stan Parrish called a rushing play for Eric Williams on third down, but the running back was stuffed behind the line of scrimmage for a one-yard loss.
Fourth-and-two. Parrish could have sent kicker Ian McGarvey out for a field goal attempt, but he left the offense on the field.
Parrish called for a play-action pass, but somewhere between the sideline and where quarterback Kelly Page stood, the signal was garbled. Page saw a power-running play and lined the Cardinals up accordingly. This rush went even worse than Williams' attempt and MiQuale Lewis was stopped four yards behind the line before he could even get his feet going.
The play was a major point of contention between Page and Parrish, and backup Keith Wenning replaced Page two possessions later.
"I wasn't so much mad at him as I am at the whole situation," Parrish said. "Whether the play didn't get in right or whether he didn't call the right play, that's not the play I called."
If Ball State's rushing attack would have had even come close to the kind of effectiveness it demonstrated against Southeast Missouri State, the miscommunication likely wouldn't have mattered.
Instead, none of the Cardinals' trio of running backs could get any traction against a large Flames' front seven. Cory Sykes led Ball State with 65 rushing yards. Williams and Lewis combined for 73 yards.
Left guard Michael Switzer said he was disappointed in the offensive line's play.
"Defensively, they took away our power play," he said. "Their defense was pretty tough and our run game was lacking."
None of Liberty's defensive linemen or linebackers caused more havoc for Ball State than nose tackle Asa Chapman. The junior, who is listed at 380 pounds, overmatched the Cardinals' smaller offensive linemen. He had four tackles and one sack, which ended Ball State's final comeback attempt.
Parrish attributed Ball State's failures in the red zone to its inability to run the ball. The Cardinals scored just one touchdown in their five trips inside the Flames' 20-yard line.
"We had to resort to reverses and little trickery," he said.
The Cardinals knew they would have to be more balanced in their offensive attack after running the ball 55 times on opening night, but cutting back to just 34 rushes wasn't the plan either. Liberty successfully stopped Ball State's wildcat package and forced it into more passing situations.
"We got behind on the chains because we weren't doing much on first down," Parrish said. "We got some [running] backs into the secondary, but we didn't hit any home runs."
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