Sweet Victory #5: The Defense

So, quick recap, the defense was the biggest question mark heading into the season.  I think we pictured scoring 59 against teams, but I'm not sure how often we thought we were going to allow 10 in a MAC game.

Up until now, the defense has been a bend but don't break.  They have given up tons of yards but toughened up in the red zone kept the point totals manageable.  Against Akron, there was less bending.

Which is not to say that Akron is a great offensive team, because the preview I did showed them to be an average MAC offense.  Even so, I don't think a lot of people would have pictured us having that kind of success against even an average MAC offense.

I believe that the story that is most missed right now is the change that Coach Babers made at defensive coordinator.  BG had a lot of talent on defense last year and did not get the job done.  With the defense we had, we should have been able to weather losing our QB.  Clearly, this was recognized and Babers brought Brian Ward in, a proven DC at the FCS level.

Things are better.  The defense is young and inexperienced, especially at corner.  But they tackle well, seem to be mostly in position when plays are needed and they are forcing turnovers as well.  I'm not saying they are the best defense is the MAC but they might be the most overachieving.

Akron had only 16 first downs for the game.  They ran 72 plays--almost as many as BG did--and yet they gained only 271 yards, which was 3.8 per play, which is tough to win with.

The biggest issue was passing.  Akron had a lower percentage, high yardage attack, but the BG defense was able to force the Zips into being a low percentage, low yardage attack.  Woodson was 13 of 28 for only 91 yards, which is just a really long day, plus 2 picks (one on a hail mary).  BG only got one sack, but got excellent pressure on Woodson which I think kept him off his rhythm.  He was very inaccurate.

Woodson is also a dual-threat QB, but he was only 12 of 63 on non-sack carries with a long of 13, so BG kept that in check as well.  BG continued to be stout against the run, as Conor Hundley had 16 carries for 69 yards, which is a good but not dominant overall 4.3 yards per carry.  His long was 16 yards, which is actually a pretty important stat.

Jerome Lane, who came in averaging 28 yards per receptions, averaged 11.

They were 6 of 18 on 3rd down and made it into the red zone only one time in the game (read that again).

Terrance Bush had a big game, with 8 tackles, 1 sack and 2 hurries.  Eilar Hardy led the team with 9 tackles.  Alfonso Mack and Jamari Bozeman both had INTs and fumbles were recovered by Trevor Roop and David Koniwalski.

Of the six names in that pararaph, four came to BG as walk-ons.

I felt Clint Stephens had a good game, though without any stats.  He made a couple big tackles and had great coverage on a couple of deep throws.

So a very nice day for the Falcon defense.  I think they continue to get better and I hope they continue to make progress.  Things seem to be coming together.

Sweet Victory #5: The Offense

The offense did not put up the eye-popping numbers you would expect, simply because they had short fields a few times which just leads to fewer yards, though a score nonetheless.  The number 59 under our name on the scoreboard is plenty.

BG had 27 first downs, which is considerably lower than normal.  There were 532 yards of total offense on 75 plays, which is 7.1 yards per play, which is excellent.  BG had no turnovers, was 6 of 13 on third down and 2 of 2 on 4th down.  BG had 7 touchdowns and 1 field goal in 9 red zone trips, which is almost 6 points per trip and represents ruthless efficiency in short territory, a theoretical weakness of our attack.

There's no way to slice it too thinly.  BG's offense dominated one of the MAC's top defenses.  It will be interesting to see what, if anything slows them down--gale force winds, Toledo...who knows.

Matt Johnson had a simply great game.  He is a special player.  Every game he makes a few throws that just make you say, WOW, that was an incredible throw.  There was the pass to Burbrink in the end zone as well as a ball he dropped between two defenders on the sideline.  His accuracy on the long ball is really good.  He's an incredible talent.  He still has thrown only 3 picks this year--even with all the passing.

Yesterday, he was 25 out of 30, which is 83%.  That was for 357 and 5 TDs over 0 picks.  To measure efficiency, that's 14.3 yards per completion, which is amazing, especially with combined with the completion percentage.  In fact, even when you deduct sacks, BG made almost exactly 10 yards every time they dropped back to pass.

The 25 completions were spread around to 9 different receivers.  Roger Lewis was 6 for 118 and 2 scores.  Dieter caught 6 and Burbrink and Moore had 4 each.  Moore's day included an absolute circus grab on the sideline for a first down.

On the running side, BG as a team didn't have a great game, with 2.9 yards per carry.  Part of that was sacks and part of that was some garbage time running and part of it was Wilson--who's only supposed to get 1 or 2 yards.

The lead backs--Greene and Coppet--both had good games in limited roles.  Greene had 64 on 13 carries (which is 4.9 per carry) and Coppet had 52 yards on 10 carries for 5.2 yards, both very productive numbers.  Akron did a nice job limiting Johnson from running.  He had just 11 yards gained in 3 non-sack attempts and several times seemed to ready to run only to have a hole close up.  At least once he used that occasion to get the ball to a receiver suddenly open.

The line had a tough assignment, but certainly held their own.  Johnson was sacked 3 times, but generally seemed to have plenty of time to throw.  And the Johnson and Coppet yards are also a reflection of o-line productivity.

Anyway, another huge day for the offense, which is looking like it might be imposisble to stop.  Time will tell.  Everyone in the MAC is going to be trying to figure out how.

Sweet Victory #5: The Recap

Coach Babers said after the game when you play the way we play and you get all three phases going at the same time,  it is a "volatile" combination.

On the surface, it sounds kind of obvious.  Score 59 points, hold the other team to 10 and get 2 meaningful turnovers and make 3 big special teams plays, yeah you are going to be very difficult to beat.  That's volatile.

There's something more to it though, based on what we saw.  Akron has one of the better defenses in the MAC and the BG offense just demolished them.  With that kind of point total getting racked up, Akron can't run anymore, which makes them one-dimensional and easier to defend and then when you are getting a blocked punt, a recovered kickoff and a huge kickoff return, that just makes the mountain even higher.

Akron was expected to challenge for the East title, they only lost to OU by 2 and BG completely wasted them Saturday.  It was incredible and it needs to be recognized.

BG won the toss and deferred.  Akron made one first down and went back to punt.  BG established the tone of the game right then when true freshman Antonio Sotolongo (correction h/t to @4thlineplugger) got into the backfield and blocked the punt.  BG took over with the good field position.

A minute and a half later, BG had scored and led 7-0.  After an exchange of punts, Akron had the ball around midfield and they made that work, even though BG's defense forced to run 10 plays to get the 52 yards and the game was 7-7 with about 2 minutes left in the first.

BG then muffed the kickoff and started on their own 5.  From there, it was the Falcon offense at it best, with Johnson hitting Lewis for 42 and Redding for 43 and BG was on the Akron 6 before the end of the quarter.

Wilson banged it home and BG was up 14-7.  On the kickoff, Nick Fields--who has never kicked for us before--came in and chipped a high kick that landed untouched and bounced high and BG recovered on the 12.  Next play was a TD and now with 13:48 left in the 2nd it as 21-7 and Akron already has to see difficulty...this is what coach was talking about--because they have to get two scores more than us to tie the game.

BG tried the chip kick again but Akron recovered.  They went on a nice drive but never got into the red zone before BG's D got the stop and forced Robert Stein to hit a tough 46 yard FG to make it 21-10.

Akron kicked it to Scott Miller in the BG end zone and I fully admit I was screaming for him to down it.  He didn't.  Instead, he went 77 yards deep into Akron territory, showing what I know.  BG failed to convert, stalling out on the 9 and then leaving Tate to kick a 32 yard FG following a delay of game...which he missed.

Akron took a holding penalty and punted, but it was a boomer and then BG had a penalty so the Falcons were back on the 11.  No matter, BG went 89 yards in 2 minutes to make the game 28-10.

That was all the scoring for the first half.  BG took the opening kickoff and went 71 yards in 8 plays to score.  The scoring play was incredible.  Johnson (who has added a nice hard count to his game) caught Akron offsides and had a free play.  Ryan Burbrink was streaking to the end zone.  He was covered, the guy was right there, and Johnson had a window approximately the size of a microwave oven to throw the ball into, which he did and BG was up 35-10.

At this point, the game was over.  BG scored twice more in the 3rd quarter and on the first play of the 4th quarter to be up 56-10.  I mean, think about this.  BG was sitting there with a full quarter to play and 56 points on the board.

Let's not forget the defense.  In the 3rd quarter, Akron made one first down--on a BG penalty--and the defense had a pick as well

Bowden said after the game that they just weren't good enough to win the game.  BG dominated in all phases of the game...and this was a conference game, not an FCS game.  (It was the biggest conference win since @EMU in the championship season).

Right now, BG is playing at a very high level.  However you feel about how it got here, this team is right where Coach Babers said it would be.