Sadness Accrues--BG Football not nearly good enough

 Woof.  Well, that could not have been worse.

To wallow in it for a moment...it's a meaningful game...finally.  The opponent is good but has shown they can be beaten.  We are tied for first place five games into the season.  We're at home and playing well.

And we were absolutely embarrassed by Kent, 40-6.  From the opening kickoff, it was never in question.  It was incredibly disappointing, and with the new AD in the house...

And that's our fifth straight loss to Kent and three of those have been blowouts.

When we look at where we are in the rebuild, this and the Buffalo game are part of the record and it's a really bad part.  These were 2020 performances in 2022.  It's disappointing and discouraging.

Where to start.

It's mostly on the offense, in my view, and it all started up front.  BG established no real running game.  Coach said after the game we are missing "the back," at which point you wonder if he means Stewart or Taron Keith, who also did not play.  Either way, we were led to believe we were fairly deep at back and now maybe not.

Anyway, if you take out Wimberly and the sacks, BG had 77 yards on on 27 carries, for 2.9 yards.  BG could not run the ball at all.

You can look at the stats, and than you look at those 6 failed 2-point conversion plays and, in coach's words, "you have to be able to make a yard."

I didn't mind going for them...I thought it was the right thing.  We had to score to compete...what bothered me was not being able to making them.  I mean, maybe we punt them back and play field position...I can see that...but I didn't mind going for it.  Kent is not a good defensive team and we didn't convert.

Coach took all this on himself.  He said that he was outcoached "for his first time at BG" (we will just leave that there) and that we have good prep but did not put guys in the right position to succeed.

Whichever, the offense was unable to sustain drives for the entire night.  They left the defense in bad positions and the defense clung on as long as they could but eventually it wasn't enough.

We had troubles on the line for running, but it didn't match our issues at pass protection.  In particular, both of our LTs were just abused on the pass rush.  It was hard to watch.  Kent also got pressure up the middle on our right side, so when McDonald stepped up, he was under pressure there. It impacted our playcalling, forcing us to easily defended passes to the flat and behind the line of scrimmage.

This was the biggest issue for the team when the season began and line play has been better,  but it wasn't good enough last night and...UT has the best defensive line in the MAC.  Just to make the point, we don't have a consistently winning offensive line in year 4 of the rebuild.

The defense played well enough to win with a decent offensive effort.  They didn't play great or maybe even good, but they won their share of battle.  In particular, after BG screwed up the opening kickoff they got off the field and they battled poor field position through the end of the first quarter.  Eventually, Kent broke through.  They ended up with 3 50-yard TD drives out of 4 TDs.

While we are at it, BG had two terrible special teams plays--the opening kickoff that never should have hit the ground and a shanked punt.

Coach did step up and take the responsibility.  He says that when they play that poorly, it starts with him.  I mean, I get it.  I appreciate he's not trying to evade responsibility.  But everyone already knew that.  He's built this program...and whether it was where it should be or not is a judgment call, but it's on him now.

A bowl is still possible, but way less likely.  UT is good but not unbeatable, but possibly a poor match up for us.  And OU is playing really well.  Cal mentioned after the game that we beat UT last time after the Notre Dame drubbing.  And we did win 3 straight after the UB debacle.  That's what we are going to need.  Because this game--an important game--was as far from a winning effort as it could have been.