Sweet Victory #3: Whammy Reversed

 

Sweet victory indeed.  #3.  We have won 3 of our last 5, including one P5 game (in other words, 3 of 4 in non-P5).  It is our best period since Jinks won the last three games of his first season, against the wounded dregs of the MAC East. And our best start in 7 years.

Are we where we want to be?  No.  Are we where we should be?  Everyone has an idea on that.  Are we making progress?  Yes.

Also, it broke a three-game losing streak to Miami.

Miami was picked to win the East by Phil Steele.  They came into the season 21-8 in their last MAC games.  Yes, that was all predicated on a different quarterback.  This was still the set-up that won @Northwestern and beat Kent.  They have beaten people.

I don't know how to say this, but it was a normal football game....and the first we have won like that in a long time.

Credit to our players for their resilience.  Coach said that he went "bonkers" on Wednesday with the lack of energy or encouragement among the players.  There was a player meeting on Thursday and Friday Coach's wife attended practice and she said it reminded her of a practice at Florida when Loeffler coached there under Urban.

If true, I'm glad we reinforced the behavior with a win.

Anyway, I think resilience is the most important life skill you can have.  I don't care who you are, you are going to need it and if you have ambition or goals you are going to need more of it.  Our guys could have walked away but they did not.

I thought there were three keys to winning the game.

It started with the defense.  Miami is not a strong offensive team.  They came in 11th in scoring and 9th in yards per play.  BG did what they should do with a poor opponent...they shut them down.  Plenty of times in the last 7 years we have made poor offensive teams look like the Ramblin' Wreck.

This did not happen.  Miami made 10 first downs and had only 189 yards of total offense.  It was our best tackling game since....well....Miami last year and in the range of the tackling in the Minnesota win (from PFF).  Also from PFF, our best overall defensive effort since the Marshall game.

Smith had 91 passing yards against 23 sack yards and a strip sack. Yes, he beat us for some runs but the Miami backs had 2.2 yards per carry.

In the second half, Miami had 3 first downs.  Their longest second half drive was 33 yards, with 26 yards on one play.

The next key was the offense.  Look, the offense has a lot of room for improvement.  Notably, this red zone offense is painful to watch.  BG was 3-6 in the red zone, really 3 of 5, because the last one was in victory formation.  BG had 17 red zone points on those 5 trips.  One of those was the Keith run, which was from the 19.  We struggle even more up close.  We threw a pick in the red zone (Coach said he called the wrong play) and McDonald essentially threw another pick in the end zone that the guy didn't catch.  We can't make short yardage and we missed a short FG.  Our one legit short-yardage red zone score was an old end-around to Harold Fannin Jr.

Also, there were 4 dropped passes.

So, how was the offense the key to winning?  Coming in. Miami was the #10 run defense in FBS.  They allow 2.8 yards per carry.  Far and away top in the MAC and they played a representative non-conference schedule. Meanwhile, BG struggled to run against UB's last-in-the-MAC run defense.  My preview said that we would probably just switch to mostly passing, like we did against UB.

Lo and behold, BG ended up running the ball effectively. BG averaged 4 yards per carry--both the number above and the game number include sacks as rushes.  Patterson and Johnson both averaged 5.2 yards per carry. Patterson had 94 on 18 carries, much of it on tough runs, breaking tackles and being hard to bring down.

It was our best run game since the UB game last year and our best run blocking game of the season (PFF).

How did this happen?  Coach said we changed the running game up...we did a "bunch of things we haven't done all year long."  He credited the coaches and team for making those changes in a game week. We mostly run gap plays, not zone plays. Patterson had 7 zone runs (out of our 10). We averaged 15 yards per attempt going off right guard. The other thing I noticed was that we seemed to run sweeps to the right more than normal.   Maybe an Xs or Os guy can help flesh it out.

The jet sweep left was also very effective with a TD and another first down on 3 attempts.

The last thing was BG's ability to close the game. 

4th Quarter, BG is up 17-13 and just took the lead, 11:31 to play.  In past games, this has been a moment of maximum danger.  Can we sustain success?  At first, it looked sadly familiar.  On 3rd and 9, Smith ran for 26 yards to the BG 48.  BG gets a break from a delay of game penalty and then Smith is running on 3rd and 7 and BG stops him for 3 yards...enough to force Miami to punt.

BG ball on their own 10.  This is 7:10 left to play.  BG needs first downs.  If they punt from here, Miami starts around midfield and we're in trouble.  They got 2 first downs...Patterson for 13 and then Patterson for a net of 13 after a 45 yard run had a holding call upfield.  BG is enforcing the running game at the end, just like real teams do.  A sack finally ends the drive, but BG is on their own 34.  Sir, with the wind, gets a 41 yard punt fair caught and Miami starts on the 25.

BG was bleeding clock on every plan.  It went from 7:10 to 3:23.  Still, Miami has two time outs and plenty of time.  You only win the game with a stop.

How many times have we seen this go wrong?

Smith went running and we got him for three yards.  Darren Anders broke up passes on 2nd and 3rd down.  And then on 4th and 7, Smith went on a designed scramble and Haire and Hawkins came upfield and took him down 1 yard short.

The game is not over.  BG starts on the Miami 34, with the wind. Still, there's already one missed FG in the rear view mirror.  Miami has 2 time outs.  BG needs a first down.  How many times, I ask you, have we gone 3 and out in a situation like this?  Or any team?  Miami knows you are going to run. Patterson gets 5 on the first carry and 0 on 2nd down.  Facing a third-down and 5, Patterson and most of the line went right and he powered his way past the marker for the first down. Now, the game is over.

So the third thing--making first downs and getting a stop in crunch time and being confident enough to bleed clock while you do it.

It was a highly satisfying win. I'm proud of our guys.  The next test, as always, is to put a streak of good games together consistently.  At 3-4, BG can still reach its goal...but we need at this point in the rebuild to demonstrate the ability to play well each week.  I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation.