FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

BG Loses Again, Season more or less finished

Things change fast. Think of this....in September, as we change ends of the field at the end of the first quarter at Camp Randall Stadium, its 13-0. Our vaunted, senior-dominated team is doing exactly what we expected...racing up and down the field against at Big 10 team. It was just an extension of the Meyer/Brandon era starting a fifth season, among the most successful seasons in the school's history.

Tonight, we lost to Akron in front of 9,600 fans, and it felt like Gary Blackney coached here again.

Cue the Dead...what a long strange trip its been.

In this post-game show, Coach Brandon said that we were "not a very good team." Later, he said "we are not fundamentally a very good football team." And that falls onto the shoulders of coaches....coaches who are failing the program right now.

Omar didn't play or dress tonight, but that wasn't why we lost. We lost because we aren't a very good team right now, and because I don't think we had a game plan to win (more later). Tackling was poor, special teams were poor, and offensive execution was bad. We could have lost both last week and this week even with Omar in the game, just as we were near to losing in the weeks before that.

We are 4-4, and the most likely scenario is a 4-7 season. A losing season is a virtual certainty, since we would have to win either at Miami or against a superior Toledo team (or both if we lose to Kent), to reach 6-5. And that's not much to brag about.

OFFENSE

On offense, we tried to employ the Josh Harris playbook for a while, and it was working. Turner had 60 yards rushing, Lane had 70 yards (on 10 carries) and Pope, running well for the first time all year, had 63 yards.

The problem was, we clearly showed we didn't have confidence in Turner throwing the ball downfield, and once they realized they were only going to see a diet of runs into the line and bubble screens, they put guys near the line, and nothng worked after that.

Turner's numbers were OK. He was 22-30, but only for 173 yards. At times, he needed to scramble more, but he did not have a bad game on paper. In the first quarter, as we were driving for a score, he was under pressure and chucked it directly to Reggie Corner (a former Falcon), and that did set the team back.

Our longest completion of the day was 20 yards. We did not air it out even once. Despite saying all week that the playbook was going to stay the same, Coach admitted that we skinnied it for Anthony this week. With it, we took out the chances for Charles Sharon and Steve Sanders to carry this team to the win. We played it very close to the vest--as Coach said post-game, to try and give us a chance to win at the end. Unfortunately, when the end came, the only weapon we used was not effective (Coach said if we had gotten some better field position we would have let it air out a little...not sure what he was waiting for, since it was 2nd and 20 at one point.)

We had another redzone disaster when Pope ran one of those direct snaps behind all our big guys. He fumbled and Akron recovered, verified by replay. He was trying to stretch the ball over the line. Give us those scores back, and we're right in the game. Problem is, our team executed in the redzone in the past. We were deadly. Now we're deadly only to ourselves.

We were 2-11 on third down. Tough to win games like that.

Finally, a tip of the hand to the fourth quarter playcalling, perhaps the worst this team has put together. First, on the series leading to the Pope fumble, we tried just straight power runs into the line, no finesse, no bootlegs, no play action.

But when we got the ball on our 12, we still had time to at least tie the game. We proceeded to run more passes behind the line of scrimmage than anything I have ever seen. No attempt was made to get downfield, everything was dink and run for it. If at times Turner played like he didn't have confidence in himself, maybe that's because that was the message he got from the coaching staff in their play selection. Seriously, Coach Stud's offensive game plan was one-dimensional. Once we established the run, we had nothing else to go to, and in the final quarter, it was an embarassment.

DEFENSE

I mentioned here this week that Akron is a lousy running team. Against us, Brett Biggs looked like a Heisman Trophy candidate. He ran for 159 yards, 4.2 yards per carry. Coach says "we knew he was a tough little runner." How did you know that--from his under 100 yard/game average?

Actually, I think the defense played well enough to win. Take away the last TD, which came from a really short field, and they held Akron t0 17 points. Admittedly, that's 17 more than Army held them to, but we should be able to win like that. I thought they played hard and with energy in the first half. In fact, Akron had five punts in their first six possessions. But, eventually, they wore down, and Akron got 3 TDs in 5 drives in the second half.

Akron was 7 of 16 on third down...we do not do a good job of getting off the field.

We didn't tackle well, especially late, but the failure in this game is on the shoulders of the offense.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Special teams were less offensive than normal. The Punting game was better at times, with no protection problems. Nate shanked one when we had a chance to stick them deep and get some field position advantage, but there were no blocks, etc.

The kickoffs were dismal. The worst of all was one coming off our score to make it 17-14. At this point, you gotta feel we're getting some momentum, and we can pull it off. According to coach, Timchenko was supposed to sky kick outside the hash mark, and instead he kicked it right down the middle, and they returned it to the 45. That was a big play because it essentially set the field position for the entire quarter, and left us working out of our own end for the rest of the game.

We also had a kickoff out of bounds, and at least one penalty on a return. The special teams did nothing to contribute to the cause tonight, though, as I said, they contributed less to the defeat than they have in the past.

WHAT'S NEXT

It has a grim look to it. Obviously, we now need help to win the East. (An aside: apparently, Coach Brandon has gotten so fond of saying we control our own destiny that he actually said it in the post-game interview tonight, even though it is no longer true.)

Its not impossible, but its highly, highly improbable. It starts with us winning all of our games--Coach candidly said that we'll be lucky to win one more, not three more. But, say Omar comes back, we beat Kent, and then we go to Miami and win our first MAC road game against a team with a winning record, and then riding a home field advantage beat a superior Toledo team right before Thanksgiving. (Or, in the alternative, Turner plays against Kent and the coaches actually give him a chance, since they have nothing to lose now).

Even if that happens, Akron has to lose again. That could happen--probably will. They have to go to Ball State (who upset NIU today on the road), play a decent OU team (in Akron) and beat Kent State on Thanskgiving morning (10 Am...how bad is that?)

My guess is, Akron doesn't run the table. But my guess REALLY is that we don't either. An AZZ.com poster has said that you can't fix what's wrong with this team this year. It has to be rebuilt over the summer.

Lurking behind it all is that spectre of Gary Blackney. Is this team on a slide toward mediocrity that only will be stemmed when a new coach reinvigorates the program? Does Gregg Brandon have the toughness to turn this season around, or stop this program from its slide? Have we been recruiting well, or are the post-Meyer classes not ready for MAC competition?

Today, the answers are not encouraging. But in football, as in every endeavor in life, every day is new chance to prove yourself.