Broncos Ride Over Falcons

It was about what you'd expect, I'm afraid.  Western Michigan had no trouble at all with the Falcons at Waldo Stadium on Saturday, 49-10.  Early in the game, I felt like BG had a plan to compete.  BG is short on RBs, so they were mixing in short passes and moving the ball fairly effectively.

In fact, mid-way through the second, BG was only down 7-3 with the ball in WMU territory, having just stopped a 12-play, 33-yard drive.  The Falcons were holding their own pretty well...the next sequence proved pretty deadly.

First, Loy threw a pick.  The defense hung in and forced a 4th and 2 at the 36, but then Bellamy ripped through for a TD run and it was 14-3 with 2:39 left.  This is a maximum danger point, because WMU would get the ball to start the second half.  Coach Loeffler took responsibility for what happened next, which was BG trying to run a 2-minute drill to get some points. 

Unfortunately, BG went 3 and out in less than a minute and WMU had the ball on their 35 and they scored again and then went for a 75-yard TD run on the second play of the second half and it was 28-3 and the game was over.

Loeffler wished he had run the half out and gone into the locker room down 14-3, hard to tell what might happen if you were there instead of where you were.  He said that in a few years he would want to score, but knowing who we are now, he wished he had called it more conservative.

He also noted that WMU is bigger and faster than BG...they are just better than we are right now.

Much as they did last year, WMU ran the ball down BG's throat.  There were 81 plays and 57 runs for 7 yards a carry.  WMU averaged over 7 yards a play for the game, too, had the ball for 37 minutes and were 11 of 16 on 3rd down and 2 of 3 on 4th down.  Those last two numbers mean that they were 13 of 16 extending drives in total.

The Falcons ran for 4.8 yards per carry and completed 18 of 26 passes for only 136 yards (ie, high percentage passes) and 2 picks.  Loy was sacked twice and hurried twice.

A few other notes.

Caleb Biggers was home in Maryland dealing with a family issue, which left BG starting 3 true freshmen in the defensive backfield. 

Andrew Clair and Davon Jones did not play.  Coach did say after the game they are hopeful of getting Clair back...which doesn't sound like they are trying to redshirt him, but who knows what that's about.

BG did get Quinton Morris back into the passing game.  With our receiving corps, he is going to draw a lot of attention and I think it's hard for him to find too many open spots.

Honestly, our guys are playing hard.  They were battling in the 4th.  This cannot be easy for them, right now.