A tale of two halves....Deux

BG was set to get the ball coming out of the locker room.  This has to be seen as a pretty big possession.  And the Falcons made perhaps the most radical halftime adjustment I can remember in the Clawson era.

On a 7 play, 78 yard TD drive, BG threw one pass.  Samuel gained 47 yards on the first two plays, Martin got 14 on the next two and BG was in business.  On the one pass BG threw, Joplin bailed out Schilz with an incredible catch on a ball thrown way behind him.  And Samuel ran the ball in from the 4 and the game was 10-7.

BG's defense swallowed up Akron on the next possession.  BG got a 19 yard punt return and started on its own 38.  It is hard to describe.  Everything was feeling better.  BG had some field position and had maybe found a way to move the ball.

On this 10 play drive, BG threw 2 passes, completing 1.  They drive stalled out on the Akron 8 and Steve Stein MADE a FG to tie the game.

BG kicks the ball out of bounds on the kickoff, so now Akron has some field position.  They pick up a first down on a BG offsides penalty, but then on 3rd and 5 from the BG 46, the Falcons found the ability to get some pressure and they sacked the Akron QB for an 11 yard loss, a  huge play in the game.

BG is back to having bad field position after the punt, starting at the 9.  At this point, Samuel has sprained his foot and is on ice on the sidelines.  Martin gains 31 yards on 3 carries to get BG out of the hole.  (Honestly.  I can't believe I am writing this about our team).  Then BG sets up a screen, but this time to Alex Bayer.  He finds a seam and Akron has guys pulled up to the line and no one deep and he breaks it, RUMBLIN' RUMBLIN' RUMBLIN' for the 60 yard TD.  BG was up 17-10.

At this point, I felt pretty good that the Falcons were going to win the game and live to fight another day.

Akron got the ball and on its first possession had a 3-3 play.  On this one, Chris Jones broke through and got the 3rd down sack and forced the punt.

After a bad punt, BG started on the Akron 46.  Pettigrew and Martin get 42 yards on 8 straight running plays.  There is no element of surprise here.  BG is just punching Akron again and again, imposing its will.  On 2nd down they finally stopped a run (-2) and then Schilz threw the ball away under pressure.

And Steve Stein hit the upright with his FG attempt.  Honestly, the ability of our kickers to hit the upright defies any knowledge I have of probability.  Anyway, it was a chip shot, we missed and Akron was still only down 7 and it is early 4th.

But the defense was flawless, forcing a 3 and out.  After a 12 yard return by Burbrink,  BG started in Akron territory.  BG drove the ball to the Akron 7 on 6 running plays.  After a false start and an incompletion, BG was faced with a 3rd down and goal from the 12.

BG had a pass play, Schilz scrambled to his left, there wasn't anything there and then he scrambled to his right, and for all the inaccurate throws he made yesterday, he threw this pass on the run, across the field and dropped it over a defender and over Alex Bayer's shoulder for a TD.  It was a high quality touch pass and it made the game 24-10 with 6:43 left.

On the next possession, it was 3-10 after 2 incompletions and The Kendall Montgomery Sack happened and Akron punted again and at that point, it was all over.  Akron got some garbage yards on its last possession, but it was irrelevant.  BG had put the game away with a pounding running attack.

BG had 322 yards of offense in the second half at something like 7 yards per play.

The Zips gained 36 net yards for the half.

That's what I'm talking about.

Two notes.  First, Akron had lost a d-lineman Friday to a fractured fibula and then had another guy go down late in the second quarter.  I don't know if BG knew that or not, but conditions were right for what we did.  Coach Bowden said that “At halftime, I think they got in there and looked at their size and our size and [decided] to run the ball continuously."

Most of all, the feeling was incredible as a Falcon fan.  How many times have we seen a team come out of the locker room at halftime, dispense with the niceties and run the ball down our throat play after play?  MSU, NIU, Wisconsin (going way back)....Kent...there have to be others.  It was just great to have our team be the one imposing its will, our team hitting them in the mouth and gashing them on the ground.

This was a game we had to win and we found a way to do it.

Injuries
What it felt like