Sweet Victory #2

 

All victories at this point are sweet.  As Coach said after the game, "it wasn't pretty," but it is a win in a conference where we are learning that more than ever anything can happen.

And I do believe that one of our previous teams gives up at least a FG on that last drive.  Akron started from the 2--and they had made a similar drive already--and made progress, including a cringe-worthy 24-yard QB scramble on 3rd and 22.  But the team did finish, got the ball on downs and then made a first down to kill the clock, something else we have struggled with recently.

So, yeah, not pretty.  The only worse thing would be to lose.  We had to have this game to have any shot of getting to 6 wins.  Now, we have to go 4-3 from here on in. Did yesterday project to that?  No, probably not.  We won't play an Akron again.  This team will have to be much better starting right away to get there.

BG won the game on the turnover battle.  There's nothing wrong with that.  BG takes good care of the ball and is +6 in turnovers this year.  Furthermore, Akron made catastrophic turnovers, one on a pick-6 and one on a muffed punt inside their own 5 at the end of the first half.  That's 14 of BG's 31 points right there.

There were a myriad of other mistakes on their side, dropped balls, ill-timed penalties, etc.  Winning takes consistent quality plays and they just don't make them.

BG had a ton of issues:

• Two red zone trips netting 3 points in the first half.
• Allowing a disastrous long KOR right after a pick-6.
• Akron was 11 of 17 on 3rd down.  They converted from the following distances: 9, 11, 10, 16, 22
• Taron Keith nearly muffed his own punt inside the 5-yard line.
• Had real difficulties dealing with Irons. And yeah, a lot of people will, he's tough to handle.  Having said that, we don't consistently cover gaps in pass rush and didn't ever seem to adjust to what to do when he got out of the pocket.

There were others, I'm sure.  As Coach said, "it wasn't pretty."

There were positives, though.

• Coach felt Matt McDonald had his best game at BG.  His PFF grade was 90, which is in the neighborhood of his best games.  He was clearly healthy and ran when we needed him to.  He's actually a more effective passer when blitzed than not blitzed.  He missed some throws--especially on those first empty drives--but he also made some big throws when we needed them

• BG had explosive plays. Of 65 plays, 6 of them went over 19 yards. We really need those explosive plays, because it just doesn't look like we have the kind of team that can routinely march down the field a few yards at a time.  It just requires too many winning plays in a row for us.

• It was good to have Jamal Johnson back.  He makes a difference.  He and Patterson averaged 5.7 yards per carry, which is pretty good and the best we have run this year.  Coach said it was improved but not where it needs to be.  Up front, we certainly won some battles but were just completely stuffed sometimes, especially on short yardage.

• McDonald was sacked only once.  On the other side, BG sacked Irons 6 times.  Irons is not better when being blitzed.

• Akron's backs were held in check, with an average carry in the low 4s.

Overall, we need every win we can get.  I'm not sure that in year 4 this is what we envisioned--that is, in a death-struggle with other teams in the bottom of the league--but it is where we are.  

What needs to happen is what we have not seen since 2015....which is week-to-week winning efforts against teams in our conference. It's hard to see that happening, but who knows?