Sweet Victory: And Kent Scored 7
So, there were two key parts of the easy win over Kent. Scoring 42 was one part...and holding Kent to 7 was the other part.
BG has a lot of injury issues in the d-backfield. Watson and Mack didn't play, Milton was injured during the game. Robert Jackson was injured. There were probably others. Not in the backfield, Austin Valdez also did not play. Anyway, BG was very short-handed on defense. I understand in the pre-game Coach said that fans should "keep their fingers crossed"
And yet, they were able to put the full stop on the Kent offense. Yes, they are using a RB at QB. But Kent came into the game #4 in rushing offense in the MAC and Holly (that QB) has had over 100 yards almost every time he has started at QB. They scored 27 against Akron, 44 against Buffalo, 27 against CMU and 21 against EMU. They are capable of scoring.
Except BG held them to their lowest total since they were shut out by Alabama. Kent, the #4 rushing offense in the MAC ran the ball 22 times and had 9 rushing yards. That's a good day. I thought BG covered the run very well, starting on the line and then making sure tackles and getting hats to the ball.
Kent did have some success with the pass...not surprising given the BG backfield...Holley was 8 of 19 for 127 yards, which is a lot of yardage for that few completions. They used George Bollas and he was 7 of 9 for 118. BG had four sacks and lots of pressure on Holly, was helpful. Coach said BG moved guys into the box and left the corners on islands and that we were able to execute. In the end, I think we calculated that Kent could not pass the ball enough to beat us, and they couldn't.
You will remember that BG ran 90 plays. Kent ran 50. They had 10 first downs and were 3 of 12 on 3rd down. BG's defense just had a very solid game. It doesn't make us a great defense, it just means we had a good game and got a little better.
Coach also said that one of the purposes of the running offense is to kill clock and make life easier on the undermanned defense, which I think it has. They were on the field less than 20 minutes.
Tyrik Jones had 1.5 sacks for BG, Trent Greene and Dorian Hendrix had 1 each and Nate Locke had .5. Montre Gregory broke up 2 passes and Jeffries and Milton each had 1. Overall, Greene led the team with 7 tackles.
One last thing...BG made those stops without getting one turnover. The Flashes punted 9 times.
Anyway, the defense had its best game of the season and they deserve credit for sticking with it. I think (as I have mentioned) they were put in the wrong schemes based on inexperienced coaching, but last night they played a very successful and physical game against the Kent run attack and contributed to the easy victory.
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I was impressed with how the D contained the edges. Lineman rushed but held the line while they and the linebackers contained without over running the ball carrier. That allowed the D backs to fill in the the slots allowing either the D backs or linebackers to make the stop. Unfortunately for Kent we were also doing a good job of swarm tackling something missing all year. This type of D scheme could have been valuable in last year's bowl game in playing the option.
The story of the season has clearly evolved a good deal and the next week will seem to cap much of what it is going to be declared to have been. Jinks and his staff clearly have learned on the job to an extent many wish had not needed to be the case. Babers clearly won a title on the backs of Clawson’s players but did little to advance the program overall. Defensively, though slowly life has been breathed back into a unit decimated by incompetent coaching the previous two seasons. Overall the staff hasn’t “lost the team.”
It is fair to say Jinks was expected to somehow continue the “fast” offense Babers didn’t finish trying to build. That system was stunning at times but always came with a high degree of risk if not all of the parts were finely tuned. Sustaining that kind of program was always a high-risk proposition and just as clearly the “fast” experiment is over and a failure. The success on the ground against the last two teams doesn’t mean BGSU can or should turn into strictly a land-attack program. Rather it does provide some area of strength to build on, recruit around, and grow beyond. There is every reason to want and expect a strong passing game. Indeed BGSU can score points now. It is the fact we are now talking about power running, ball control offense and stout defense which underscores the failure Babers left behind.
The jury will remain out over Jinks next year. Success will absolve him and the staff of any worries about his somewhat a-typical resume and experience. Measurable improvement will gain acceptance and favorable comparisons to Clawson’s building project, which likewise will heap more scorn on the mirage that was Babers time at BGSU. People will gladly accept and enjoy hard pounding football despite what the butt-kissing types swear to be true. Stout defense will disprove that people don’t care about that side of the game and for awhile people will appreciate what it means to be able to stop the other team, or just slow them at need. All eyes will be on recruits from now until next fall.
And I still don’t feel I have heard the full story about the state of things in the wake of Babers leaving.
Well said, both of you. I agree, the jury is out. As for whether we run, pass, or play defense...my favorite style of football is where we score more points than the opponent. Period.
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