Sweet Victory #3

 

Sweet Victory.  It was the good, or better, Falcons who showed up and they went on the road and picked up the W in the conference.  It was a win they badly needed.  It was far from a great performance, especially on offense, but it was good enough to win, which we often have not been, so we'll take it.

To start with, Conner Bazelak did not play.  Here's what coach said, quoted in The Blade.

“He had some things that I don’t want to get into,” Loeffler said of Bazelak. “We knew the ball was going to be wet, I don’t want to get into too much, so he’s got some things that he’s got to get healthy with. We made that decision, and it was the right decision.

“We needed to have the quarterback be able to handle the ball because we knew it was going to be a slugfest.”

Last time we heard about an injury, it was a hip.  This sounds like a hand injury, but who knows?  

Orth started.  More on that later.  The headline was defense and special teams winning the game and the offense doing enough to close the deal.

BG started with the ball.  Stewart burst free for 19 and fumbled, which BG got back.  Then two straight false starts set them back.  BG punted and forced a three and out and then on the 4th play of the next drive fumbled again, this time recovered by UB. 

Starting on the BG 33, UB got a first down, a BG personal foul and then ran the ball in from the 10 to lead 7-0.

BG took the ball, made 2 first downs running and then Orth hit Osborne for 42 yards to the UB 7.  On three plays BG made 2 yards and kicked a short FG to make it 7-3.

BG forced a fumble from Cole Snyder deep in UB territory and Lorfils returned it to the 9.  Stewart took it to the 1 and then Orth scored to put BG up 10-7.  

Moving into the second, we see BG get a sequence to go in its favor that usually bites them.

BG got a stop and started on their own 14.  When they needed it, they got their only real sustained drive of the game, moving the ball 86 yards in 13 plays and just over 8 minutes.  BG converted a 3rd and 5 and 3rd and 6 on the drive. Orth had two rushes over 10 yards and Stewart ran for 19. A couple passes were sprinkled in, with a 3-yard toss to Keith for the score and BG leading 17-7.

BG's defense then got a stop after one first down and with UB punting from their own 38, the Falcons blocked the punt and ran it in for the score to make it 24-7. 

BG had a chance to keep rolling when it got a pick two plays later and started on the UB 32.  BG ran one play and then turned it back over again.  UB made a last-minute drive and McNulty missed from 50.

Starting the 3rd, UB switched QBs and then threw a pick to Ferguson and BG started on the 50.  Five plays later BG again threw an INT to give it back to them.

UB then drove 74 yards on 8 plays over 4:33 for a TD, including a 4th and 9 conversion.  At 24-14 with 3 minutes left in the 3rd, the game was still in play.

Starting the 4th, BG had another shot to extend the lead. On the UB 26, BG took a personal foul.  On 3rd and 19 Orth ran for 18.  After years of going for it on 4th and short, BG tried and missed a 42-yard FG.

UB drove to the 50 and threw four straight incompletions.  

Starting at 8:08 BG had a chance to put the game away on offense but went 3 and out.  UB got as deep as the BG 37 before a 4th INT by Davon Ferguson got BG the ball back.  They sprung Keith loose for a 62-yard TD that was called back on a BS holding call.  BG ended up punting and then got another INT to close the game out.

It was a victory and should not have been even that close. BG had three chances deep in UB territory--twice off INTs--that should have been converted to points.  I know that people like it when Orth is in there, but we are too one-dimensional to succeed long-term with this attack.  We need what we saw against Georgia Tech and we will need both QBs to do that.

The offense was good enough. The Falcons ended up with 5 yards per play, which is below average. BG ran 59 plays, and 43 of them were on the ground. Stewart got the ball 25 times for 123, which is 4.9 yards per carry.  The MAC average last year was 4.8. Orth had 72 on 10 carries and together it was a competent attack. BG was 9 of 16 passing with 2 INT and 77 yards. 42 of that came on one play, though BG allowed no sacks.

We took what we had to work with and fashioned a winning game plan for this opponent, to our credit.

The defense was great, allowing 3.6 yards per play, well below average while generating 5 turnovers. UB rushed for only 4.5 yards per carry and their passing attack was even worse than BG's.  They were 9 of 29 for 71 yards and 4 INT. BG had 9 pass break ups, which is a huge number along with no sacks but 2 hurries.  UB is a struggling offense and BG took advantage, dominating them on a down-by-down basis and on turnovers.

And special teams.  The blocked punt was huge. It's just a dagger play, especially when both teams are struggling to move the ball.

So BG moves to 3-4 with 5 to play.  No doubt, with the exception of UT, most of the games are against the poorer teams in the MAC and BG has an opportunity to notch some wins.  We still have yet to put two winning performances together back to back, and that's what we will be looking for against the Zips, who are 0-3 in the MAC.  They lost in OT to UB and narrowly @CMU, but were blown out by NIU.