Another Long Afternoon in Athens

 Well, it doesn't get much better for the Falcons on their very long and difficult 2020 season.  They were blown out by OU from the opening whistle, losing 52-10.

There's not much to say about the game.  OU ran 63 total plays, 48 of them runs.  They averaged 7.4 yards per carry.  Tuggle averaged 12.3.  

On the other side of the ledger, an offense that showed a little promise in the Buffalo game managed only 12 first downs.  McDonald was 9 of 20 with 3 picks and 125 yards.

For a positive, Andrew Clair continues to be a top-flight player.  He was 15 for 118, which is over 7 yards per carry.

McDonald threw one TD pass...and for a statement on where our program is, how does this work for you?

The touchdown pass to Javonte Kinsey in the second quarter marked the first touchdown reception by a wide receiver for a Falcon since 2018.

Seriously.

BG was 1 of 10 on 3rd down.  Also, McDonald left the game injured and was replaced by walk-on LaBronz Davis.

So, the program is in a place we just haven't seen it before.  We are just completely non-competitive.  BG is not just 0-4.  They have an average margin of defeat of 35 points.  And these are conference games.  There are no Ohio State games in this data.

We're just not competitive at all.

An already weak BG team played without the four suspended players and a total of 8 players who played against UB, based on the participation stats from the OU game.

The natives are getting a little restless, which is not a surprise.  When you are this bad, doubters are going to creep in.  It is very bad right now.  You only have to spend five minutes on Twitter to find people who think we literally hired the two worst assistants in college football (Loeffler and Van Gorder) if you want back up.  And you have CMU going 1-11 and then turning around in one year with McElwain...and Sean Lewis with a winning record at Kent in his second year.  

And I think you had the expectation that Matt McDonald was going to create a whole new situation for the offense.  No one had seen him play and he hadn't played for years and there's not a lot of support, so I think expectations were a little high.

Anyway, there's some people who aren't trusting the process.  And it's not a surprise.

Coach addressed the CMU-type situation in the Unglued Presser by saying that in situations like that you had a good foundation with a poor coach.  In BG's case, he argued, there was no foundation.

For what it's worth, I'm still on board.  I didn't expect much improvement this year and I don't expect it next year.  I'm not sure the reincarnated Knute Rockne could get much more out of this team.  Of course, this is all speculation.  It might not work out...Loeffler might not get it done.  But you can't judge him on what's happened to date and to the extent you can it's that he has the fortitude to take the more difficult route and not the easy way.

I'm sold on the process and the guy.

The most important event for the Falcons is December 16.  That's the early national signing day.  The process only works with 3 stellar recruiting classes in a row.  For the sake of argument, let's give them 1.  An average recruiting class is a way bigger problem than losing by 42 to OU.