Sadness Accrues

Lower the flag.

Faced with the opportunity to establish themselves as a legitimate MAC East contender, the Falcons were pushed around by the RedHawks and beaten 27-0.  The only realistic goal remaining is a bowl game, which would require going 4-2 from here on in.

Georgia Tech won at the other Miami, FWIW.  Miami handed them the game, but still.

BG won the toss and deferred.  Miami took the ball and drove it for 11:31. They converted three 3rd and 4s and a 4th and 1.  It was a 17 play drive, with 8 of the last 9 coming on running plays.  And it ended 7-0/

BG took the kick, made one first down, took a sack and punted.

Miami was moving the ball when BG forced a fumble, but was unable to capitalize, hindered by a holding call. And punted.

The teams traded punts and Miami started on their own 18 with 4:45 left to play.  BG had an INT on 3rd down, but a roughing the passer was called and the drive continued.  (It was a tough call, to be sure.)  Gabbert scrambled for big yards a couple times, a 3rd and 7 was converted, DPI was called in the end zone and Miami was up 14-0 inside of 1 minute.

BG got the ball to start the 2nd half. They did respond, moving the ball down the field much as Miami did to start the game.  BG converted a 3rd and 6 and 4th and 6 to get to the Miami 13.  What happened next is something we have seen too much. BG took a false start, threw and incomplete pass under pressure, gave up a 10-yard 3rd down sack and missed a 46-yard FG.

Miami with on a 9-play, 5-minute drive, converting a 3rd and 10 and scoring on 3rd down, and it was 21-0 and with 3:33 left to play in the 3rd, the game was over.

Bowling Green was just terrible on offense.  They had 9 first downs for the game.  Overall BG was 11 of 23 passing for 72 yards, 1 INT, 0 TDs.  The long pass play was 16 yards.  BG game up 27 yards on 4 sacks, so in 27 drop backs they netted 45 yards. Coach said after the game that we had guys running wide open in the back end, but we didn't execute.

Stewart was going to get the ball more, but carried 8 times for 63.  Non-sack, 6 yards a carry for the team.

That was 3.2 yards per play, of which BG ran only 42. 1-8 on 3rd down, 0-1 in the red zone.

On defense, Miami came in last in the MAC in time of possession. They held the ball for almost 30 minutes. They ran the ball 47 times for 4 yards per carry, but they were consistent and able to move the chains.  Their long run was only 17.  They had a couple big runs from Gabbert.  He was 15-18, for 170 yards.  So Miami had 186 yards rushing and 170 passing, which is kind of what BG described they wanted to do last week.

Miami was 9-14 on 3rd down.  Absolute killer.

So there you go.  BG is 0-2 and down a tie breaker to the teams likely to play for the East title.  The aggregate score is 65-7. BG goes to UB next, who smoked CMU yesterday.  The schedule does get easier, to be sure. But, absolute best case, it looks like the program is evaluated at 6-6 again.