The Falcons kept their title hopes alive with a come from behind victory over Akron in the Rubber Bowl last night. I'm sure if I was an Akron fan, I would feel like I should have won that game, but I guess it was our turn to steal a win on the road.
First, the basic gameflow:
Akron was all over us, took a 14-0 lead, and had a 27-14 lead with 5:00 left in the third. It would have been hard for things to have been much bleaker at that point. We were having trouble moving the ball, and the Zips seemed to be able to move on us.
Then, everything changed.
It really started with about 2 left in the third, when we got a three and out. Briggs snuffed out a screen to Dennis Kennedy, and two more incomplete passes followed, and Akron had to punt. (It was Akron's first three and out of the game).
BG then went on a 7-play, 61 TD drive to cut the game to one score. It was a nice drive featuring a third down conversion by AT, and a couple completed passes, capped off by a 19 yard TD run by Tyler Sheehan on what was such a good fake, even Todd Walker didn't see that he had the ball.
You had the feeling the game might be on at this point. Akron got the ball back, tried some screwy hurry up play and completed a pass to Antonio Smith, who ran it back to the six. AT threw a TD pass to TD-machine Jimmy Scheidler, and before you even really had a chance to notice, BG had the lead 28-27.
And you're thinking: now we gotta win this game.
So BG kicks off. Dennis Williams, Akron's dangerous return man proceeds to shred us for 50 yards to our 43. And, now, suddenly, you're seeing it all melt away again. (It was a roller coaster ride. More on kick coverage later). Akron dutifully pounds the ball into the end zone from the short field, missing the 2-pointer, and now its 33-28 with about 7 left.
Now the Falcons are back on their heels again, but you have to give them credit. They bounced back again, in the face of all this, and with the season resting in the balance. A pass to Corey and an AT run had us inside Akron territory in two plays, and this time we finished as Tyler connected again with Corey on a 21 yard score to take lead again. (We missed the 2-pointer, so it was 34-33.
We really needed some good kick coverage, and this time we got it, tackling the Akron runner on the 20. Dennis Kennedy proceeded to carry the ball twice for 20 yards, and you can feel us starting to stare over the cliff again. But, the Falcons trapped a pass behind the line and got a sack, and then on 4-12 with 2:41 left Akron went for it on fourth down and didn't get it.
So, we have the ball on Akron's 32, a 1 point lead and less than three minutes to play. Anyone feeling anything familiar? Suffice it to say that I don't think any Falcon fan didn't know that the game was not over.
We're being cautious, so AT runs twice for six yards, Akron uses its first two time outs. Then, on third down we try to pass, and the ball falls incomplete, and we're faced with a decision. Vrvilo had already missed a FG earlier in the game and is not having a good season. But a FG is just so important because it forces them to score a touchdown. I think you gotta try the FG...and so did Coach, and Vrvilo nailed it in a clutch situation. Again, we got the play we needed when we needed it.
Now the Falcon Nation has its collective eyes closed again...because we have to kick off. We kick it short, and Akron starts on its 36, a sorry kind of victory for us, actually. This is still so much deja vu from the EMU game its almost spooky. Akron has even more time and a timeout we decided to let them keep.
We're great on first and second down, but Akron converts a 3-6 and a 3-10 and they are at our 35 with about a minute left. That's still a long way for a TD, but they are in position. There is an incompletion and then Jacquemain scrambles for two yards. Then, Akron goes for deep, but Antonio Smith has the coverage and its incomplete. Now, with :15 left, BG gets some pressure on fourth down and the pass is incomplete and everyone can breathe easily.
Yes, it was an exciting game with a great finish. Not the world's best played game, but an exciting game. I had given things up for dead, more than once in fact. We did grind out a win that would have been easy to drop, and I am pleased for that.
It is hard to imagine, however, the team having the stamina to pull this off every week between now and the end of the season.
A couple things I think are important:
Anthony Turner is our most valuable player. He bailed this team out last year, and he could well do it again this year. He should be the starting RB. He also caught passes (including one on third down) and threw a TD pass. This idea of him being a reserve WR is not good. He should be at RB for as many snaps as he can handle.
The defense is now worrying me again. Dennis Kennedy has been really poor for Akron, and yet he just shredded us. This is another deja vu moment, because it just starts to look exactly like the problems we had last year. I really hope that we can adjust that, because if you can't stop the run, every opponent is dangerous.
(To give the D credit, I didn't mention that they also had a nice red zone stop to force a FG in the third quarter which ends up being pretty critical).
Tyler Sheehan played a good game. His numbers were strong, and he "made a play" on the fake and the TD to Corey, and several others. He threw one pic that was probably the fault of the receiver. If we can keep the running game going, there's no reason this team cannot win with Tyler at QB.
We gotta get special teams going. The punting game is strong, but kickoff coverage is just poor and the FG kicking is spotty. Again Vrvilo nailed it when we needed it, and two of his misses are over 50 yards, but we're all hoping (and thinking) he will return to last year's form for the stretch run.
So, it was ugly, but it was a win. We play a struggling Miami team next week at the Doyt. Miami traditionally has this kind of voodoo hold over us, so we need to break that and get another win (our first at home) so we can take another step to the East crown.
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