Sweet Victory #5: The Offense

The offense did not put up the eye-popping numbers you would expect, simply because they had short fields a few times which just leads to fewer yards, though a score nonetheless.  The number 59 under our name on the scoreboard is plenty.

BG had 27 first downs, which is considerably lower than normal.  There were 532 yards of total offense on 75 plays, which is 7.1 yards per play, which is excellent.  BG had no turnovers, was 6 of 13 on third down and 2 of 2 on 4th down.  BG had 7 touchdowns and 1 field goal in 9 red zone trips, which is almost 6 points per trip and represents ruthless efficiency in short territory, a theoretical weakness of our attack.

There's no way to slice it too thinly.  BG's offense dominated one of the MAC's top defenses.  It will be interesting to see what, if anything slows them down--gale force winds, Toledo...who knows.

Matt Johnson had a simply great game.  He is a special player.  Every game he makes a few throws that just make you say, WOW, that was an incredible throw.  There was the pass to Burbrink in the end zone as well as a ball he dropped between two defenders on the sideline.  His accuracy on the long ball is really good.  He's an incredible talent.  He still has thrown only 3 picks this year--even with all the passing.

Yesterday, he was 25 out of 30, which is 83%.  That was for 357 and 5 TDs over 0 picks.  To measure efficiency, that's 14.3 yards per completion, which is amazing, especially with combined with the completion percentage.  In fact, even when you deduct sacks, BG made almost exactly 10 yards every time they dropped back to pass.

The 25 completions were spread around to 9 different receivers.  Roger Lewis was 6 for 118 and 2 scores.  Dieter caught 6 and Burbrink and Moore had 4 each.  Moore's day included an absolute circus grab on the sideline for a first down.

On the running side, BG as a team didn't have a great game, with 2.9 yards per carry.  Part of that was sacks and part of that was some garbage time running and part of it was Wilson--who's only supposed to get 1 or 2 yards.

The lead backs--Greene and Coppet--both had good games in limited roles.  Greene had 64 on 13 carries (which is 4.9 per carry) and Coppet had 52 yards on 10 carries for 5.2 yards, both very productive numbers.  Akron did a nice job limiting Johnson from running.  He had just 11 yards gained in 3 non-sack attempts and several times seemed to ready to run only to have a hole close up.  At least once he used that occasion to get the ball to a receiver suddenly open.

The line had a tough assignment, but certainly held their own.  Johnson was sacked 3 times, but generally seemed to have plenty of time to throw.  And the Johnson and Coppet yards are also a reflection of o-line productivity.

Anyway, another huge day for the offense, which is looking like it might be imposisble to stop.  Time will tell.  Everyone in the MAC is going to be trying to figure out how.