Sadness Accrues

Well.  That ship crashed to earth.  Last week, we saw the very best we could do with a team that is proving to be limited.   This week, we saw the other side of the coin.  In the words of Gibby, "we were pummelled."

It was a beautiful day.  Another huge crowd, nearly unprecedented two weeks in a row.  And BG gave a performance that Coach called "extremely disappointing."

The game started with promise.  BG took the opening kick and drove to the CMU 15, featuring big runs by Anderson and Pettaway.  Fatusaki picked up one of his four penalties on the day, and BG ended up with a FG to make it 3-0.

The rest of the first quarter settled into a punting duel.  On the 3rd play of the 2nd quarter, Anderson was intercepted on a tipped ball, and CMU returned the ball to the 1 and scored on the next play.  7-3 CMU.

Little did we know that CMU had all the points they needed to win.

BG punted, and CMU had the ball on their own 21.  CMU went back for a rare pass, and BG blew the coverage and completed a 63-yard play to the BG 16, scoring a few plays later to make it 14-3 with 8 minutes left in the half.

Coach said after the game that it wasn't the blown coverage that bothered him--that happens--it was how BG reacted to it that was the problem.

BG started on their own 19, went three and out, and ran a fake punt on 4th down.  Coach said he was looking for a spark.  There seemed to be a lot of open field, and Henderson has run that play before, but one guy got to him, and we turned the ball over.

BG's defense rose to the occasion and forced a 3-and-out and CMU FG, and it was 17-3, with 3:48 left.

Could BG find second-quarter magic again? BG put together an effective drive, with Anderson hitting Roberts and Johnson for 15+ gains. But from the CMU 35 the drive stalled (as they so often do) and Kleather hit from 49 yards to make it 17-6.

CMU took the opening kick and scored on a 7-play drive to make it 24-6.  At this point, until and unless BG came up with some offensive production, the game was pretty much out of reach. 

As it happened, BG did not get past the CMU 48 until a garbage-time drive.  They went for it on their 34 in their first drive of the half and lost 2 yards on a 4th-1 play, leading to a CMU FG and 27-6.  There was also an interception. 

Take away the garbage drive, and BG had 53 yards in the second half and 4 first downs.

CMU's coach came from the Army, and their game plan looked like that.  They threw 5 passes and completed 3. They threw one pass in the second half.  They ran for 203 yards, but it took them 46 carries.  That's 4.4 yards per carry and nothing special.

Stats can be misleading...I mean, BG outgained CMU.  But for my money, the defense held up.  CMU scored 13 points on drives of 10 yards or less.  Two of those were the defense bailing the offense out and forcing a FG off a short field.  

In the 3rd quarter, when the game was put away, CMU was 13 for 101, 5.4 per carry, and the key to closing the door on the Falcons.

It's BG's offense that is just not enough.  This is not going to be an Anderson attack.  He certainly has struggles...makes some plays, misses others.  But the offense wasn't moving the ball with Pyne in the game, either.  We are undermanned at QB and at WR, which leaves significant pressure on our RBs and OL facing packed boxes...in MAC play, BG is #8 in yards per rush.

BG's line play is pretty good.  According to PFF, #3 in run blocking and #6 in pass blocking.  Their big 4 (the returning guys) are solid, but Kilfoyl, Thomas, and Sanchez have struggled to fill in the last slot. And yesterday, Fatusaki had 4 penalties--2 of them personal fouls.  We started with a 4-man RB rotation, and yesterday we were down to Pettaway and McMillan.  I'm getting the feeling we are undermanned at RB, too, though it is tough to tell when we can't use the pass game to open some space up.

This puts BG at 2 losses in the MAC.  Three teams have zero losses, and 3 teams have 1 loss.  Even given that, we have yet to show that we are capable of running the table, even with a favorable schedule coming home.  Yesterday's result, in front of that big crowd, puts lots of other games in question.

In fact, we can only lose 2 more to make a bowl game.

A clearly down Coach George said after the game that he isn't thinking about Detroit.  He wants to see us get better.  Which would be fine...first year...new Coach.  Everyone could see that.  But you might start next year with 30 new guys.