Sadness accrues....pizza style...the offense

I have focused on the Pitt offense so far because I think that had BG been able to contain Conner, then BG scored enough points to win.  We should not lose sight of the fact, however, that Pitt's defense did a very good job of containing a BG offense that had been red hot throughout November and early December.

BG averaged only 4.3 yards per play and scored only 20 offensive points.  It started on the ground.  Pitt simply would not allow BG to establish a run game.  Even removing sacks, BG had 65 yards on 27 carries, which is 2.4 yards per carry.  Both Greene and Coppet carried the ball, but to little success.  The longest run by a BG RB last night was 8 yards.

Forced to pass, BG did come up with production but often at a cost.  BG was 21-33 for 279 passing yards, but when you deduct the 55 yards lost on 7 sacks, BG had 224 passing yards on 40 attempts, which is 5.6 yards per attempt and a long night.

BG made some plays in the passing game...a great run-after-catch for a TD by Alex Bayer, a leaping grab by Heath Jackson, a nice scrambling throw to Ryan Burbrink...what BG completed was good but when you net it out against the issues with protecting the QB, it runs into pretty rough territory.

The game had no turnovers, so BG did take care of the ball.

Finally, painful though it is, you can't talk about the offense in the Pizza Bowl without talking about the last drive.  BG got the ball on the 15 (after a penalty on the KO return) with 1:17 left and 2 timeouts.  Basically, you need 55 yards to get to the 30 for a long FG attempt.  BG made a nice gain to the 31 on the first play and it looked like the game was on, but on the drive's 3rd play they got a holding penalty and then BG was sacked to lose 20 yards on the next two plays, narrowly avoiding a safety.  It certainly wasn't pretty.

Aaron Donald had 5 tackles, 2 for loss, 1 sack and he knocked a pass down. Overall, Pitt had 7 sacks and 12 total TFL for the game.

More on the special teams later.  For now, though, that's the story of the BG offense.  Remember, however, where BG was last year at the end of the season.  This offense made great strides with some young players.  I think the future is looking up.  Coach said after last year we needed more offense to have a special season, and we got it.