The losses keep coming for Kent State football, as the team was dominated by Ball State (4-7, 3-4) Saturday in a 34-3 defeat.
The offense was silent throughout the game, and the defense could not keep the team afloat, giving up 21 second-half points.
Coach Kenni Burns was, once again, “disappointed in the loss” but also took some of the blame for the poor performance.
“We got outcoached, we got outplayed, and that’s completely on me,” he said. “They were not ready to play today, and Ball State was. They took advantage of us, and we did not play well.”
The Flashes dropped to 1-10 on the season following the loss, with an 0-7 record against Mid-American Conference opponents.
Kent State has reached the 10-loss milestone three times in the past seven seasons. The team can reach 11 losses for the first time since 1998 with a loss next week.
Saturday’s loss keeps KSU at the bottom of the MAC East.
Ball State moves into a four-way tie for third place in the MAC West.
“That was, by far, our worst game of the year,” Burns said. “We didn’t have the energy. We didn’t have the effort that we expect out of our players. We have to get ready to play – we’re not.”
Recap
The Kent State offense was virtually nonexistent in the first half of play, creating a gap that could not be closed later in the game.
BSU started the scoring in the first quarter with a 44-yard field goal from freshman kicker Jackson Courville, putting the Cardinals up 3-0.
Ball State added 10 more points in the second quarter before the Flashes could get on the scoreboard.
A one-yard rushing touchdown from former Flash running back Marquez Cooper and another Courville field goal (a 48-yarder) accounted for the team’s points.
Junior kicker Andrew Glass would give Kent State its only points with 42 seconds left in the half by drilling a 45-yard field goal, cutting the lead to 13-3.
Glass has made a field goal in every game this season except in the contest at Eastern Michigan Oct. 14.
The second half was all Ball State, as the team added three touchdowns to its score while KSU put up zero.
Sophomore quarterback Kiael Kelly had a 22-yard rushing touchdown before adding another four-yarder to give BSU 14 extra points in the third quarter.
The game’s scoring capped off with a one-yard rushing touchdown from redshirt sophomore running back Vaughn Pemberton, solidifying the 34-3 score.
Burns noticed many defensive struggles in the second half.
“We just didn’t tackle in the second half, and then we got a little bit antsy,” he said. “A couple of linebackers misfit a couple of things. The biggest thing about our defense is just that they have to do their job, and we didn’t do our job. It wasn’t a good performance – we have to play way better than that, and we can.”
In the first half, the Flashes ran the ball 18 times for 16 yards, averaging 0.89 yards per carry.
KSU supplemented that by completing five of its 13 attempts for 28 passing yards in the first half.
Overall, Kent State ran 31 plays in the first half and totaled 44 yards, which is a 1.42-yards per-play average.
By the end of the game, KSU had 29 rushing yards on 26 carries while going 8-22 for 68 passing yards and averaging 2.02 yards per play.
Ball State ran the ball 52 times against the Flashes, running for 300 yards while adding 88 passing yards on 7-17 passing. The Cardinals averaged more than three extra yards per play in comparison to Kent State by going for 5.62 yards.
This is the fifth time this season that KSU has failed to score a touchdown in a game and the fifth time Glass has scored all Kent State points in a game.
The team has scored just three points twice this season and six points three times.
Sophomore quarterback Tommy Ulatowski made the start at quarterback but left late in the second quarter due to an injury (no update on the injury has been made yet).
He went 3-10 for 16 yards before exiting the game.
Sophomore quarterback Devin Kargman came in for Ulatowski and went 5-12 for 52 passing yards.
Running backs Gavin Garcia and Jaylen Thomas combined for 55 yards on 18 carries, and senior wide receiver Luke Floriea led the way through the air by catching three balls for 38 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, sophomore defensive lineman Stephen Daly led the way with seven total tackles, three assisted tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, and two quarterback hits.
For Ball State, Cooper was dominant, running the ball 25 times for 140 yards with a touchdown, while Kelly went 4-14 for 71 passing yards with two rushing touchdowns and 88 rushing yards on 16 carries.
KSU’s 97 total yards was, by far, its lowest total of the season, with the next closest mark coming against Buffalo on Oct. 21, when the team tallied 164 yards of total offense.
Kent State has given up 300 rushing yards or more once already this season. Against Central Florida on Aug. 31, the team allowed 389 rushing yards.
“We didn’t control the line of scrimmage, we didn’t tackle well enough – we didn’t do what we do,” Burns said. “That’s a disappointment because that’s what we’re known for stopping the run. A lot of it wasn’t a schematic issue necessarily. There were a lot of things: We didn’t tackle, we didn’t stay in our gaps, we weren’t sound and we have to be better at that.”
Looking ahead
The Flashes will have one more battle this season before it comes to a close.
The team will face Northern Illinois on Nov. 25.
The Huskies sit in second place in the MAC West with a 5-6 overall record to go with its 4-3 conference record.
Kent State has historically struggled against NIU, posting an 8-22 all-time record against the team.
The Flashes have won only one contest against NIU since 2002, losing 11 of the last 12 matchups.
Kickoff will be at noon in Dix Stadium – the team will be hosting Senior Night for the last game of the season.
“We didn’t start fast, we didn’t accelerate in the middle and we didn’t finish strong – we didn’t do any of the three, and we have to do way better,” Burns said. “We have to go back to the drawing board and find a way to fix our problems.”
John Hilber is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
