Memphis Recap: Close to doing something big

BG lost 44-41 to Memphis yesterday in front of a big crowd on what turned out to be a beautiful day at the Doyt.

It was a highly entertaining football game, especially if you like offense and trick plays.  It was close until the end and featured two good football teams.

There's no shame in losing to Memphis.  That's a very good football team that has won 10 games in a row.  To win they had to pull out a fake punt and a flea flicker play and a big gain on 4th down.  They had to pull out all the stops...to the point where their Coach in the post-game press conference said "What just happened?"

That's a very good team.  They have offensive skill players, a great QB, and they are big and fast.  The defense obviously gave up a lot but got more stops in the second half when it was needed and they dominated BG on the final drive when the game had to be closed out.

The thing is...from a BG perspective...is I just feel like BG could have won this game and then we'd be the ones moving toward being a very good team instead of a good team.  As good as I think Memphis is, this is one that we could have gotten in front of a big crowd we could have brought back again.

When BG got a stop late in the 4th and had the ball with 3 minutes left and needing a TD to win, I was just sure we were going to get there.  Almost 100% sure.  Instead, after a DPI, Johnson was sacked and Greene was hit on a screen pass for a five yard loss.  BG got seven of them back and went long on 4th and 18 into (this time) good coverage and that was the end of it.  When it was down to one battle, the battle was won by the Memphis D.

In addition to losing the crucial battle at the end, BG just made too many mistakes to win and that's what makes this a lost opportunity.  The game had no turnovers, true, but BG missed an XP that was made long (but very makeable) by a unsportsmanlike on BG (Coach said our guys said a "cuss" word) and then there were two awful kickoff returns with penalties, and allowing a fake punt to succeed and falling for the flea flicker...and, maybe most significant of all when BG ran a trick play and Gehrig Dieter put the ball right on Ronnie Moore's hands and he was going to score he dropped it.  BG also extended drives for Memphis on penalties a couple of times.  

Honestly, I think Memphis would be the best team in the MAC or at least one of them.  They pulled out all the stops and they had more than BG did yesterday.  But, the Falcons could have won the game and it would have been a huge step forward for the program.