Game Report: BG loses opener

Well, we can start with the whole "no moral victory" thing and even if there were moral victories I am not sure that would be one...but it was, for me, an encouraging performance.

This thing was set up to be ugly.  The Vols are a fast-moving offensive team with a high-level offensive coach.  BG's very young defense gave up 45 a game last year in all-MAC play, lost solid guys from that team...the last time this team walked off the field they had lost 31-3 to Akron.

BG started out thin and then played without Neverov, Broden, Sims, Simms and Hawkins, some of the few players they have who have game experience.

From that perspective, a 38-6 loss seemed to me that we showed some progress.  Yes, it is a very low bar.  We are in the nowhere-to-go-but-up mode and this was up.

The Vols scored twice in the first 8 minutes.  But BG did not fold up.  (I'm looking at you, year one of the Jinks era).  BG was only down 14-6 at the half.  The second quarter was the kind of football we need to play...we kept our offense on the field and the defense on the bench.  We didn't make enough plays to get touchdowns but we made enough to stay on the field and get points.

Matt McDonald played much better.  Coach said he missed one big play but that overall he was "10 times" better than last year.  Also a low bar, but up is up.  

BG found production in Levi Gazerak, Cavon Croom, Jadeyn McKinstry and Austin Osborne, among others.  If you add Broden and Sims back into the mix, there could be a decent set of WRs and TEs.

The O-line play was better than I had feared it would be.  Even without Neverov, the line won a share of the battles.  Not all and not most, but a share.  Obviously, we had zero ability to run the ball, which is not surprising and hopefully improves.  McDonald was sacked twice and hurried three times in 40 attempts, which felt fairly solid.

Also, BG did not turn the ball over.

The defense also had its moments.  There were 3 sacks of Milton, a couple of them coverage sacks.  BG did force a turnover.  TN came out in the second half and did what P5 teams usually do against us when the game is close at halftime...they ran the ball.  In the third quarter, TN ran 26 plays and 21 were runs.  They completed no passes.  

Special teams.  How about Nate Needham, huh?  50 yard bomb?  Are you kidding me?  I don't know how many 50+ FGs we have in our program's history, but it can't be that many.

There's a long way to go and lots to "clean up" (in Coach's words).  Progress needs to continue and be sustained.  Week after week.  A winning team has to be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  So we'll see how things go next Saturday.  But for today, this wasn't a train wreck.  It was something to build on.