First Reactions.....

Really proud of the team tonight.  Very excited to go into Buffalo and turn around last year's miracle finish with one of our own.  It is a really good night to be a Falcon fan....

A few specific thoughts....

The defense came out in the second half and did an absolutely great job.  They really turned their play around....they got pressure, improved against the run, and got Buffalo off the field.  Buffalo only got one TD and that was courtesy of the fumbled punt inside the 5 yard line.  Lots of credit to that unit, who made it possible for the offense to close the gap.

The offense also really turned things around in the second half.  Given our incredible troubles running the football, it is amazing to me that BG can score through the air.  The second half was pretty dominant--if this team could score in the red zone consistently, they would be leading the MAC in scoring.  Freddie was covered (ONLY 8 catches) but Tyler moved the ball around and made the key plays when he needed.  That included key 3-10s in the fourth quarter, as well as the TD pass to Barnes after the penalty.

Finally, the win is not a win without two blocked punts that set up points for the Falcons when the offense was not getting it done.  Yes, the fumble gave one back, but the blocked punts (one of which was a Buffalo mistake and one of which was a great play).

A thrilling, come from behind victory by our team in a game that they could easily have packed it up and walked it in.  Great job to the Falcons.  More tomorrow.

You are looking live.....

OK, you're not.  But this is ground zero for tonight.....UB Stadium in Buffalo, NY.  Go Falcons!!

Game Today Represents Clawson Homecoming

The Buffalo papers have been writing about Coach Clawson, who grew up in the Buffalo area, has family and friends in the area, and he expects them to be in the stands and rooting for BG.

Clawson was a high school star in the Buffalo area...

Clawson, a native of Youngstown, was a two-sport athlete for Lewiston-Porter in the mid-80s and one of his first college coaching jobs was at the University at Buffalo in the early '90s. 

With Clawson at quarterback and Daryl Johnston at tailback, Lew-Port won the Niagara Frontier League championship in 1983. During Clawson's senior year in 1984, Lew-Port also won the NFL title under coach Jim Walker.

Yes, THAT Daryl Johnston.

Walker, his coach, helped to shape his philosophy.

"He always expected it to be important to us," Clawson said. "We could tell by how hard he worked that it was important to him and he expected the same commitment level from us. That's what you need to do as a coach. It needs to be more important to them than video games and going out at night. If you can make it important, at some point you're going to have success."

UB competed under some pretty, um, spartan conditions back then.

"We had two different practice fields, we had a grass field on Main Street and the turf field at the old UB Stadium on campus," Clawson said. "We were kind of based out of the Main Street office but for recruiting we were in Alumni Arena. Inevitability every day there was something I needed in the one office that was in the other office so I would drive back and forth. There was an old gym and the locker room was downstairs and there was a little blocked- off room that had all the weights in it. You go outside down the stairs and that's where the old stadium was. It was the same place where they played in the '50s and '60s."

There's more I haven't excerpted, so click the link and read the whole thing.  Nice story, and gives us a little more information about our coach and his influences.

The 25 Questions of November

What is their body of work?

Their season does not have a lot to show for it.  They did hang on to beat a decent UTEP team on the road, but their other wins were over Akron and Gardner-Webb, an FCS team.

What is their best result?

The win over UTEP.  UTEP has beaten ranked Houston and a middlin' Tulsa team.

What is their worst result? 

Losing to Central Florida is nothing to be proud of, and they were blown out by Temple.

Last year, they benefitted from a ridiculously beneficial turnover margin.  Phil Steele usually looks for those teams to regress, because turnovers are, to some degree, a measure of luck, and cannot always be counted on from one year to the next.  Buffalo is -7 this year, with only BSU and Miami worse.

Offense:

How is their QB play? 

Drew Willy left this program, and he looked to be hard to replace.  To an extent he has been.  Zach Maynard is the new QB, and he has done pretty well.  He is 4th in the MAC in pass efficiency, slightly ahead of Tyler Sheehan.  Bull Run told us earlier in the week that Maynard was highly recruited and did not end up in BCS land because of some academic issues, and that appears to be true.  He has thrown 11 INTs.  Finally, he is mobile enough to take off and run under the right circumstances.

What was their yard per play?

While they are only eighth in scoring, Buffalo is tied with CMU for second in the MAC with 5.8 yards per play.

Can they run the ball? 
At 4.2 yards per play, they are fifth in the MAC.  You will recall the sight of James Starks running the ball into the end zone to mercifully end that snowy debacle last year at the Doyt.  He was supposed to be back, but was lost for the season.  They failed around a little bit, with less than 100 yards in 3 of their first 4 games, but then along came Ike Nduka, apparently out of nowhere, and he has been very difficult to stop since his emergence.  He is, however, questionable to play and part of a large corps of injured Bulls, that includes all 3 of the TBs they have used this year.

Do they pass the ball?

As mentioned, Maynard is among the better QBs in the conference, and Naam Roosevelt is among the MAC's best receivers.

How is their run/pass balance.
They are a balanced team, with over 4 yards per rush and 7 yards per passing attempt.

Do they convert on 3rd Down.

As you would expect, they are solid in this area with 45%.

Do they score in the red zone?

This is just average.  They get a little over 4 points per trip, which is not great.  They have 3 Red zone ints, which is tied for first in the MAC.  Finally, they have only 28 trips to the red zone, which is not excellent, and is (according to the Bull Run blog) the result of poor field position.

Do they protect the quarterback

Middle of the pack--14 sacks allowed.

Defense:

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

The Bulls are 6th in scoring defense and sixth in yards per play allowed.

Do they defend the run effectively?

On the surface, they are 5th in yards rushing allowed per game.  However, teams don't run the ball against them that much.  They are allowing 4.6 yards per rush, which is 7th in the MAC.  The first six teams in the MAC allow 4.0 yards or less per carry, and the 7th is at 4.6, so there are clear haves and have nots (or can and cannot's) in the MAC when it comes to defending the run.

Could they be passed on? 
They are seventh in passing yards per game and fourth in pass efficiency defense.  They are allowing only 60% completion percentage with a 6.2 yard average.

Did they get off the field on 3rd down?

They are 9th in the MAC allowing 42% conversion.

Do they defend in the red zone?

They have allowed 32 red zone trips, which is a pretty typical number, but only have 5 outright stops.  However, they have forced more than there share of FGs and allow 4.3 points per red zone trip.


Do they pressure the QB?

This is a weak point, 10 sacks in 8 games.  (exactly what BG has, in fact).

Special Teams: 
Punting?

They are well below average, 10th in the MAC in net punting.  They are last in the distance of the punt, so that is what is killing them, not the returns.

Punt Return?

They are 11th in punt returns.  Furthermore, they have only 10 returns attempted, which indicates lots of fair catches.

Placekicking?

This is probably below average.  Principe is 6 out of 7 inside 40, with a long of 36 for the year.  He has missed his only 2 over 40.

Kickoff?

They are 11th in the MAC with teams starting on the 32.  They have allowed a TD.

Kickoff Return?

They are 12th in the MAC with 18 yards per return.

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

This is a game we would all like to see the Falcons win.  It is a winnable game, based on Buffalo's other performances.  Both teams seem to be on an upward vector, and playing better.  I anticipate a high scoring game, since there is every reason to think that Buffalo will be able to move the ball.

One note is that this local story from Buffalo indicates that the Bulls have serious injury issues, which will certainly play a factor in an evenly matched game.

Among the keys to the game will be:

• Does Buffalo take care of the ball.  BG has forced very few turnovers, so the Bulls might well be able to cure their single biggest issue.
• Can BG's special teams take advantage of very poor special teams from Buffalo.  BG's are only somewhat better, but some big plays here would make a big difference.
• Can BG run the ball?  Especially if the forecast of 44 and rainy comes true.

My guess is that the game will be a pretty good shoot out.  It would be nice to see us put together a full 60 minute effort from the snippets of progress we have seen this year.

CBSSports.com Blog Poll Draft

So, here's my draft ballot. You know what to do if you think you can do better.  I moved Texas up to #1 because of their win over OK State, and because Alabama's highest quality win over Va Tech continues to degrade in value.  These three teams are very close.  Boise is up thanks to increasing luster to their win over Oregon.

I know Iowa won, and I still dropped them 4.  Increasingly, I just don't see it.  Only quality win is over Penn State (maybe Wisconsin), and a couple nail-biters against poor teams.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	3
2	Florida
3	Alabama	2
4	Boise State	1
5	TCU	2
6	Oregon	6
7	Iowa	4
8	Cincinnati	1
9	LSU	1
10	Georgia Tech
11	Miami (Florida)	3
12	Southern Cal	6
13	Penn State	2
14	Houston	1
15	Oklahoma State	1
16	Utah	1
17	California	3
18	Brigham Young
19	Ohio State
20	Pittsburgh	1
21	Wisconsin
22	South Florida
23	Arizona
24	Virginia Tech	11
25	Oregon State
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: South Carolina (#18), West Virginia (#22), Oklahoma (#23), Mississippi (#24).

x Receiver

I have often said that I am not an "xs and os" guy.  In this case, I am not an X guy.  Coach Clawson keeps referring to Freddie Barnes as our X receiver, and to him, that means all kinds of things.  I checked out smartfootball.com, which is an excellent website with really good educational posts on football strategy and tactics.  Here's what he says about the X receiver.

Remembering Buffalo--A short association, but a trail of heartbreak

I mean, not multi-generational heartbreak like Miami has given us, but they might be on the right track, you know?

In fact, two Falcon coaching careers were wrecked on the beaches of Buffalo.

The first was Gary Blackney, who provided the Bulls with their first D-IA win (IIRC), or something like that.  He more or less stepped off the bus and announced his retirement.  In his case, the ship was taking on water fast, and the wrecking of the ship was bound to happen, but it is worth noting that the humiliation of losing to Buffalo closed the deal.

Then, of course, there was the debacle at the Doyt last year, the game that so incensed a donor or donors that he/they wrote a check to Gregg Brandon to get him to go away.  For masochists, you can look here for the sad tale of woe, here to see where Gregg Brandon blamed the crowd, and here where Gregg Brandon finds Falcon fans on the Internet to be demeaning.

I myself have my mind on other things.....

And, finally, on a non-football note, Buffalo was the scene of the Dan Dakich flee the court/Reggie Witherspoon buzzer-banging debacle that defined the end of HIS Falcon career as well.

So, we'll see if Buffalo remains a Chamber of Horrors, or whether BG can exorcise those demons.