Sadness Accrues: The Defense, with Image from pick play

So, who would have thought we would have been writing this post?

BG's defense is really coming around.  They played well at OU against a poor defensive team and then they played really well against WMU, a much better offensive team.  BG's defense kept the Falcons in the game and played more than well enough to win.

Yes, Franklin had 149 yards, but it took him 37 runs to get there, which nets out to 4 yards per carry, so that's a solid day's work.  WMU had only 4.9 yards per play, below the league average.  They had only 6.9 yards per pass play.  BG made two red zone stops (to FG) early in the game to keep the thing from being a total blowout early, one time on a short field from a INT and forced 3 straight punts in the 2nd half when BG was down one score.

For all you guys who didn't think that it mattered having Lynch and Ward out, I give you the last two weeks.  Big difference.  Ward led the team with 14 tackles and Lynch had a huge game with 8 tackles, 3 TFL and 1 sack.  Gabe Martin also had 13 tackles with 2.5 TFL.  This is a different group of guys with Lynch and Ward out there.

I think the other guys have improved as well, coverage in the secondary has been better.  I thought BG blitzed a little less effectively this week...WMU was good at swallowing them up in the inside of the line.

Again, it has been a crazy season, where we have gone from praying to win a shoot out to praying just to get a couple first downs while our defense more or less gets the job done.

One negative...WMU was turnover free.

Which brings us to the one deadly play WMU ran.  Coach Babers was real strange when talking about this play.  First, he seemed obsessed with the fact that the game was down one referee, and then he would say it didn't matter and it was a "good play" by them.  And then say it was no excuse.

Here is the scenario.  A ref was injured on the opening kickoff of the second half. Carted off the field.  5 plays later, WMU lined up and BG moved Lynch forward to blitz.  WMU's QB changes the play at the line and then runs a slant to the edge...guys catches the ball and we are in a blitz package so there's fewer numbers back there and off he goes for a 63 yard TD.

I don't understand why BG doesn't counter-check back out of the blitz when WMU changes the play, but what do I know?

Anyway, the only thing I have been figuring out is that Coach Babers is implying that WMU ran a pick play on the slant, knowing there was one fewer official.  He directly implicated one fewer official as a factor, he did not mention the pick play directly, but that's all I can figure he was talking about.

So...let's not pretend like the Internet does not exist...I went to the ESPN3 replay and got this screen grab....

And that, my friends, is a pick play.  Those feet on the sideline at the 38 belong to a ref, but he's a linesman...anyway, Coach had the one right...no excuse, but that's a pick all day long, complete with a wrap up.

Anyway, I do want to say I am proud of our guys on defense.  They have persevered and stuck together and they are doing better.  This season is not lost...BG now needs the same kind of mentality from the offensive players.  If both phases can get it together at the same time this team still has the chance to at least win the East.