One of Ball State football's most problematic areas on a week-by-week basis is the inconsistency of the secondary in pass coverage.
This season, the secondary is allowing a completion percentage of 70 against opposing teams. In the last three games, it has increased to 82.8 percent.
Junior safety Martez Hester, who is third on the team with 59 tackles, says it comes down to a lack of focus throughout a full game.
“A little bit more focus here and there, cutting down on big plays, just playing with a little bit more focus throughout the entire game,” Hester said. “You know, there’s times where we play really good and then there’s also times where maybe we get caught out of focus a little bit ... We just have to learn how to keep focus throughout the whole game.”
During Ball State's 23-21 loss to Central Michigan on Oct. 24, there were many breakdowns in coverage that led to key plays.
One in particular was when there was miscommunication between David Moore and Dedrick Cromartie on a Chippewa touchdown pass. Cromartie followed the slot receiver to the outside, where Moore was covering. Moore then had to chase down Chippewa receiver, Jesse Kroll, but it was too late as they had a wide-open touchdown.
Plays like this have been an occurrence almost every game, with the secondary looking out of sync.
Even though the secondary has been consistently targeted by opposing quarterbacks over the last month, Hester still sees improvement.
“For the secondary, in general, I think we’re getting better,” Hester said. “We’re learning how to focus the whole game, more. I don’t think we have anybody that’s freelancing around just doing their own thing. I think we’re all on the same page a lot more.”
Outside of the inconsistent play from the secondary lately, head coach Pete Lembo has seen good production from the defensive lineman and linebackers.
In the past two weeks, opponents have only gained 151 yards on the ground on 63 attempts. On the flip side, opponents have obtained 728 passing yards in the past two games.
Lembo believes giving up passing yards is what is hurting the team on the defensive side.
"We’re giving up a lot of completions, but you know we’ve played pretty solid defense overall,” Lembo said. “I’d like to see us get a few more pass breakups and cause a few more incompletions. If we can do that, that will go a long way to help us.”
Lembo also points to the offense, which has lacked a spark during the past two weeks with 34 third down attempts. Of those, they have only completed 13 of them.
Ball State (2-6, 1-3) will look to shut down the University of Massachusetts Minutemen's (1-6, 0-3) offense, who have averaged 315 yards passing per game this season. Kick off is at 1 p.m. on Halloween Day at Scheumann Stadium.
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