Man, I'm sure it is.
No disclaimers here. We know who we were playing and we know the flaws. All of that. It still had to still feel very good. A long way to go, but for the first time this year the team came out and handled a team for 60 minutes and that includes the FCS game. They played a team they should beat and they did. We're glad for it. They deserved to enjoy the victory and I'm glad it looked like they did.
A few kind of random thoughts.
First, it's hard to describe how much better it is to bolt out on a team early and get that lead. Football teams play completely different from behind than they do from ahead or in a close game. Being up 17-0 late in the first was just huge for our confidence, their confidence, and for the way that Kent would have to play to get back into the game.
BG called plays like they did in the November run last year. And I do mean run. BG ran 65 plays and 43 of them (sack adjusted) were runs. The Falcons ended up with 4.9 yards per rush, but that's not the whole story because there are sacks and two team losses from bad snaps at 24 yards. The 4 RBs netted out to 6.8 yards per carry and then Scott Miller had a 17 yard run, too. BG was very productive running, and running behind a banged up o-line that featured a couple new starters and for a while 3 new players.
Andrew Clair is going to be a player. Actually, he is a player. He had 111 on 8 carries behind that line. He is very tough to tackle, explosive. Love watching him run.
Jarrett Doege was also very good. He wasn't perfect, but it was also his second full game and he was in HS last year. He got sacked 3 times, threw a bad pick, grounded the ball once, etc, but he did way more right than wrong. He was 14 of 18 for 174 yards, 2 TDs and 0 picks. The high completion percentage and the 0 picks (even with the sacks) are quality results. That's 12.4 yards per completion, which is also pretty good.
Note: Clair and Doege are true freshmen.
BG had 6.2 yards per play, 5 of 9 on 3rd down and 7-7 in the red zone, though there will be some more talk about that this week, because we're actually pretty average in the red zone. But, any way you slice it, those are good offensive numbers. And scored 44 points.
The defense held KSU to 4.2 yards per play. Now, KSU is poor. Their MAC average is 4.3 yards per play. But, we had the worst ranked defense in the MAC and they could just as easily have gotten well on us, so we'll take it. They were 16 of 35 passing, but only 8.8 yards per completion and best of all, 3 INTS. They were only 3 of 12 on 3rd down. Those are winning metrics for a defense.
BG had 10 TFL for the game, four of them sacks. Nate Locke on his own had 4 TFL and one sack.
BG played without Shannon Smith and Malik Brown, who are being disciplined. Also, Posey was injured. Aaron Banks...who was the starter and then was passed by Posey, had a big game with 7 tackles and a hurry. That's the beauty of internal competition.
Fred Garth, who has struggled at times, led the team in tackles.
And man did Cam Jefferies make a grab on his pick. That was something else.
Here's one for you.
We only punted once. No really.
Jake Suder made 3 FGs and is on his way to one of the most productive FG seasons of any kicker in our history and we have had some good ones.
So, look. We don't need to go around the bend. BG beat a team they should beat. But they did it handily and without drama, and the two big starts are freshmen. Things look better than they did on Monday. Long way to go. Buffalo will be an interesting game. They have been up and down and on a losing streak with very close games. On the road. A good test.
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