Falcons Lose to Louisville
I had a feeling that BG was going to be up against it with this Louisville team, and in fact they were. In a game that was never really in doubt, Louisville beat BG 40-17 to knock the Falcons to 2-2.
Louisville got only 1 carry out of Isaac Brown, the pre-season All-ACC RB (he got 18 yards). And BG got nothing out of emerging star Dorian Pringle, who injured his ACL celebrating the Liberty win and (it has been announced) will not return this year.
The issue for BG remains the offense. Louisville has been playing outstanding defensive football, to make things even harder. BG's biggest struggle has been finishing drives. Midway through the first they recovered a muffed punt and had the ball inside the Cardinal 40. They were 3 and out and settled for a long Kleather FG.
The next two times they got into Louisville territory, Pyne threw a pick. BG didn't sustain a TD drive until they did it twice in the 4th, when the game was decided.
The run game wasn't terrible. Certainly, having Lucian Anderson rip off a 75-yard TD run is good for your numbers. But BG wasn't dominated on the run game. The pass game was another story, which Coach acknowledged after the game. Pyne was 11-21 for 131, 1 TD and 2 INT. He was not sacked--he had time to throw. He ripped off two nice runs, but the passing accuracy and timing just isn't in sync.
Coach says we need to figure some things out. While our defense is playing better than the offense, we've lost Pringle and I don't think we can rely on winning low-scoring games.
Of the 11 completions, only 3 went to a WR. According to PFF, BG's top receivers are #17 and #26 in the MAC. Overall, only 31 of BG's 68 completions have been to WR.
Jacob Harris, on the other hand, had a big play, where he scored for the second week in a row. He really fought his way into the end zone, saying later that his Dad would have given it to him if he was tackled inside the 5-yard line.
Defensively, Louisville certainly showed big play ability. Caullin Lacy had a 75-yard punt return--teams rarely return the ball at all against BG--and had a 40-yard KO return. He added 8 catches for 97 yards, 90 of the YAC. They also had a 34-yard run. Overall, they had 7.1 yards per play.
On special teams, Kleather nailed a 49-yarder. Henderson had a good day punting on average, had one short punt that resulted in a fumble, and was absolutely clocked on Lacy's TD return.
It doesn't get easier. Next up is Ohio, the defending champs and the current favorites, especially with UT dropping the game in Kalamazoo. On the road, it's a tough opener for the Falcons.
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4 comments :
Lucian Anderson needs to be the QB. As noted, the pass game is totally off synch and the top WR can't crack 50 yards. Might as well play to your strengths and go all-in on tbe running game with some option and the occasional play action. Can't be any worse.
I was there. The offense really does need to improve if our new coach wants to get those magic six wins his first year at the wheel. The highlight of the game for me was snapping a picture of Pudge from the sidelines, who still made the trip in spite of PETA's protestations.
I don't know if we're agile enough. Before Loeffler left, I floated the idea of an OU-style RPO offense featuring Anderson. Furthermore, Coach said that Anderson has improved a lot. When was the last time we had a good WR room? 2015? We have not been able to recruit for that position.
I can tell you on good authority that Loeffler was actively researching other offenses to maximize Anderson's skills. He was looking at spread options which used a running QB, even as big of a scheme shift as Navy. Then with bringing in that Stanford transfer QB, I'm not sure if Loeffler changed his mind or what that was all about because he was not equipped to back up Anderson in a running QB role.
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