WMU: A few initial thoughts...

Not a good story for the Falcons over in Kalamazoo today.

Coach Clawson made the point in the post-game that last year's game was non-competitive, and he's right, BG was down by 27 points before they had a first down.  In comparison, BG was in this game for 28 minutes this year.

That's improvement, but I think you could only call this year's game competitive in comparison to last year's game...because WMU chewed BG up.

Much of the post-game talk has centered on the 4th down play in the first half.  Coach Clawson said that we had six inches to go and "everytime" in his coaching career the QB sneak has worked.  BG ran to the line and tried their quick sneak play.  WMU had everyone within about four feet from the ball and Schilz made absolutely nothing and then kind of fell off to the right.

Coach Clawson thought he made it, and went on an Earl Weaver style tirade on the sideline.  Didn't look to me like he made it....once espn3.com has the replay up maybe I can get a still that will help.  But, the point is that the idea is to get low and go behind your best lineman.  According to coach, Schilz needed to get his hips lower and he could have gotten six inches.  From my observation, he absolutely seemed to be on top of the pile, which is not where you need to be.

Anyway, on the broadcast, Gibby was saying that he'd like to see us run a real play, and Samuel had been making yards.  Ultimately, you should be able to get six inches one way or the other.  We also could have mis-executed a zone read to Samuel.

WMU took the ball and scored before half time, and instead of having a shot at tying the game, WMU went in leading by 14 and were getting the ball to start the second.

Now, that certainly was the turning point of the game.  However, we should pump the brakes a little on the talk that BG would have gone in the locker room tied if we had made that first down.  First, we were a ways from scoring, and if we had scored soon enough, there's a chance WMU could still have gotten down the field on us.

Ultimately, the defense had no answer at all for the Broncos.  They shredded us with their very good passing game, and shredded us with their very average running game.  We saw the re-emergence of two long-held weaknesses--tackling and defending a running QB.  I'm not honestly sure that the game ends that much differently.

Observers in the stadium remarked that BG seemed very dispirited in the 2nd half.  Gibby said that, as an alum, he found the body language on the sideline "disgusting."  The sideline reporter had more or less the same thing to say.

We want to be the best team in the MAC.  There was a little glimpse between us and what that actually looks like.  The next two weeks will be another.

To indulge the biggest fears you might have, those two games end up similar to this one, and then the team is unable to recover and bring anything back for the rest of the season, leaving another poor record in its wake.

At the same time, opportunities do exist.  If this team picks off a win in the next two weeks, the schedule does get easier and provide the opportunity for a more successful finish to the season.

Time will tell.  It was one thing to lose to WVU like we did and another to lose to a team in your own conference.