Sweet Victory #6: The sweetest of all

 

Wow.  People sometimes wonder why you love sports, but that game right there was all the reason you would need.  This is a great rivalry that has been one-sided lately, but our Falcons gave an effort for the ages last night.  I'm so proud of them and they deserved the moment you see above. They have persevered and were resilient.  You can't ask for anything more.

I'm not going to lie and say I saw it coming.  You can see my preview.  I don't think anyone did.  I remember Cal Bowers on the Kent post-game saying that BG beat UT in '19 after being drubbed by Notre Dame, and maybe the same could happen here.  

I didn't see us pulling together that kind of performance against a really good team after what we saw last week.

I don't think I'm alone in that.  But, I'm thrilled to be wrong.  Really thrilled.  Like, my heart was pounding and I was wide awake at 2:30 in the morning.  It was an incredible win.

(FWIW, I also thought we had to run the ball to win....which was the opposite of how it happened).

It was a real win, too.  A toe-to-toe victory.  The way they are supposed to be played.

Not going to lie, when BG got the ball back with :52 left, I didn't know what we had left.  I can't remember the last time we faced a two-minute drill to win the game.  We only needed a FG, which made it easier, but in those conditions, that's never a sure thing.

The drive didn't start out great.  McDonald was sacked trying to outrun a guy and then threw an incomplete pass.  BG had a 3rd down and 15 on our 23.  But McDonald found Christian Sims--one of our best players but with two drops in this game--and he made it right by getting open, McDonald put it on him and we had 35 yards to the UT 42 with :28 left.

BG threw incompletions on first and second down.  Another live-or-die third down.  Coach said after the game that the first option on the play was CJ Lewis, but he was "tackled."  In fact, when McDonald rolled to the right and threw the ball to Keith, it was his fourth option.

When transpired is one of the most dramatic single-plays I've ever seen from our team.  Something like Sharon in the end zone at Purdue, except a rivalry game and involving a spectacular open-field run. At first, I was happy to have the first down.  Then he raced into solid field goal range.  Then he was inside the 10, bouncing off guys and, incredibly, into the end zone.

I'm sure you have seen the still photo of Keith surrounded by 4 Rockets, all of whom he beat on his way to the end zone with :09 left to stun the crowd and thrill BG fans.

Ta'ron was in Florida over the weekend dealing with serious family issues, according to Coach.  That's all I know, and it doesn't really matter to us what it was.  Coach says he couldn't have done what Keith has done.  Wishing him peace and better days.

It is easy to forget that the players and coaches are human beings at the same time.

OJ Hilaire had a game for the ages as well.  He had 8 catches for 246 yards, the third most in Falcon history and the most in the rivalry game. The top is Freddie Barnes in 2009 at Kent (22 receptions) and the next was Roger Lewis against Memphis.  No Falcon ever topped 200 yards in the rivalry game.  He was simply spectacular.  They couldn't get anywhere near him.  The second-to-last TD was just unbelievable.

And some credit to Matt McDonald, who has taken his lumps and deserved some of them.  He left a couple plays out there last night and threw one bad pick, too, but he brought way more of them home and he was on when it mattered most, in the last minute of the game.  The throw to Sims was perfect and the improv to get the ball to Keith was exactly the playmaking you need from your senior QB. (I just watched that play again and it was way better than I remembered....they were on McDonald and the throw to Keith was between two guys). That's a career-high 392 yards for McDonald.  (It might be the second most passing yards in the rivalry, Omar Jacobs had 415 in 2004).

And he did it with no real support from the run game.

Credit to the defense, too.  They really showed up.  UT's backs were 28 for 47.  There were 2 picks, 4 sacks, 5 hurries.  BG had 14 tackles for loss. If we would have defended the QB scramble, I don't think the game is even close.  Karl Brooks lived in the UT backfield--for all of the talk about their line, they had no answer for our d-line, who probably played their most dominant game since the last time BG beat the Rockets.

And special teams.  Lawler made both his FGs and BG had a blocked punt touchdown which in some ways was the difference, while UT missed a FG.

So proud of our guys.  What a night.  They deserve every second of it.

Where does that leave us?  Through the season, the question has been "is this where we should be in our third season?"  Sometimes the answer has been yes, sometimes no.  Obviously, last night was a YES.

Coach says we have a long way to go to be what we want, and we do.  But the rebuild has proceeded right along what Coach outlined when he got here.  I think we all thought six wins this year was a good season, given the schedule we had.  And we are there--not necessarily by the easiest route--but we are there. (That EKU loss continues to sting). We will probably play in a bowl game and have a shot to win 7 and still could get a re-match with the Rockets in the title game.  This is the best we have been since we started on this journey when we didn't hire Mike Elko or when we did hire Mike Jinks.

The new AD was there last night, so he saw this, too.  For my money, I think Loeffler gets an extension--maybe not a long one--but rather than reboot again I think the program is better off seeing where this leads.  We shall see what people who actually make this decision do.

Interestingly, I think UT is facing the same decision.  If you want to go to Twitter and search for "Jason Candle" you will see the words "underachievement" and "fire" featured prominently.

That's all for another day.  Let's just immerse ourselves in the glory of last night's thrilling win, the love of sports and the passion of a rivalry.  It wouldn't be any fun being a BG fan if there was no UT.