So, let's start with the offense. BG had an excellent offensive day against Miami. Doege did not play and neither did Matt Domer. So you had James Morgan starting. And you saw what the team can be capable of when they put a balanced attack onto the field.
BG gained 7.5 yards per play....outgaining the Red Hawks on a per play basis. That's a really good number and one you can win with.
The headline player was clearly Teo Redding. They have been talking Redding up since camp and we've seen some little flashes here and there but he had a dominating performance in this game. He provided BG with the tall deep threat they have been lacking. He had 8 catches for 197 yards and 2 TDs, including a 75-yard completion. In a couple instances, he just went straight up in the air over Miami defenders and snatched a 50-50 out of the air.
All this while Datrin Guyton--who was supposed to be the one making those catches when the season started--stood on the sideline for the game on a coach's decision.
The big play aspect was important because BG's passing attack overall wasn't great. Morgan was 11 of 25 for 222 yards. So the completion percentage there is poor and typical of the issues he's had. There were a couple drops, to be sure, on perfectly thrown balls, but while his accuracy continues to be poor on short balls he has a nice arm for the long ones. The 222 on 11 yards combined with the 8 yards Loy had on his one completion left BG with 19 yards per completion.
The key thing that opened that up was the running game, which was back with a vengeance. BG ran the ball on 40 of their 67 plays and had 2 100 yard rushers. Josh Cleveland had 117 yards on 10 carries...you do the math....and true freshmen Andrew Clair had 121 on 16 carries, which is over 7 yards per. (Cleveland was injured in the second half and did not return). There was even a Donovan Wilson sighting. Wilson, who started the year at RB1, had 43 on 9 carries. Things were just much improved...big holes, guys that were hard to tackle...if this is going to be our identity than that is what we needed to see.
Clair had another remarkable play. They threw him a pass out in the left flat, he nearly dropped it and when he brought he was pinned against the sideline. It was looking like he was going to get hit for a loss, but he made a couple moves in really tight space on the sideline and he turned it into a nice gain. (Looking at the stats, it was apparently a lateral and counted as a run).
On other notes, BG had 10 penalties for 95 yards, though not all on offense. Still, there were more than a few. BG had only one turnover--just that's a key--and BG was 4 of 9 on 3rd down, which has to be one of our better performances.
Last note. One of the things you want to see is one of those 4th quarter drives that just kills the clock. It is just so good and so needed to win conference games. In this game, BG got the ball with 10:49 left. BG ran 13 plays...11 of them on the ground, including converting a 3rd and 20 with a running play. Finally, from the 22 it was 3rd and 2 and you really need that one, you can end the game with it, but BG got hit for a 1-yard loss and then lined up for a FG, which missed. (Suder has been great this year, I think he had made 12 in a row. He's going to make the next one).
So, BG got the running going and it opened up the passing attack. And it ended up with 7.5 yards per play. Again, everything is not resolved, but this is clearly something to build on and everyone has to be feeling good to be building on success.
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