Sweet Victory #4: The Offense

So, let's take a look at BG's offensive performance.

BG came out of the gate pretty sloppy.  There were a couple of dropped passes, and BG went 3 and out on 3 of the 4 1st Q possessions...there were also 3 sacks of Johnson....66 yards on 17 plays, which is obviously not very good.

Things picked up a little in the 2nd Q.  BG had the ball twice.  The first drive got 2 first downs and at least flipped field position and the second drive was a touchdown drive that concluded with a circus catch by Shaun Joplin.  Even in the 2nd Q, however, Johnson was sacked three additional times.

And, note this....Johnson was getting lit up.  They were just pounding him.  He's tough though--that's how they grow them in PA--and he kept coming at them.

The second half was a completely different story.  You have to give a lot of credit to our offensive coaches, led by Warren Ruggerio.  BG made adjustments and things really turned around.  There were no more sacks.  Johnson was 11-11 for 153 yards in the 2nd half, and played about as well as you can play.  When you are getting 13.9 yards per PASSING ATTEMPT???  Yeah, that's gonna get the job done.

The most visible adjustment was to move Johnson around.  He was rolling out, both on straight roll outs and off a pivot.  He was devastatingly effective.  The downside of rolling out is you reduce the amount of field the defense has to cover, which logically means you are going to have to fit the ball into tight spots...something Johnson is 100% comfortable doing.

The WRs also had a great half.  They were getting open, making catches, running with the ball.  It was just a dominant half of offensive football.  Statistically, pass defense was Akron's weakness and by moving Johnson around, BG found a way to expose the weakness.

It would be a mistake, however, to not mention BG's other standout player, who was Travis Greene.  This guy is just doing a great job.  He is very elusive, especially in space.  He seems to be able to take those little half steps that get him open space and then he accelerates when he gets it.  He had a huge day....24 carries and 142 yards rushing and 4 catches for 71 yards and he scored twice.  That's 5.9 yards per carry.  That's 213 of the Falcons 396 yards.

There were two specific plays that really stood out.  BG was up 17-14 and called a screen pass.  Coach said after the game that it was setting up perfectly, as long as Johnson could get the ball to Greene.  Johnson was in trouble, but he does what he does, which is avoid the tackle and then he shovelled the ball forward Farve-style to Greene who ran 30 yards for a huge TD in the game.  It was just an athletic play by Johnson to get the ball to our guy in space.

Aside.  Remember Clawson's opening presser?  People asked him what system he used.  He said, I use whatever system gets the ball to my best players in space.  Yep.

The other huge play came when BG was up 24-14 and inside its own 40.  Andre Givens came in, ran to the left, got all hemmed up and it was looking like a pretty average play.  He's nearly on the left sideline when he cuts back and heads to the middle of the field, which is wide open and filled with blockers, including Matt Johnson, who popped a defender right in the mouth.  The play ended up getting 18 yards, but it was a huge momentum shift and got the crowd fired up and led to our final score, which was decisive.

You can't mention the offense without talking about the line.  They were struggling in the first half, but when BG needed a drive to kill the clock in the 4th Q, they were pushing Akron all over the place.   Jacob Bennett was injured and Eastwood grad Clay Rolf replaced him and Coach said after the game that Rolf played really well in that spot--which was his first significant game action at the T position.

As I said last night, what was good about the victory was that things started out poorly and BG adjusted.  Good teams know how to win, and you are starting to see that.  BG adjusted its offensive strategy and then the players executed almost to perfection in the 2nd half and that's a victory.