Loss at Kent: Final Thoughts

Starting with the defense....they did exactly what I think you can expect.  They won some battles, made some key stops--after the fake punt and the Gazarek fumble, etc.  Kent is a run-focused team...and while Cooper had 120 yards it took him 31 carries to get there, which is under 4 yards per carry.  His long was 16.  Williams had 4.5 yards per carry.  These are not the numbers we are used to seeing.  Crum completed just over 50% of his passes for just under 10 yards a completion, also a decent day for the defense.  That's 4.7 yards per play for Kent.  Which is a winnable number.

Having said that, Kent ended up with 25 first downs.  They did have long drives.  While BG did a good job with the backs, they may have been overplaying it because when Crum kept the ball in the option he was highly successful.  There were no sacks, one hurry and no turnovers.  And they were 10 of 19 on 3rd down.

Overall, the defense continues to exceed expectations.  Kent scored 62 each of the last two years and had like 1,700 yards in the two games added up.  Almost everyone is back for them.  This was better but that's a low bar.  Winning is a high bar.  I think we will get there.

The offense continues to struggle.  BG's backs both had 5 yards per carry.  Sacks removed, BG was 3.8 yards per carry overall.  It's a small amount of progress.

As for passing, here is the thing.  McDonald completed 29 of 45 for 64%.  Thing is, BG is throwing a lot of short passes which are doubling for a run game.  So you'd expect a good completion percentage.  BG had 9.1 yards per completion, which is just very low.  It's 263 on 45 passing attempts.  If you count the 5 sacks as passing plays, its 220 on 50 plays...4.5 yards per passing play on 50 of the team's 72 plays.

Part of this is the offensive line, both on the running side and the passing side.  We're one-dimensional, we don't protect the QB and both of those things limit our ability to look down field.  I also don't think we got great play from McDonald.  He made some throws, to be sure, but he also left some out there, took a bad sack and threw a soul-crushing INT.  If the topline here is we are improved but not good enough to win consistently yet, I think that also applies to the QB position.

Broden and Osborne are also upgrades at WR.  Christian Sims is effective.  TE and WR were two positions with serious question marks but I think we will be OK there.

How about Nate Needham.  Dude nails 2, including a 52 yarder.  With our offense, we need someone like him to get points on the board.

Penalties were a problem on both sides of the ball.  I'm sure Sean Lewis is in a meeting yelling about it right now.  BG had 7 for 76...all of them seemed to be extraordinarily poorly timed.  BG is 11th in the MAC in penalties so far.

Next up is Akron, who lost to OU yesterday.  Game is at the Doyt and a chance to correct last year's 31-3 loss...possibly the lowest point in our program's history...at least in my memory.  Certainly in the top 5.