These aren't the Zips we were looking for

Quick note....

This has turned into a pretty big game.  At the beginning of the season, we were looking at playing a team that is 6-35 over its last 41 games....and a team that, despite the arrival of a rock star head coach, was still expected to be pretty bad.  When we talked about the early season games and how tough they were, the unspoken promise was this game.

And yeah, I know, they are 1-4.  They lost to FIU, etc.  On other other hand, they played Tennessee very tough on the road and darn near beat Miami (a game played in Akron, BTW).

They hung 629 yards on Miami.  They are 5th in the nation in passing yards per game.  They are 24th in total offense and 25th in scoring.

They are, on the other hand, 114th in scoring defense.  Every D-1 team they have played has scored at least 40 on them.

But it took Zac Dysert having a career day for the Red Hawks to pull the game out on Saturday.

Here's your nightmare scenario.  Akron is moving the ball all over the place and running points up.  At which point, does our offense have the giddy-up to match that, even against a poor Akron defense?

Can our defense stop them?  I'd like to think so, but we have been soft against the pass.

Can our offense score points in bushels?  If we can, we haven't seen it yet.

Or--alternatively--can we take advantage of their 96th ranked rushing defense, move the ball on the ground, keep their offense off the field and win the game that way.  (Who would have thought we would ever write those words?)

Either way, this isn't the game we thought it was.  And, with BG 0-1 in the conference and 2-3 overall, this is a game you pretty much have to win.  Yeah, you're not out of it if you don't win, but you essentially have to run the table for any shot at a division crown and you only have one more loss to give before the best you can do is a 6-6 year and probably no bowl game.

Which isn't what the expectations were.

I'm pretty nervous about this one.  There will be more analysis coming, but it just seems like a bad match up for us.  Maybe we're better than we have looked in our last two FBS games but there is no place to hide in the conference schedule.  These are teams you are supposed to be able to beat.