Sadness Accrues

And there was much sadness in the nation.  It has been 680 days since Bowling Green has won a football game and yesterday's game could have been it.

But it was not to be.  BG is better than last year, but is still not a very good football team.  BG was ahead 19-12 with 8 minutes to play.  You know, in chess they talk about games where a team has more pieces but is in a worse position.  That's kind of what this was. As Coach said, because of things that happened earlier, yes, BG had a 6 point lead but also a very tired defense that had been on the field too much and the Jaguars were able to finally move the ball and tie the game and then BG fumbled at the worst possible time in the last minute and USA had the winning field goal in its grasp.

The game plan all along was for an improved offense to keep the defense off the field.  The defense is improved--appears to be as good as it has been for years, maybe since 2015--but the offense is just completely ineffective and they are not keeping the defense off the field.

As Coach says, it starts with being able to run the ball.  We just can't be one-dimensional.  Even in the Babers passing offense, Greene was racking up numbers.  This might be the pass-happy NCAA, but winning teams can also run the ball.

Which BG cannot.  The backs are good.  The problem is up front.  It was one thing to be dominated by Tennessee.  The USA dline--which is good--is more like we will see every week.  And it was rough.  I don't blame the players out there.  There are youth issues and strength issues.  We have one guy who moved from defense and god bless him for being a team guy and giving what he's got, but he's completely over-matched.

Overall, BG was 19 rushes for 9 yards.  If you take the 3 sacks out, BG was 16 for 38....2.4 yards per carry.  The long run was 9 yards by Matt McDonald.  It's just not good at all.

BG averaged 6.1 yards per play. which is pretty good.  But 175 yards of their total offense came on four plays.  BG had 10 first downs and ran only 52 plays.  Meanwhile, USA ran 83.  More on that in a minute.

Loeffler did not halp.  As he conceded, he made two playcalling mistakes.  

The first was mid-second quarter when BG was on the USA 25 for a 3rd and 8.  BG is up 8-3.  We tried to pass, McDonald was sacked for a 15 yard loss and any chance for a FG was lost.  Coach acknowledges he should have just run the ball and settled for the FG.  A couple things, it was into the wind, so the FG was not automatic and McDonald was way out of the pocket and has to get rid of that ball.  But, that was a rare time for a struggling offense to be in scoring position and we ended up with nothing.

The second was very late 3rd Q with BG up 19-12.  The Falcons hit Taron Keith for a 44-yard reception down to the USA 31.  This is a key opportunity to build a two-score lead, which would have changed USA's playcalling in the 4th Quarter.  Continuing the drive would have also killed time.

Inexplicably, BG called a double pass, lateraling to Jadeyn McKinstry who looked to pass back across the field.  The USA safety was 100% not fooled and the pass never had a chance and was easily intercepted.  Loeffler concedes this was an error and it was a big one.

I'd add a third.  Early on, up 2-0, BG was on the USA 29 for a 4th and 1 and rather than QB sneak it, we tried to run out of a 22 personnel group and got stuffed.  Just seems like given the line issues you'd want to minimize the time for the dline to beat their man.

That's 3 times in USA territory where BG got in its own way and you can pile those on top of the other execution issues and an inability to control the line of scrimmage and you have an offensive performance that was not good enough to win.  Remember, that 8 of BG's 19 points came on defense and special teams.

Lastly, when the offense had the ball in the last minute and just needed a first down to get to OT, Christian Sims was extending the ball for the first down and fumbled and USA had the ball very near FG range which led to the winning FG.  (Note, Sims was our leading receiver and had a very solid game otherwise).

The defense played well enough to win. After three quarters, USA had 26 rushes for 51 yards.  The preview showed us that they are not a good running team and BG was getting it done.  We just do not have the depth and strength to play 83 plays effectively.  

USA ran the ball 11 times for 63 yards in the 4th quarter and completed 9-11 passes to put the game away. That included a 15-play, 87 yard drive over 7 minutes.

BG also had way too many penalties.  BG had 10 penalties for 99 yards and USA had 2 for 25.

This is just not a very good team.  There are signs of promise.  Coach says we need to figure out how to run the ball.  Not sure how that's going to be done with the issues up front.