WMU Recap, Part II

Now, for the offense.  Up until the 4th down play, BG's offense appeared to be playing with WMU and we had a shot right then to tie the game.  We'd had two 70+ yard scoring drives and were on track for a third.  After the 4th down miss, BG had only 65 more yards until the garbage time TD Drive at the end.

Coach said that we have too many 3 and outs.  We have two types of drives--TD drives and 3 and outs. Four of our 10 real drives were 3 and out, and 2 were 6 and out (and those were after the game was out of reach).  We need to make consistent first downs to control the clock and field position, was his point.

On paper, BG ran the ball pretty well, at 4.5 yards per carry.  Schilz completed 60% of his passes for almost 13 yards per reception, normally numbers that will bring some success.  BG had 6.2 yards per play which is not bad.

So, after all that, BG still had 14 points until a long drive when the game was over.  BG still had only 15 first downs heading into that final drive.

Something doesn't seem to match up.  Even if the defense had played well, this offensive performance would probably not have allowed BG to win the game.  And that's especially worrisome.

People are going to naturally conclude that the QB is holding us back.  That's the nature of the thing...no player is more blessed with perfection than the backup QB you have not seen.  Schilz has looked very solid in spots this year, and then less solid recently.  Again his numbers were solid against WMU, and he was only sacked once...as with our whole offense, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.  (I guess WMU was getting pressure, even with one sack).

I will say that there seem to be openings for him to run that he does not take, even on a play where he was already past the line of scrimmage.  He had wide open space a couple of times and just won't take it. I don't know if that is how he is being coached or just the decision he makes, but he's a reasonable athlete and defenses are leaving that space open because they think he won't run which gives them more ability to cover.

And, Coach felt he didn't make a good effort on the 4th down play.

I don't know what the story is, but against WMU, the offense was not good enough to win, and needs to improve just like everything else.  And here we look ahead.

The next two games are very tough.  The Rockets are, obviously, very good.   Temple hung 42 on Ball State last Saturday.  BG is going to need significant improvement just to make the next 2 games competitive.  Both of these teams have good backs who can run the ball, and if BG doesn't shore up that tackling, that is all they will do.  On the other side, they also have two of the best defenses in the MAC, and will be coming after us like crazy.

Both games are at home.  Coach Clawson said that the team didn't have any choice but to bounce back, but we all know that isn't true.  That's the only acceptable choice, but it isn't the only choice.

If you want to indulge the worst worries, given the "disgusting" (John Gibson's word) body language on the BG sideline and the chance to be in four straight non-competitive games, and you can see the whole season finishing out in the same trend, which is to say, like last year.

Now, this year's team appeared to be different for the first few weeks.  As I said last night, you pick off a win against one of the next two teams, and then you hit an easier part of the schedule, and you have a shot to show some progress in the program.

Finally....when you see WMU, a complete team, offense, defense, and special teams, with multiple defensive playmakers and multiple weapons on offense...that's where we need to get.  That's what a championship team looks like.  The question is, can you imagine the guys we have turning into a team like that?