Sweet Victory #4: Penalties, Special Teams

We'll have a more extensive review of special teams, but BG had a couple of struggles here.

First, in a play that probably is driving Falcon fans crazy this morning, the Falcons were lining up for a FG to get the lead to 2.  Going into the wind, Tate drilled a 38 yarder.  Sadly, just moments before BG was whistled for a delay of game penalty that is very difficult to understand on a FG play.  Moved back 5, BG tried again and this time something went terribly wrong with a kick that was either too low or a bad hold, but it was easily blocked and there was huge momentum for UB.

Second, after scoring to take the lead, BG was kicking off into the wind.  They had been kicking it high and short but here opted to go "deep" which resulted in the UB returner getting the ball just inside the 20 and he returned it into BG territory, providing UB with a short field to go for the win.  We've already discussed what happened after that.

Note:  this has not been an isolated issue.  In fact, BG has had more than one XP blocked as well.

In fact, there was a special teams factor underlying the last drive.  UB was down only 1, but due to their struggles at K and having one bad miss already, the Bulls almost had to get a TD to have confidence they were going to win the game.  As Falcon fans, we can feel the pain for this, because we have been there.

In terms of penalties, apparently the penalty party did not deliver immediate results.  BG continued to be plagued by penalties...with 11 for 82 yards.  A number of these were false starts, there was the delay of game and a dumb unsportsmanlike after a big stop of a flat pass.

That is one observation I would make.  This year's team is more error-prone than last year.  Between penalties and the 3 turnovers, you're just seeing more errors.

The penalties did seem to get better in the second half, as did the defense.  Coach Babers said the team had a "nice little talk" at halftime and that did seem to have some impact.