RedHawks...coming down the pike

Those words send chills down the back of a Falcon fan.  The Miami Whammy, which has been in effect or latent effect every day for as long as any of us can remember, dating back perhaps to the day when we ran a play on 4th down because we thought it was 3rd down and if we had kicked a FG we would have won.

Anyway, there have been no end to the crazy results, most of them working against us (most recently the fog bowl and also the last grass game played at the Doyt when our kicker did the ole' Charlie Brown on a FG.  There was the MAC Championship game where our tacklers bounced off Big Ben while he completed one receiver routes in the middle of our defense.   Sigh.

BG won last year down in Oxford, but Miami has a 2-1 all-time lead in the series between the two schools.  If you see what I mean.  And they have won the last 6 in the Doyt.  The last time BG beat Miami in the Doyt GARY BLACKNEY was the coach.

And, just like last week, this is a game BG needs to have.  One of the points that Coach made in his Monday MAC Teleconference is that you have to be careful when you look at Miami's stats so far this year because they played a very tough pre-season schedule:  OSU, Boise, and UC.  Now, their 3 wins are over Southern Illinois, Akron and Massachusetts, so when you look at the MAC stats, you have to account for that as well.

A few observations.

First, they have a really good QB.  Zac Dysert is very good.  He is a true dual threat QB that will present challenges to the BG defense.  BG will need to get pressure on him without letting him get out of the pocket.  Against Akron, he had 500 yards passing and 100 yards rushing, which, as they say, are video game numbers.  

Now, this is the best defense he has faced in the conference yet.  I think the key is whether BG can get pressure on him with a 3 or 4 man rush.  BG was in the perfect situation Saturday--getting pressure with 3 rushers which means a hurried QB has to throw into an 8 man coverage, which is very difficult.

Another note.  Last year when we were in Oxford, we noted that Miami was having next to no success running the ball.  This year, in early returns, it is better, though they are still eighth in the MAC in yards per carry.  (Interesting note:  in conference games, 8 of the 12 teams in the MAC are averaging 5 yards per carry rushing.)

Now they are rushing for 202 yards per game and 92 of them are coming from Dysert, so you wonder about their backs.  They are running a true FR at TB--Jamire Westbrook--who was highly touted out of the Cincy area.  He had a good game against UMass but struggled against Akron.

Anyway, all that to say that if BG can hold the run game down as they did in the second half against Akron, you'd think that would help, though I do believe Dysert is capable of carrying them more so than any QB in the MAC.