25 questions that say....Da Bulls.

What is their body of work?


They are 3-8/2-5 this year.  Much like BG, they are having their second straight disappointing season under a newish coach.  One of their wins is a FCS win.  They did beat OU on their home field, and only lost to NIU on a missed XP (sound familiar, Falcon fans).  They clubbed Akron last week.  They have been strong at home.

How many seniors and juniors on the two-deep?

25 which is pretty typical.

Who are their statistical leaders?


Khalil Mack is 8th in the nation in tackles for loss and Branden Oliver is 15th in rushing yards per game.

What is their turnover ratio?

They are -3 on the year (8th in the MAC).   (BG is -12).

Offense:

How is their QB Play?

Their starter is Sr. Chazz Anderson and while he is not in the top 10 in passing efficiency, he is their second leading rusher.  Given BG's struggles with Harnish and Tettleton, this presents a nice challenge for the Falcons.

What is their scoring and yards per play?

They have struggled to score.  They are 11th in scoring and in yards per play.

Can they run the ball?

They are 6th in the MAC in rushing offense, so they have a decent running offense.

Do they pass the ball?

This is not a strong point.  They are 9th in passing offense and 11th in pass efficiency.  They complete only 58% of their passes and have 12 TDs over 8 ints. They average 10.75 per reception, which is also nothing special.

How is their run/pass balance?

They have almost an even-steven 50/50 run-pass split.

Do they convert on 3rd Down?

They are 11th at 32.9%.

Do they score in the red zone?

This is a also not a strength.  They only score 4.8 points per red zone trip.  They are just under 3 red zone trips per game.

Do they protect the quarterback?

They are decent, allowing sacks on only 5.1% of their passing attempts.

After playing the East's top offenses the last two games, BG now gets a team that has struggled to make progress on offense.  Having said that, they did light up Akron last week...yeah, probably not a great test.  Anyway, with a running QB there are challenges, but there's no reason for BG's defense not to compete out there.

Defense:

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

They are 6th in scoring defense and 6th in yards per play allowed, a couple of spots in front of BG.

Do they defend the run effectively?

They are 7th at 4.3 yards per carry.

Could they be passed on?

They are 11th in pass efficiency defense.  They allow 60% completions, but with 21 TDs over 4 INTS.  They allow over 12 yards per completion--teams with that 60% and 12 ypr tend to be having real trouble on pass defense.

Do they get off the field on 3rd down?

They are 9th in the MAC.

Do they defend in the red zone?

They are pretty average at 5.3 points per trip.  They are almost allowing 4 red zone trips per game.

Do they pressure the QB?

They get sacks on 5.2% of their passing attempts.

Special Teams:

Punting?

They are 9th in the MAC in net punting with no blocks.

Punt Return?

They are 11th in punt return average with no TDs.  They have blocked 3 punts this year.

Placekicking?

After the missed XP debacle, they switched kickers (just as BG did).  Clarke is 4-4 with a long of 49.

Kickoff?

Teams start on the 31, 9th in the MAC.

Kickoff Return?

They are 10th in the MAC in kickoff returns, with no TDs.

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

On paper, these teams are pretty evenly matched, both based on their records and what they have done statistically.  As Coach Clawson said, it will partly come down to who wants to play football in a game that doesn't mean anything in front of what I would anticipate will be absolutely no one in Buffalo.

Buffalo has been good at home this year which gives them an advantage.

After the NIU and OU games, BG is now playing a team that is flawed, which might well be a relief.  After playing OU tough until the final play, the Falcons could put that kind of effort on and win the game.

Also, we have heard nothing this week about BG's health...so we don't know if there are any of the guys dinged up against OU who can be expected back.

If you love football, I think this could end up being a pretty good game.

Side note on the Harbaugh Bowl

Quick side note....I'm guessing (safely) that the Baltimore-San Francisco game tonight is the first game where both coaches attended an elementary school in Bowling Green.

Of course, their Father was a BG QB and assistant coach and part of the Doyt Perry coaching tree.

Here's an interview he did with Mike Reghi a few years back....




 Just a little additional reason to watch the Harbaugh Bowl tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Falcon Nation....

Be grateful today.  Be grateful tomorrow.  Everything we need to be happy is already within us.

Falcons Routed. Orr: "We had a lot to do with that"

The Falcons were thumped by the George Washington Colonials last night on their own floor.  GW rode 61% shooting to the 77-56 victory.  The Colonials will have fond memories of the Stroh, as they are now 3-0 on that floor, sweeping through the CBE sub-regional.

Coach Orr referred to it as our worst defensive game of the season.  That's true, but probably not taking the whole thing far enough.  BG gave up 77 points in a 61 possession game...the 1.26 points per possession for GW was very similar to what Duquesne hung on BG last year, and only slightly worse than the Kent and Akron games.

More numbers.  GW shot 65% in the second half.  A team that doesn't like to shoot 3s shot 65% for the game and made 11 of them.

With a game like this, you sometimes wonder:  was it just hot shooting, or was it poor defense?  Coach Orr left no double about that.  He said that "we didn't do anything to slow these guys down" we "lost our man, we didn't rotate."

Here is the key thing.  This is a team that makes open shots.  So the only way to beat them is to "make them miss" and BG didn't do that.  The Falcons gave them open looks and they knocked them down.  Coach called it a "reality check."

The Falcons were complimenting the poor defense with their second worst offensive game of the season.  Scott Thomas had a pretty heroic 15 and Craig Sealey added 9, but there was no scoring from the inside game and the Falcons shot 29% in the second half.

The Colonials dominated much of the first half and led by eight with four minutes left, but BG switched to a zone which seemed to throw GW off and the Falcons were able to get into a little run and head into the locker room down only by one point.

GW is a good team, though, and well coached, and when BG came out of the locker room and went back to the zone, the Colonials were ready for it.  They nailed a couple of 3s right out of the box, and were up 12 before 4 minutes had elapsed.  By the midway point of the half they were up 17 and the margin hit 20 with about eight left, and stayed over 20 for the remainder of the game.

NCAA Basketball

Statistically, it was all about shooting.  GW had an EFG% of 72% and BG's was 42.  The other factors were relatively even.

NCAA Basketball

As we learn about our team, it becomes increasingly obvious that we are not going to be reliably able to score enough points to win games consistently.  If the team is going to win, it is going to have to be on the defensive end of the floor, and if that's going to be our identity, than games like this just can't happen.

For a final bit of sour taste, we can remind ourselves that our next guest at the Stroh is Temple, a better team from the A-10 than GW.

Clawson Presser: "Who Really Loves Football?"

Coach Clawson held his final weekly presser yesterday, as the team prepares for the Buffalo game on Friday.  The theme for much of this talk was "Who really loves football?"

This is one of those games...it is late in the season and neither team has anything at all to play for.  Coach pointed out that if you don't love football, you have an excuse not to try.  If, however, you love football, you prepare this week as if it is any other week.  In a week like this, those guys stand out.  You build your future teams around them, and the other guys...you either "turn them or beat them out."

He said that Buffalo is a better team than their record indicates and has played very tough at home, beating OU and nearly beating NIU.

The other part of the presser was sort of an early recap of the season.  He usually does one other presser to wrap up, but he did have some things to say.

First, he said we practiced much better than we had last year.  He claimed that our worst practice this year was better than our best practice last year.  And, he said, if nothing else, a win Friday rewards the guys for all that work and launches them into the post-season with the right frame of mind.

He reminded everyone that while BG today is 4-7, we started 3-1, so it has been a while since the team has felt that feeling.

He does think we were improved over last season.  "We were in every game" except WVU...which, to me is a stretch, but that's what he said.

He said that on defense, we have to begin to make plays and not just complete their assignments.  In the OU game, for example, if one player makes one play on defense during that long 4th Q drive, then we win.  If someone makes a sack, breaks a pass up, catches Tettleton from behind, one of those plays could have won the game.

He said that last year there was a talent gap, which he feels is closed.  But everyone has talent.

This year, the team completed their assignments on defense---they were in the right gaps, in the right coverage, etc.  Now, the next step is to take that defensive unit that returns almost everyone and turn them into playmakers.

Finally, there was some talk about Thanksgiving.  The team will be travelling to Buffalo on the holiday, so it won't be much of a holiday for our guys, but when you are involved in football, it is expected.  In fact, when he coached in I-AA, he said that being home for Thanksgiving meant you didn't make the playoffs, which made for an unhappy dinner.

He said he had been married "15 or 16 years" which is kind of funny....I assume he was joking.....or, I hope that his wife doesn't watch the pressers.  Which I suspect she does not.

Anyway, he said that we are on the cusp of moving ahead.

There was some talk about the frustration of coaching.  He said something I really liked, which is that everyone's job has stress.  Sometimes I hear coaches talk about the pressure they are under and they can lose their job anytime, etc, and I just think they have no idea the pressure people are under in other jobs...people without five year (or five day) contracts.

So, it was good to have someone recognize it.

Anyway, I am sure the post-season presser will be very interesting.  We'll do some work in the off-season to look at where the improvement came.  Coach said, finally, that with all the guys coming back, if they all get just a little better in the off-season, than we get better.  If everyone got 10% better, or 20% better, than the team could make one of those quantum leaps we see when we look back on Clawson's coaching record.

The Colonials...

The George Washington Colonials will be the final opponent in the BG sub-regional for the CBE tournament thing.  If you like, you could consider this game for the championship of the sub-region, since both teams are 2-0 in the games at the Stroh.

GW plays in the A-10, which is a major basketball conference.  They were 10-6 last season in conference and 17-14 overall, which wasn't good enough for their coach to remain employed.  They brought in Tom Lonergan, a mid-major favorite who had previously coached at Vermont.  They were picked in the official A-10 poll to finish 8th.  The College Basketball Prospectus Crazy Uncle system also had them 8th, though the preview writer actually thought they would finish 3rd.

They are also 3-1 this season, with their only loss being to a ranked Cal team.  In BG, they beat Detroit by 13 and Peay by 2.

CBP tells us that Lonergan HATES HATES HATES the 3-point shot, and GW is to date 273rd in D1 for attempting 3s.  They get to the free throw line even more rarely (303rd in the nation).

CBP also tells us that Lonergan's teams make a high priority of defending the paint.  They have been very good so far this year, allowing only .92 points per possession and under 40% FG shooting.

So, that tells us that BG is going to need an outside game to loosen the inside up.  BG might want to play inside out but if GW is giving the out, they might have to show that they can take it.

Individually, they are led by pre-season all A-10 Guard Tony Taylor, who is scoring 18 points a game on over 50% shooting, which is rare for a guard.  He is over 60% from beyond the arc, when he does shoot there.  Aaron Ware is also scoring in double figures for them.  Lasan Kromah is 6'5" and missed last year with an injury and while he has yet to find his scoring touch, he leads the team in rebounding.

Given the unusual fact that we share a significant number of common opponets (2 out of 4) with GW, here are the season's 4 factors for this game.  Based on this, the game could be very competitive.  As with every game in this stretch, I think we are seeing good tests of where we are.  GW defending the paint would make them a tough match up for us, but it tests our outside players.  If BG can't score from the outside, the Colonials won't be the only team to pack the paint.

College Basketball Stats

Blogpoll Week 13 is on the AIR!!

Results for Week 13

#	School	Points/blog	SD	Delta
1	LSU Tigers (72)	25.00	0.00	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	23.79	0.60	1
3	Arkansas Razorbacks	22.40	1.33	3
4	Stanford Cardinal	20.46	1.95	4
5	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	20.28	2.42	-3
6	Virginia Tech Hokies	18.49	3.40	3
7	Boise St. Broncos	17.71	3.39	4
8	Houston Cougars	17.28	4.66	2
9	Oregon Ducks	17.17	2.51	-5
10	Michigan St. Spartans	14.33	3.02	3
11	Oklahoma Sooners	13.67	4.32	-6
12	Georgia Bulldogs	13.47	3.29	--
13	USC Trojans	13.11	6.32	5
14	Wisconsin Badgers	12.36	3.53	--
15	South Carolina Gamecocks	11.49	3.72	--
16	Kansas St. Wildcats	10.76	2.95	1
17	Michigan Wolverines	10.13	3.10	2
18	Clemson Tigers	8.81	3.04	-11
19	TCU Horned Frogs	7.31	3.47	1
20	Penn St. Nittany Lions	7.14	2.88	2
21	Baylor Bears	6.35	2.73	5
22	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3.68	2.35	-6
23	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	2.47	2.15	1
24	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	2.21	2.52	1
25	Virginia Cavaliers	2.17	1.97	5
Others Receiving Votes: West Virginia Mountaineers | Arkansas St. Red Wolves | Tulsa Golden Hurricane | Southern Miss. Golden Eagles | Auburn Tigers | Rutgers Scarlet Knights | Arizona St. Sun Devils | Florida St. Seminoles | Missouri Tigers | Northern Illinois Huskies | Texas A&M Aggies | Texas Longhorns | Iowa St. Cyclones | Temple Owls | Toledo Rockets | UAB Blazers
Updated: Nov 23, 2011 9:24 AM EST

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Rankings 2011