Sweet Victory

I certainly will acknowledge that it was a pretty sloppy effort and far from what we had hoped to see as fans.

Having said that.....we're not going to turn into Buckeye fans, where victory is never good enough.  So, for tonight, this is going to be completely one-sided....talk about the good things our team did to win tonight.

Tomorrow we will take a more fair and balanced approach.

----------------------------

We beat a Division I team 21-13. They may have been struggling.  I also will tell you they are a completely different team with Blackman at the helm.

The defense created red zone stops when they needed them, forcing Idaho to try 3 FGs when they had to be thinking touchdown.  They only made 2 of those.

The defense also responded in the last 3 minutes.  The offense had turned it over and Idaho had a shot at what would could have been a game tying drive.  You could sort of feel it slipping away....except Paul Swan stripped the ball and BG recovered and the door was closed.

The defense also made Idaho one-dimensional.  Idaho had a hard time running, getting only 1.5 sack adjusted yards per carry.

Also, Blackwell tried to get out of the pocket a number of times--a serious BG weakness in previous years--but BG more or less kept him hemmed in and kept him from breaking anything longer than 6 yards.

On offense, Anthon Samuel averaged 4.5 yards per carry and had 2 TDs.  Sack adjusted the team also averaged 4.6 yards per carry.

John Pettigrew converted a critical 3rd down and short situation in the 4th.

Schilz completed 68.6% of his passes for an average of 11.8 yards per reception, which is pretty close to what we have found to be a winning combination (60%/12 ypc).

Shaun Joplin came off a tough game in Florida and played an outstanding game--7 for 117 and a 42 yard long.

Chris Gallon was also very good with 6/89 and a huge 37 yard reception that had game changing importance.

BG was 50% on 3rd down.

On special teams, Schmeidebusch averaged 46 yards per  kick.

We did not miss a FG.

Tate made all 3 of his Xps.

Farinella and the kickoff team gave Idaho an average starting point of the 22.

Ryan Burbrink had a 24 yard punt return.

-----------

That's some pretty good stuff for a season opening win.  More tomorrow, as I mentioned, but for tonight, winning is winning and we did some nice stuff to make it happen.  Enjoy....