Johnson and Tate gain MAC East Players of the Week

Today is MAC award day, which also means it is Matt Johnson offensive player of the week day.  And it was.  Johnson is a having a historic season.  Yes, the game has changed but Johnson is clicking at a high level.

Bowling Green senior quarterback Matt Johnson (Harrisburg, Pa.) paced the offense on a record-setting day leading the Falcons to a 62-38 win over UMass. Johnson passed for a Doyt L. Perry Stadium record 450 yards in the game, surpassing Ben Roethlisberger's previous record of 440 yards set in 2003. Johnson was 33-of-39 (84.6%) on the day with five passing touchdowns. Johnson's record-setting day led the Falcons' offense to set a new school-record for total yardage (725) and passing yardage (515). For Johnson, who now leads the country with 2,534 passing yards through six games, it was his fifth 400-yard game in the first six games of the season. To put that in perspective, just three other NCAA quarterbacks have had as many 400-yard passing games in the first six games of a season since the year 2000. Additionally, in Bowling Green football's previous 95 seasons, there had only been 10 total 400-yard passing games (935 games). Johnson has done so five times in just six games this season. His 84.6% completion rate ranked fifth in school history for a single game.

FWIW, the MAC record for single season passing records is 4,436 by Big Ben (playing 14 games that year) and Johnson is 56% of the way there in 6.

Tyler Tate is back winning the special teams award.  Our touchdown-first strategy has kept him from a bigger contribution this year, but he nailed both his FGs, had a good day with kickoffs and made 8 freaking xps.  Mark my words, he will win or tie a game with 0:00 on the clock this season.

Bowling Green senior kicker Tyler Tate (Carroll, Ohio) scored 14 points in a 62-38 win over UMass. Tate was perfect on eight PAT tries, setting a new career mark. He also connected on two field goals, from 37 and 27 yards out. On 11 kickoffs, Tate totaled 694 yards (63.1 avg.) and had four touchbacks – also a new career-high.