Sadness Accrues: That was a tough one.

There is no joy in the nation tonight.  The Falcons appeared for almost all of the homecoming game today to be finally putting it together.  For 55 minutes, BG led, and you could start to think that the program was making progress, with a quick strike offense and a defense that made some plays in the first half and created a chance to win.  You could almost see this team winning its first conference game at home since the end of the first year of the Jinks reign and maybe even a team ready to compete in the second half of the year.

But there is no joy in the nation tonight.  In the end, it was the same result we have seen over the past 3 years.  Just a loss in a string of losses, where the team simply wasn't good enough to close the deal and bring home the win. 

Coach said afterwards that it was a tough one.  And it was.  These guys are putting their hearts and souls into this and not getting any results.

The key sequence of the game game in the middle of the 3rd quarter.  BG was up 28-14 and the defense had forced a three and out.  The offense is humming, picks up 18 yards at first down and is in WMU territory.  The real chance is to go up 3 scores and determine the course of the final minutes. Instead, on 2nd and 7 Doege went back to pass and it was a strip sack and WMU recovered.

Western took the turnover and scored a touchdown.  Instead of what could have been a three score lead, the game was now down to 7.  Coach said after the game that if it was a three-score game, the Broncos would have had to abandon the run--clearly to BG's advantage--but down 7 they had the chance to run the ball and wear down the BG defense, which is what happened.

BG got the ball back with 3 minutes left to play, took a delay of game and ended up going three and out.

With 2 left in the 3rd, WMU started at their own 48.  A few plays later, WMU fumbled way up field on a pass play but recovered it and ran it the rest of the way into the end zone for the tying touchdown.

That's a rough five minutes.

BG's offense did respond, using a 50 yard completion to RB Marlow to get into the red zone and then Miller scored from 9 yards out and BG had the lead 35-28.

WMU then went on a 10 play, 75 yard drive to tie the game up again.

With 11 minutes left, BG took over on the 35.  BG completely fizzed when they were playing tag (in Orrspeak) with the Broncos.  WMU started on their own 16 with 9:51 left.  WMU went on an 11-play, 84 yard drive that featured 9 runs and 2 passes, as they continued to press a tiring BG defense. 

They scored with 5 minutes left to take the lead for the first time, 42-35.

After a penalty on the kickoff return, BG started at the 8.  Doege hit Scotty Miller for 34 yards on the first play of the drive, and the game was afoot.  Two plays later, he hit Miller again for 36.  On third and ten, they hooked up again for 7 and BG had a 4th and 3 on the 15.

You're in a position to get it done.  WMU was bringing the house, and therefore a lot of single-coverage out on the edge.  What happened was BG ran a fake pitch to the right, with Doege heading left on a kind of bootleg.  Unfortuantely, he pivoted right into an oncoming rusher.  It was 4th down, so he flung the ball forward, but it was picked.

At that point, it was more or less over.  BG ended up with a hail mary but the fate was sealed.

Coach felt like BG had things lined up with a good playcall on that 4th down play.  It seems odd.  Here's how we came out of the huddle.  You can see Hendrix is in the backfield, WMU is primed on the line and they have single coverage on all 3 WRs.  Scotty Miller is there in the left slot and the right side WR is also being softly covered.

So, following that, Hendrix went in motion to the right and you can see that the linebacker followed him.  Now, you have the two WRs on the top.  They are pressing on the WR but the slot continues to have a lot of space and BG needs 3 yards.  I would guess that the movement of Hendrix to the right was supposed to sell the pitch fake, but that didn't work.  I don't know why you don't run a hot route to Miller or a fade on the outside.  Rotating right into unblocked coverage doesn't seem like it was a perfect play call.

As it was, Miller ran a slant and was open the entire time.

Anyway, we did what we did.  It was a very tough loss to take and certainly didn't come down to one play.  Ultimately, BG doesn't have the depth to defend teams committed to the run for 60 minutes.  Even the quick-strike offense is a double-edged sword (as Coach mentioned) because it puts the defense back out there.

This one was close and would have been great for the young men in our program.  As it is, it is another loss--at home--and one where BG carried the play most of the way.