Nashville, TENN – It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t without its doubts, but Vandy found a way to overcome a bad offensive night and beat Ball State 24-14. Clark Lea’s defense gave up a couple of long drives, but still held the Cardinals to 14 points on the night and 268 total yards. Here’s how the unit graded out:

What went right:

While Clark Lea’s unit got off to a slow start, the next defensive drive was better. The Commodores got a big third down stop after an incompletion with Jaylin Lackey in coverage.

Early in the 2nd quarter, De’Marion Thomas sacked Kadin Semonza for his first career sack. Then, during the next drive, Martel Hight broke up a Semonza pass to force another Ball State punt.

To close the first half, CJ Taylor lowered the boom on a second-down catch and then Linus Zunk tipped a Semonza pass at the line of scrimmage that fell incomplete. Yet again, the Commodores forced another Ball State punt.

With 13:05 to play, Randon Fontenette tipped a pass from Kadin Semonza, which Semonza caught in the air, but was brought down hard by Bryce Cowan. Then, with 5:48 to play, Vandy’s defense got a big stop to seal the game after another Semonza pass fell incomplete.

What went wrong:

Ball State got rolling early. To open the game, Kadin Semonza led the Cardinals on an 11-play, 75-yard drive to take an early 7-0 lead. Clark Lea’s defense let Semonza finish 6-of-6 with 50 yards on the opening drive.

With just under 8:00 to play, Ball State converted a 4th-and-1 on a toss out wide to TJ Horton which kept the drive alive. Then, Semonza found Justin Bowick on a perfectly executed flea flicker, picking up more yardage. Tanner Koziol slipped away from the pack to cap the drive for a wide-open touchdown catch. The Commodores’ defense looked as bad as it’s looked all season on that drive, as the Cardinals marched 94 yards down the field on 11 plays.

Defensive MVP: Nick Rinaldi

The walk-on led the team with 7 tackles and 1 sack, keeping his momentum going after a huge performance against Kentucky last week.

Final grade: C