25 questions that brick

Not in this picture: Montgomery, Haywood, Treadwell.

What is their body of work?

Hard for it to be worse.  They are 0-8.  Coach fired mid-season.  Proud program hitting harder times every day.  This is an awful year for the RedHawks.

How many seniors and juniors on the two-deep?

17.  Very young team.

Who are their statistical leaders?

Their punter, Zac Murphy, leads the nation in punting.

What is their turnover ratio?

They might be the only 0-8 team in the history of football with a +5 TO differential.

Offense:

How is their QB Play?

Well, they had Austin Boucher, the guy who jumped in for Dysert and won the fog game at the Doyt.  He is injured and out for the season.  They were last in offense with him.  They have Gearing, who is a running QB and their leading rusher, in fact.  He has thrown only 10 passes.  And then there is Drew Kummer (steady solider), a r-so who has 6 career passing attempts.

What is their scoring and yards per play?

They are averaging 10.9 PPG which is the worst in the FBS.  Their 3.7 yards per play is worst in the MAC and the next worst is 4.4.

Can they run the ball?

No, not really.  At 90 some yards a game and 2.6 yards per carry, they are at the bottom of the MAC.  Now, as we will see below, they have given up 189 sacks yards, so it is not as bad as that might imply.

Do they pass the ball?

Last in the MAC in passing efficiency.  One of two teams in MAC completing less than 50% of their passes, 7 TD over 8 INT.  Also last in passing yards per game.  (This was with Boucher).

How is their run/pass balance?

They run on 59% of their plays, which is very high.

Do they convert on 3rd Down?

At 23%, only one team in the FBS is worse.

Do they score in the red zone?

With 14 red zone trips on the year, they have scored only 8 times.  All of them are TDs, so 4 points per trip, which is low.

It all started with such optimism.

Do they protect the quarterback?

They have given up 30 sacks so far this year, worst in the MAC.

Look.  This is among the worst teams on offense we have seen in the MAC in a long time.  Even with Martin down, BG's defense has got to lock onto these guys.  This should not take until the 3rd Q to adjust to.  With a hungry team after the UT game, I'd like to think this one is ripe for the picking.

Defense:

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

Their defense is clearly better than their offense.  They are 9th in the MAC in scoring defense and in yards per play allowed.  They give up a buttload of yards, but that's mostly because the offense can't stay on the field.

Do they defend the run effectively?

They are 7th in the MAC yards per carry allowed, and are actually ahead of BG.

Can they be passed on?

Yes  They are 11th in the MAC in pass efficiency defense.  They give up 64% completions, with 18 TD passes allowed.

Miami has a history in
national politics.  Paul Ryan?
Pshaw.  This dude was
President.

Do they get off the field on 3rd down?

No, they are 11th in the MAC with 48% conversions allowed.

Do they defend in the red zone?

They have given up 44 trips, which means their opponents have made 30 more trips to the red zone than they have.  Stop and think about that for a second.  4.5 points per trip is pretty good.

Do they pressure the QB?

No.  They are 12th in the MAC with 8 sacks.

Special Teams:

Punting?

As mentioned, Murphy is best in the country with 48 yards punting average.  However, there are a conference high 8 touchbacks in there and a conference-worst 6.3 yards per return, which puts net punting at 5th in the MAC.  Blocked once...and an 84 yard punt.

Punt Return?

They are good at this.  Fred McRae averages 13.2 when he gets a shot.

Placekicking?

He's 4 of 7 but he does have a 52 yarder.  He is 19 of 25 for his career and a good kicker.

Kickoff?

Teams are starting on the 25.

Kickoff Return?

OK.  They start on their own 26..

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

Video...about 1/4 second before a Falcon
KILLS a RedHawk.

Look.  For a team that had their pride hurt against UT, this is just an opportunity that can
not be missed.  Miami is really down this year, can't move the ball and doesn't have a very good defense.  If BG is looking to remind itself what it can do, there is no better opportunity than this.

One note to old-timers.  This is as whammyable a game as there ever has been.  Miami seems to have the ability to win this kind of game against BG, in history.

It should not happen this time, though.  The Falcons simply have to deliver against this RedHawk team.