Sadness Accrues, II

There are not a huge number of surprises in the stats.

For the offense, it was a struggle.  To start with, BG was 13 of 29 passing for only 166 yards, 3 INT and 1 TD.  Loy's QB rating was 26...Coach said after the game we missed a wide-open "walk-in" explosion play as well.  Also, to be fair, while Loy was never sacked, CMU registered 7 QB hurries on 29 passing attempts.

Running was tough, too.  CMU was ready for Loy, holding him to 3.7 yards per carry...he led BG with 18 carries.  Denley was effective, though, at 6 yards a carry and Marlow had 7.8.  True freshman walk-on Raymore had trouble getting going...tough assignment for him in his first game.  It all netted out to 4.8 yards per carry, which is slightly above the NCAA average.

BG finished with 5.2 yards per play, which is an overall tough number to win with.  (NCAA Average is 5.8).  The Falcons were 1 of 11 on 3rd down (speaking of things that are hard to win with), though they were 2-5 on 4th down, leaving them a slightly better 3 of 11 on their chances to extend drives.  And BG had 3 turnovers to 2 for CMU.

On defense, it was a pretty rough result for the Falcons.  CMU had 7.2 yards per play--2 yards better than BG--ran the ball for 6.4 yards per carry, 62% completions on passes and 13 yards per completion.  They were 8 of 14 on 3rd down, had the ball for 35 minutes...they certainly won the battle on this side of the field.

BG had 12 penalties for 83 yards, and when you look at the play by play, seems like a lot of them were hamstringing offensive drives that were already up against it.

Quinton Morris was 4 for 69.  I think it is safe to say that he is drawing a lot of attention from opponents.  Denley had 3 for 48 and a score.  He's an impact player, part of which has been using him at RB and WR, both positions where BG is thin.  Moving him to the backfield exclusively would be tough for the offense's overall effectiveness.  Very tough position to be in.

Anyway, that's the story of the day.  When the season started, this one looked like a possible win, but BG is now 2-5/1-2 and heading to WMU next Saturday.