Sweet Victory #8: The Offense

The "business model" of this BG team is pretty simple.  We're going to score a lot and we're going to play good enough defense that you are eventually losing and looking at having to outscore us and then you aren't going to be able to play the way you want to play and then we've got you.

It has been pretty successful this year, though powered by superior offensive talent, including a record-setting QB, a WR who could be playing in the NFL next year and a historic RB.  And others.  Anyway, that how it is supposed to work and how it did work in the win against WMU.

It wasn't the best day the offense has had all year, which says something on its own.  Overall, BG ran 82 plays for 505 yards, which means 6.2 yards per play, which is a winning total, though more than a yard below the season average.  Even so, the team scored 6 touchdowns, had 28 first downs and was 7 of 15 on 3rd down and 1 of 1 on 4th.  There was only one turnover.

Amazingly, BG scored 6 TDs and was only in the red zone once.

What was a little different was the exact mix of how it happened.  BG is used to putting up huge passing numbers, but in this game it was the running that really carried the load.  Let me just say that Travis Greene--who will break the BG career rushing record next week--is just an incredible runner who gets better and better.  He took some WMU defenders right out of their shorts last night.  It was impressive.

BG ended up with 236 yards net rushing.  If you remove the sacks, BG had 248 yards on 38 carries, which is 6.5 yards per carry and constitutes carving the Broncos up by any measure.  Travis Greene carried the load, with 24 carries for 170 yards and 3 TDs...that's 7.1 yards per carry.  That's a lot of carries for him...they have typically been keeping him in the high teens.  Fred Coppet had 6 carries for 64 yards, which is an even bigger 10.1 yards per carry.

That was needed because BG had its lowest passing game of the season.  BG threw for only 269 yards.  Beyond that, Johnson was 23 of 41 for 56%, which means 6.6 per attempt and 11.7 per completion, both of which are fine but below what this offense has typically produced.

That makes a difference, as noted in the comments to the post above, because the BG offense is predicated on momentum.  Three and outs--especially three passing plays and out--give the other team the ball back in less than a minute and put the defense back onto the field.  You almost need the churning success we saw over the past few weeks.  You need that accuracy.

Gehrig Dieter was 9 for 85 and Lewis was 8 for 86 and 2 scores.  Burbrink had 5 and Redding had 2 and a TD.  Ronnie Moore appeared to be injured on a diving attempt and finished with 1 catch and did not return after that.

The other credit goes to some people who don't get stats.  I think BG's offensive line has been playing really well lately.  They opened the holes for Travis Greene so he could get to the second level and make people miss (and Coppet) and Johnson was sacked 3 times but Coach noted after the game that two of them were really coverage sacks.  That's going to be critical because BG is going to need a very strong offensive line effort against the Rockets, who are very tough up front.