Sweet Victory: The Offense

So, before we look at the defense, let's take a second to review the offense.  By and large, the offense struggled.  They were bailed out by big plays---there's nothing wrong with that, by the way, except that if you aren't making first downs between those plays you end up in a situation where you are on the field for less than 21 minutes in a game where you score 31 points.  BG had 2 long scoring plays, the 61 yard pass for a 3rd TD and the 4th was off the turnover.

Coach said after the game that OU did some things on the d-line to make it hard for BG to run the ball, and Alex Huettel said this, for you X and O jockeys (from The Blade).

“They were overloading the box on us and pressing our receivers at the line,” offensive lineman Alex Huettel said. “They would use a ‘Bear’ front with a nose, two 3 [techniques], and two 9 [techniques] on the ends, and with three linebackers, that’s eight in the box — and sometimes even nine in the box. With seven guys running the ball, they just overloaded us.”

So, basically, OU was determined to force BG to throw the ball.  BG averaged only 3.5 yards per rush, so I think you could say it worked.  OU achieved that objective.

And BG struggled to throw the ball.  The press coverage is something I would think we would see more, since BG lacks a big physical receiver that can beat press coverage.  BG completed only 51% of its passes and had 260 yards passing, 61 of it on one play.  (Again, nothing wrong with that, just trying to see the difference between scoring and at least holding the ball for a little while).

BG finished with 5.4 yards per play, which is below the league's average.  They were only 4 of 13 on 3rd downs and had only 19 first downs.  By and large, the OU defense--which is banged up--won the battle over the BG offense.  The Falcons survived with big play capability, and I'm glad we have it.

Even so, I believe this is a chance for the offense to regroup.  Everyone is going to look at the QB--and he clearly missed some throws--but we need to help him out by making sure the running game continues to be effective and that we are putting Knapke in positions where he can be effective.  And if teams are going to press us, we need to figure out what to do with that.

Roger Lewis had 6 catches for 100 yards and made a big play for BG and Burbrink had 5 for 77.  Moore caught 4 for 30.

Anyway, the defense is improving and I think it is the offense's turn to pick up some steam and help them out a little.  Don't get me wrong--I'm happy to get big plays and score 31 points and very happy to win.  There's just room to get better as the season moves along.