Clawson Presser--Eagle Edition

Coach Clawson held his presser yesterday....there were really three things of note.

First, he was obliged to go through the usual "this team isn't a 1-6 team."  EMU has played better the last two weeks, including a win (albeit Army) and this has coincided with making a change at QB.  Like our team, he thinks they might have found their identity, which is to be a run-based team.

Which leads to our second point.  In BG's four game winning streak, in which the defense has shined, the team has been mostly facing spread/pass type offenses.  This is the first time the Falcons are facing a run-based team in this stretch.  Coach says the mark of a good defense is to be able to stop all kind of attacks and that will be a test for our team Saturday.

Finally, he was asked about the team's offensive struggles in Amherst.  While conceding that we need to be more consistent on offense, he said that once BG went up 21-0, he switched to very conservative playcalling because he didn't think that UMass could score 21 if they had to drive the field.  He said we "took the air out."  The inference is that the poor offensive numbers can at least partly be explained by that strategic decision.  Well, OK, I mean, partly.

The question he asked (and the question we would all ask) is that we know that the offense can turn it down when they need to, but if we needed to turn it up, could.  Coach says "the jury is out," which is certainly true.

I think it will be a very interesting game Saturday.  Can BG's defense buckle up on the run?  And can we recapture the offense we had against Miami and make that a consistent feature?