The general theme is how proud he was of our team in how they performed. It was, as we speculated, a very hard week at practice. We wrote here that it would be interesting to see how they team responded, and they seemed to respond well. Essentially, BG gave up 3 big plays ("we gave them 21 points," Coach said) and that cost us the game, but on a play-by-play basis, things were much improved, especially up front.
The hope is that our guys "grew up," out there on the field at the Linc, and are ready to turn the corner.
Of course, the true test is whether that is a once in a while thing, or an every week thing. Coach said that if we can bring that kind of effort every week, we will win games. From that angle it was encouraging. Certainly, there are no moral victories, (god forbid), but I think that you have to believe we are on the right trajectory, even with this year's less than stellar record.
Most of the fans are going to focus on the 2-point play. Coach said that he didn't like our chances in a red zone game, especially because of the way those often come down to kicking FGs, and, um, well... you know. Also, we were pretty banged up at that point. So, he decided to make it about one play.
The second thing I think people will be talking about is the play selection...which was a slant to Jordan. I have been wondering about whether Schilz, as a young QB, is tending to not look to receivers other than Jordan, and I wondered it from the description of that play. Coach said that the play call was was to go to Jordan if he was single covered and go the other way if he was double covered. He was single covered and Jordan goes 1-1 with the defender, who made the play.
I wholeheartedly endorse the decision to go for 2. I also assume that they play call gave us our best shot to score. Coach said they had planned to use it for about five minutes. Also, it was our second 2-point conversion play of the game. Anyway, I think some will find it predictable. There is more, however, to offensive football than the element of surprise. We weren't going to run the ball, and had our best player in space 1-1 against his man, and the staff felt that was the best chance. It is inherently difficult to defend decisions that did not work, and if they had tried to go to someone else and it didn't work, people would be screaming to go to your best weapon.
What killed us was big plays. We gave up an 80-yard TD pass when we had busted coverage and a CB had "his eyes where they shouldn't have been"), another long TD pass where our S covered the wrong part of a screen pass, and then a TD when our punter muffed the low snap and failed to kick it out of the end zone for the safety. (Apparently, they actually practice that...anyway, even if we get that back we're in business). On those 3 plays, Temple was given 21 points, and that was enough to win the game.
Beyond that, we had a really nice defensive performance against a team that plays the type of offense that usually gives us fits. Take away the 126 yards on the two TD plays, and Temple had 181 yards on 43 plays, which is just over 4 yards a play. Yes, Pierce had 100+ on 15 carries, but Brown averaged only 2.1 yards per carry, and Temple's longest run of the day was only 18 yards.
Temple had only 12 first downs, ran only 45 plays, and BG's defense contributed a pick-6 by Jovan Leacock. Again, it was a much improved defensive effort and one that I hope will build the confidence of the team moving forward.
The offense ended up with 24 first downs, although 5 of those were on penalties, which seems like a lot. We did get 323 yards, but we ran 88 plays in the game, which means we averaged less than four yards per play. Our running game was not as bad as it looked (36 for 36) because the muffed punt and 25 sack yards are tacked onto that. Not to say it was good---our RBs were 27 of 86, which is just over 3 yards a carry.
The passing game was just under 60% with no INTs. Overall, we had a couple of nice drives in the late 3rd and 4th to get back in the game, but for much of the day our offense was not productive and not consistent. The longest drive in the first half was 36 yards, and the only points in the first half came from the defense.
Obviously, the offense has not reached the efficiency you saw prior to Schilz's injury. We did put together a strong second half effort today (and a stronger second half effort against OU), so I hope we are starting to put it together. Our style of play is difficult to play if we aren't moving the ball.
It was not a good day for injuries.
- It was announced that Blaec Walker (OT) is out for the year.
- Ty Pronty did not play.
- Willie Geter went down.
- Cam Truss went down.
- Zak Akenberger had a serious leg injury.
We'll have to watch how that shakes out this week, but it doesn't make the job any easier.
On paper, this is shaping up to be a really bad season. We are 1-6 and could finish with a really poor record. But, we have had some close losses (as we had close wins last season), and I think our young players are very talented and will be good. This year may be messy, but I believe the trajectory is right.
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