Sweet Victory #4

And sweet it was.  This team is not where it needs to be, but consider this...it has been 1,425 days since we woke up with back-to-back MAC wins.  It shows how terrible things have been (truly) but a sign of progress.

Not counting the year Loeffler beat Morgan State in the opener, we have not been .500 since 2015.

BG went on the road and won a conference game.  They never trailed and it was a two-score game for the last 13 minutes.  This is what you need to do and what we haven't been able to do in years.

We still need to play much better, but improving on wins is what we need now and hopefully are starting to do that.

So, how did it happen?

To start with, the overall stats ended up very even. The difference, plain and simple, was CMU's four turnovers to BG's zero.

There's nothing wrong with that.  Good teams force turnovers and don't make them.  (BG is tied for 21st in NCAA at +6 for the year.  To no one's surprise, UB is #1 in MAC at +8).

Let's start with the defense.  CMU is hurting on offense.  They are not strong at the QB position and their MAC POY RB is out with an injury and then his replacement was injured in the 2Q and they were down to a walk-on.

BG's defense held them to 18 points.  They struggled when CMU went to a mobile QB and we tried 7 different guys on Joel Wilson, the TE, but he caught 8 passes in 8 targets.  (He's a good player, yes.  I always wonder why BG can't do the same kind of thing with Sims.)

And costly penalties, especially leading to the first CMU FG.

But there was a key fourth-down stop (McIlwain should stop with the analytics), 6 sacks, 2 hurries, a strip sack, a pressure-induced INT for Walter Haire, 3 forced fumbles...you get the idea.

BG's pass rush is for real.  You have Brooks with 3 sacks in the game and Demetrius Hardamon with a sack and a scoop and score.  And numerous other plays ruined.

Pausing for a moment.  Karl Brooks has a PFF grade of 90 on pass rush.  That's number one in the MAC and #6 in the FBS.  He's our best pass rusher since Chris Jones.  He creates a situation every time he is on the field.  He has gone from a raw and unreliable member of the program to a stalwart.

Demetrious Hardamon was MAC East POW last week.  Coach says he is a rags to riches story.  He transferred here from an NAIA school.  Walked on.  Lives in the weight room.  Practices hard.  Has a 3.5 GPA.

Want a sign of progress in the program?

So, looking at the offense.  The first drive was great, innovative plays, nice pace, etc.  From there on out, it was a slog.  BG got a nice punt return and started at CMU's 40 and turned that into a FG.  Late in the half, BG got the ball on the 50 and converted with a score.  And the last TD was in clock killing time.

BG sustained only two drives over 50 yards.

The hold ups were clear.  McDonald was sacked six times.  BG had 17 penalties for 146 yards (not all on the offense but way too many).  It is hard to sustain drives like that.

At the same time, McDonald had his best game as a Falcon in terms of pass accuracy.  He was 18-21 for 253, 2 TDs and 0 INT.  That's a really good 14 yards per completion.  It isn't a ton of passes, but that's the kind of game we wanted to play and he executed it.

Jaison Patterson had 101 net yards.   He is the first BG back over 100 yards since Terion Stewart last year against UB.  That's 5.6 yards per carry.  A hit in any man's league.  He got most of the carries, but Taron Keith averaged 6 per carry and Johnson 3.6.  Collectively, the three backs had 5.3 yards per carry, which is a solid running game.  (Overall running stats are blurred by all the sack yardage).

There's something in there.  Clean up the penalties and sacks, and we are slowly emerging as a threat to move the ball.

FWIW, Loeffler said one sack (I assume on the botched screen pass) was his fault because he "added a tag and confused the TEs") and McDonald said a couple were on him.

BG has had a pretty solid set of guys on the line and the line is definitely better than in the past.  Interestingly, they played two guys at LT...Kameron Stewart and Tunde Fatukasi.  Stewart transferred from Coastal Carolina and Fatukasi from Rutgers.  Coach says Stewart will be a good player when he gets stronger--he has 1 more year left--and Fatusaki will be an NFL LT.  He has three years left and has 2 brothers in the NFL.

What is interesting is that according to PFF, Stewart was our best run blocker for BG in the game but struggled to pass block and Fatusaki was our best pass blocker but struggled to run block. As one person, they were all-MAC.

So, BG is 4-4 and 3-1.  This is the best we have been in 7 years.  That is better than it not being true, but is ahead of a very low standard.  WMU is next and they are not having a great year, either.  We have a chance to notch #5 at home, coming off rest, before heading into the toughest part of our schedule.