Season ending victory, Part II

Looking now at the numbers....

BG had 3 one-play scoring drives, so some of these numbers have to be considered in that light.  Because scoring on one-play is good...

UB had 21 first downs to BG's 17.  UB ran 88 plays and BG ran only 66.  BG, however, outgained the Bulls by 10 yards, which translated into a 5.4-3.9 advantage in yards per play.  While 5.4 yards per play is adequate, our defense should be very pleased to only allow 3.9 yards per play...it is a very good result.

For example, UB has the MAC's 2nd best rusher, Bo Oliver.  He did get 127 yards, but it took him 34 carries and he had only 3.7 yards per carry, not a productive day.  Even better, his longest run was 14 yards.  For a team with our track record defending the run, that counts as a minor victory.

Similarly, Chazz Anderson, who can run from the QB slot, had a long run of 11...a better performance than the last 2 times BG met up with a running QB.

UB was forced to pass more than they wanted to.  Anderson really struggled.  He completed only 41% of his passes, and when adjusted for sacks, they got only 3.6 yards per passing attempt, which was less than their average yards per running attempt.  Never happens.

They also only had 9 yards per reception, also an unproductive number.

Schilz seemed to have trouble getting in rhythm for much of the game--of course, there was the wind to contend with.  He only completed 45% of his passes, but those 14 completed passes netted out to 236 yards, or 7.6 per pass and 16.9 per completion.  The first number is good, the second number is very good.

And, of course, 4 TDs over 2 INTs.

Pettigrew had 50 yards on 12 carries, very nice for a fill in role and his first extensive experience.  Jamel Martin, playing injured, had 44 yards on 14 carries.  Both of them had a TD.

Overall, BG had 3.4 yards per carry---again, not a show stopping result, but good enough given what the team was facing.

Finally, for all the woes, BG was once again perfect in the red zone.  Four trips, 4 TDs.  Nice to see some improvement there.

There's a couple more things to wrap up from this game, and then we've got the winter to look at what happened and where we improved and where improvement was due.  I'd expect a year-end presser this week...normally, those are pretty informative.

In the meantime, we finish in a tie for fourth with Miami, which I guess means we finished 4th.