A tale of two halfs (halves?)....Part I

The game Saturday was a story of two different halves....one where BG struggled on offense and made a ton of mistakes and had the defense play well enough to keep the game close...and then the second half.

We'll grit our teeth and walk through the first half...then we will have a little more fun in the second half.

Most of all, there were just bunches of errors by BG....it just seemed that the team was sloppy and unorganized.  I was sitting a lot closer to the field than I usually do, so maybe it is like this all the time, but it seemed like we had players (especially on defense) who didn't know (or hadn't been clearly told) whether they were supposed to be on or off the field.

Anyway, a good example of the issues came in the first quarter.  It was 0-0 and Akron pooch-punted BG onto the 2.  BG then drove the ball (with the help of a dicey personal foul call against the Zips) into Akron territory.  BG was on the 33 and it was 3rd and 5.

On 3-5 BG was called for a false start.

On 3-10, BG got four yards.

On 4-6 BG was ready to go for it.....they got a false start.

On 4-11, BG was still going for it.  BG got a false start.

On 4-16 BG punted for a touchback.

On the next possession BG got a stop on 3-1, and then roughed the kicker on the ensuing punt.  (Akron did not score, however).

Up until now the defense has been playing very well against a productive offense.  They would get a couple first downs here and there, but they would stall out.  BG was battling dreadful field position, but the Zips were not scoring.

As you would have to expect, in the second quarter, Akron mounted a 70 yard drive for a TD to lead 7-0.

BG's offense then had the opportunity to respond, and drove to the Akron 49 before stalling and punting.

Akron had an offensive rhythm going now.  Akron drove from its own 10 to the BG 5 in 6 plays.  before they fumbled inside the 5....in what was a huge play in the game, looking back.

At this point, there is 4:32 left and BG is still in some serious peril.  Inside its own 5 and with little offensive productivity, we are faced with giving the ball back to them around midfield.  It would appear that they still have a very solid chance of scoring.

On script, BG tried to drive out and went 3 and out, using :31 of the clock and Akron had the ball at the 50.

The defense really responded to getting that fumble.  In the eight possessions after that, Akron got 10 yards exactly zero times and were in negative yards twice.  (They did finally get over 10 yards on the last garbage time drive).

So, the defense got the stop and Akron punted BG down to the 6.  There is still 3:04 left.

It was pretty clear BG was just trying to make a couple first downs and head into the locker room.  Samuel ripped off a 20 yard run on the first play and BG had some breathing room.  BG made another first down and had the ball at its own 41.  At this point, BG decides it has a shot to open up the playbook a little.

They first take a pass interference call and then on the next play throw a 20 yards pass or so across the middle and Schilz was high as he was all day except he was WAY high and it was a pick inside of 90 seconds left.  Akron ended up with a FG (to lead 10-0 at halftime).

There were two periods of confusion.  We talked about one earlier.  In the other, Akron had the ball on the BG 29 and it was fourth down.  You're expecting a FG attempt, since there are about :20 left.  Akron lines up to run a play.  They do have one timeout.  They can't clock it, and if they don't get a first down they will get nothing, so it was hard to figure out what they were doing.

They called signals as the clock ran down inside :10 and then you were starting to wonder if it was going to run out.  Then, with :04 left, you had both Coach Clawson and Coach Bowden running around trying to call timeout--Coach Clawson because he didn't have the right players on the field for a hail mary and Coach Bowden because he wanted the FG.  Anyway, BG called the timeout, which we couldn't figure out, but it didn't matter that much because Akron would have if we didn't.

Either way, they took advantage of the opportunity to kick a FG and go in leading 10-0.

There was another time when Akron was punting and BG's defense ran off the field and no one from the punt team headed back onto the field.  You had the Akron team facing a completely empty field.  BG scrambled and got it covered, but it looked confused.

It can't be described how ineffective the BG offense was.  BG had 140 yards on 38 plays at halftime.  That's 3.7 yards per play.  I calculate that 66 of those yards were on the ground, with gave BG 74 passing yards on 27 attempts.  We completed 10 passes in the first half.

Meanwhile, while our defense had played very well and held Akron to 10 points, Akron had 267 yards on 51 plays.  Two things.  First, 51 plays is a lot to have in one half and 267 yards is a lot for a half.  But, that's only about 5 yards a play.

Chisholm had 90 yards rushing by halftime

I felt very lucky it was only 10-0.

Even just converting that fumble it could have been 17-0 and you'd have to wonder whether BG would have been able to employ the strategy it did in the second half if it was down by 17.

So, the first half ended mercifully.  But, I have to say, it could not have looked bleaker, simply because there was no reason to think BG was going to be able to move the ball enough to win.