Sadness Accrues: The Defense

Now, let's look at the defense from Saturday.

It continues to not be pretty.  Those guys are battling and giving it all they have, but they just aren't able to sustain their play on the D line for a full 60 minutes in a game where the other team runs 91 plays and 54 rushing attempts.  We just gassed out in the 4th Quarter--as often happens and I suspect will continue to happen.

Our best chance to win would be to get a big enough lead that the other team has to give up the run, which we had a shot to do on Saturday until an ill-timed turnover.

The defense actually did the job in the first half.  It was definite bend but don't break territory.  They drove to the BG 26 and the Falcons held on 4th down.  They drove to the 11 and gave it up on downs.  They got to the BG 22 and then Clint Stephens took it away with an OBJ-style INT.  And then they got to the BG 30 and the Marcus Milton had a pick.  That's 4 potential scoring drives when the Falcon defense was good enough to get them off the field.

Then, however, WMU scored a TD on 6 of its next 7, two of them as double-digit play drives on their way to dominating time of possession and eventually winning the game.

In total, WMU averaged 6 yards per play.  Coming in BG was allowing 7.2.  WMU averaged 5.2 yards per carry and coming into the game BG was allowing 6.6. 

WMU was 22 of 37 passing (59%) with 12 yards per completion and those 2 INTs.  Their long completion was 40 yards.

Anyway, it was a better defensive game against a good offensive team.  It was still a long way from being a strong defense.  WMU was 7 of 16 on 3rd down, something they had been struggling with and they made 3 of 5 on 4th down, making them 10 of 16 at moving the chains in total.  They were 4 of 5 in the red zone.

Some individual notes.  Clint Stephens had a game.  Not only did he have the circus pick, but he also broke up 3 other passes. 

Brandon Harris had a monster game as well.  Every time we had a big stop in space, I would be like, who made THAT stop, and when they untangled it was #1 getting up.  He was in on 20 freaking tackles.  Remember, WMU ran 91 plays, so that's a pretty good proportion.  By that, you mean really good.  One was a TFL.  He's an absolute warrior and he's bringing it every week, even in the face of this adversity.  He's one you don't forget about.

Jerry McBride is also turning into a really good player, with 13 tackles and forcing that fumble on the run that ended up in a fluke TD.  He's very solid in run support.  And Khole Coleman had 11 tackles and a hurry.

Last couple notes.

First, on special teams BG made a change at punter.  Matt Naranjo was uneven, though his last two punts were boomers and he didn't outright shank any of them.  Kickoff returns are killing BG.  Our long was 12 and we had a penalty on a key one in the 4th quarter.  In every situation yesterday, BG would have gained field position with a fair catch.

Second, we look forward.  BG is @OU, Kent, @CMU, @AK and UB.  So, what we had was not enough yesterday.  The question now is whether it could be enough moving forward.  In particular, the Kent, @CMU and @AK stretch presents three games against struggling teams, albeit with 2 of them on the road.  Honestly, BG has a good shot to break into the W category a couple times in the second half of the season.

Bigger picture, we've gone from MAC Champs to looking forward to playing Kent and CMU for a shot to win.  But our players are playing hard in every game with next to no results to show for it.  Would love to see us pick up some wins on the home stretch just for the sake of the program and the young men who play for us.  Also, it has a tendency to make me happy.