Sweet Victory #7: The Offense...

Whatever you might have said about BG's offense, they brought it on all cylinders last night at the Doyt.  Big plays, running, passing, passes caught, 3rd downs converted, red zone performance...with the exception of one INT, it was nearly a perfect night for the BG offense.

The numbers are very good.  BG finished with 460 yards on only 61 plays.  That's 7.5 yards per play.  That's a little misleading, though, as BG took their foot off the throttle once they went up 42-0 early in the 3rd.  At that point--before the game was 42-0--BG had 447 yards on 42 plays, and that 10.6 yards per play.

Coach said in the post-game presser that Ohio likes to pull their safeties up and crowd the box, and that BG knew the play action would be there.  In fact, they went play action before even establishing the run, running a deep double move to a wide, wide, wide open Shaun Joplin who went 43 yards down to the 11. Then, on BG's 2nd play from scrimmage, BG went over the top to Heath Jackson for a 32 yard TD.

Coach said that forced OU to back their guys out and opened up the run.  Essentially (me talking now), OU's defense was on its heels for the remainder of the meaningful part of the game, as BG ran and passed essentially at will.

Travis Greene is now officially having a monster season.  He has 1,167 yards which is the 4th best season in Falcon history.  He is 277 yards from having the very best season...currently held by Falcon great Fred Durig during his magic 1951 season.

Greene was very effective last night.  He had 149 yards on 22 carries, a 6.8 average, and 2 TDs.  Matt Johnson had 40 yards gained running on the back end of some read-options and Fred Coppet averaged 4 yards a carry as well.  Overall, BG had 207 net rushing yards and a 5.0 average.

Passing was good too.  Matt Johnson completed only 12 passes, but those completions gained BG 229 yards, which is just over 19 yards per completion.  He only attempted 17, so that's a 71% completion rate...in the past, I have noted that teams tend to win when they are at 60% and 12 ypc, so he's in a pretty good place.  He was only sacked once and got excellent protection as BG threw upfield...he did throw 1 INT.

Aside:  Matt Johnson is very good and he can still get better as he cuts down on INTs and getting sacked moving forward.

Shaun Joplin, playing in his last game at the Doyt, had 3 catches for 71.  Heath Jackson, who has emerged as a very productive player for BG, had 5 catches for 74, including a huge catch for BG's 2nd TD in which he out-battled multiple coverage for the ball.  (He's only a junior).

Alex Bayer also had a 57 yard TD reception where he rumbled down the sideline and past at least two tacklers.

Anyway, that's the story of the offense.   One INT and one sack, beyond that BG played about as well as a team can play on offense, and against a pretty highly ranked OU defense.  If BG can continue this kind of offensive production, they are going to be very difficult to beat in their next 2 games.