Through the first three games, Ball State football’s offense has gone silent when the fourth quarter starts.
During the fourth quarter, the Cardinals have been outscored 24-0, after outscoring its opponents 63-30 in the first three quarters.
“I don’t think we’re out of shape, I think our summer conditioning program is excellent,” Ball State head coach Pete Lembo said. “The situations have been different every week.”
Two weeks ago against Colgate, Ball State spent most of the fourth quarter trying to run out the clock, not trying to score. Against Iowa last week, Ball State tried a similar strategy, which backfired as Iowa took the lead with a minute left in the game.
With the game on the line against Indiana State, Ball State came up two yards short, after quarterback Ozzie Mann was tackled on the two-yard line and the clock expired. Ball State struggled to run the ball throughout the quarter; Mann missed receivers and was sacked twice.
“We’ve got to take a look at how balanced we’re staying and moving the chains in general,” Lembo said.
Ball State achieved five first downs in the fourth quarter, three of them coming during the final drive, when the Cardinals were already trailing. When the game was tied in the fourth quarter, Ball State committed a penalty, gave up two sacks, threw three incompletions, had three rushes of two yards or less and punted three times.
Running backs Jahwan Edwards and Horactio Banks were also shut down in the fourth, combining for just 11 yards on four carries.
“We were just in bad position, getting behind the chains and not completing passes on first down,” Edwards said. “We had to throw the ball again on second down.”
Edwards finished the game with 75 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown. He had just one carry in the fourth quarter, a run of five yards. After Mann took off for one yard and threw two incompletions, Ball State punted.
With Ball State in position to score in the fourth quarter for the first time this season, the clock ran out before Mann could spike the ball.
“You’ve got two options there, you throw it in the dirt incomplete and it stops the clock, or you get out of bounds,” Lembo said. “But you can’t get tackled inbounds.”
Ball State had just one timeout heading into its final drive, using two on Indiana State’s previous drive to stop the clock. Lembo said not having all the timeouts in his pocket played a factor, as Ball State could have stopped the clock after Mann’s run that ended the game.
Even then, Lembo wasn’t sure what the problem is regarding the lack of fourth quarter offense.
In the game’s final quarter, Mann went 8-of-15 for 59 yards. Banks had three rushes for six yards.
