Overall Akron thoughts...

We've covered the Akron game pretty thoroughly....here are some broad thoughts.

First, BG's depth at RB was never more important.  Samuel was injured in the 3rd, but BG didn't miss a beat.

Samuel:  15-117, 7.8 ypc.

Martin:  11-79, 7.2 ypc.

Pettigrew:  13-81, 6.2 ypc.

This wasn't all running backs.  Our line was absolutely blowing Akron off the ball.  Our guys weren't even encountering a defender until we were 5 yards past the line.  But the backs were really good in tight spaces, making people miss time and again.  These guys had a great performance.

The passing game was pretty much completely ineffective. We were 14 for 33 for 180 yards and 60 of those came on a screen pass that broke free.  Even with that, the results were just not good.

Coach always says there are 24 hours to enjoy a win.  The question looking forward is can this kind of thing be replicated?

First, I think our defense is much better than we might have thought.  I'll do a post on this tomorrow, but we have one of the top defenses in the conference so far, and that's against a pretty tough schedule.  

Second, on offense, we are not probably going to be able to be that one-dimensional and beat all of the teams on our schedule.  However, can we develop an attack that is based on running the ball and places less pressure on our passing game, allowing us to limit it to the things it does best and then get enough offense to win, with a solid defense?

That is what we will watch for starting next week.

Some notes from the bgsu official recap:

The 24-10 BGSU win versus Akron was the Falcons 500th win in school history.

In the third quarter the Falcons had 21 plays for 228 yards, compared to Akron’s 11 plays for just four yards.

Anthon Samuel finished the game with 117 yards rushing for his eighth career 100-yard game.

The 292 rushing yards were the most under head coach Dave Clawson.

Chris Jones now has 6.5 sacks of the season, extending his sack streak to five straight games.

Akron came into the contest averaging 38.6 points and 497.4 yards of offense per game. The Zips finished with just 10 points and 316 yards of total offense.

A tale of two halves....Deux

BG was set to get the ball coming out of the locker room.  This has to be seen as a pretty big possession.  And the Falcons made perhaps the most radical halftime adjustment I can remember in the Clawson era.

On a 7 play, 78 yard TD drive, BG threw one pass.  Samuel gained 47 yards on the first two plays, Martin got 14 on the next two and BG was in business.  On the one pass BG threw, Joplin bailed out Schilz with an incredible catch on a ball thrown way behind him.  And Samuel ran the ball in from the 4 and the game was 10-7.

BG's defense swallowed up Akron on the next possession.  BG got a 19 yard punt return and started on its own 38.  It is hard to describe.  Everything was feeling better.  BG had some field position and had maybe found a way to move the ball.

On this 10 play drive, BG threw 2 passes, completing 1.  They drive stalled out on the Akron 8 and Steve Stein MADE a FG to tie the game.

BG kicks the ball out of bounds on the kickoff, so now Akron has some field position.  They pick up a first down on a BG offsides penalty, but then on 3rd and 5 from the BG 46, the Falcons found the ability to get some pressure and they sacked the Akron QB for an 11 yard loss, a  huge play in the game.

BG is back to having bad field position after the punt, starting at the 9.  At this point, Samuel has sprained his foot and is on ice on the sidelines.  Martin gains 31 yards on 3 carries to get BG out of the hole.  (Honestly.  I can't believe I am writing this about our team).  Then BG sets up a screen, but this time to Alex Bayer.  He finds a seam and Akron has guys pulled up to the line and no one deep and he breaks it, RUMBLIN' RUMBLIN' RUMBLIN' for the 60 yard TD.  BG was up 17-10.

At this point, I felt pretty good that the Falcons were going to win the game and live to fight another day.

Akron got the ball and on its first possession had a 3-3 play.  On this one, Chris Jones broke through and got the 3rd down sack and forced the punt.

After a bad punt, BG started on the Akron 46.  Pettigrew and Martin get 42 yards on 8 straight running plays.  There is no element of surprise here.  BG is just punching Akron again and again, imposing its will.  On 2nd down they finally stopped a run (-2) and then Schilz threw the ball away under pressure.

And Steve Stein hit the upright with his FG attempt.  Honestly, the ability of our kickers to hit the upright defies any knowledge I have of probability.  Anyway, it was a chip shot, we missed and Akron was still only down 7 and it is early 4th.

But the defense was flawless, forcing a 3 and out.  After a 12 yard return by Burbrink,  BG started in Akron territory.  BG drove the ball to the Akron 7 on 6 running plays.  After a false start and an incompletion, BG was faced with a 3rd down and goal from the 12.

BG had a pass play, Schilz scrambled to his left, there wasn't anything there and then he scrambled to his right, and for all the inaccurate throws he made yesterday, he threw this pass on the run, across the field and dropped it over a defender and over Alex Bayer's shoulder for a TD.  It was a high quality touch pass and it made the game 24-10 with 6:43 left.

On the next possession, it was 3-10 after 2 incompletions and The Kendall Montgomery Sack happened and Akron punted again and at that point, it was all over.  Akron got some garbage yards on its last possession, but it was irrelevant.  BG had put the game away with a pounding running attack.

BG had 322 yards of offense in the second half at something like 7 yards per play.

The Zips gained 36 net yards for the half.

That's what I'm talking about.

Two notes.  First, Akron had lost a d-lineman Friday to a fractured fibula and then had another guy go down late in the second quarter.  I don't know if BG knew that or not, but conditions were right for what we did.  Coach Bowden said that “At halftime, I think they got in there and looked at their size and our size and [decided] to run the ball continuously."

Most of all, the feeling was incredible as a Falcon fan.  How many times have we seen a team come out of the locker room at halftime, dispense with the niceties and run the ball down our throat play after play?  MSU, NIU, Wisconsin (going way back)....Kent...there have to be others.  It was just great to have our team be the one imposing its will, our team hitting them in the mouth and gashing them on the ground.

This was a game we had to win and we found a way to do it.

Injuries
What it felt like

A tale of two halfs (halves?)....Part I

The game Saturday was a story of two different halves....one where BG struggled on offense and made a ton of mistakes and had the defense play well enough to keep the game close...and then the second half.

We'll grit our teeth and walk through the first half...then we will have a little more fun in the second half.

Most of all, there were just bunches of errors by BG....it just seemed that the team was sloppy and unorganized.  I was sitting a lot closer to the field than I usually do, so maybe it is like this all the time, but it seemed like we had players (especially on defense) who didn't know (or hadn't been clearly told) whether they were supposed to be on or off the field.

Anyway, a good example of the issues came in the first quarter.  It was 0-0 and Akron pooch-punted BG onto the 2.  BG then drove the ball (with the help of a dicey personal foul call against the Zips) into Akron territory.  BG was on the 33 and it was 3rd and 5.

On 3-5 BG was called for a false start.

On 3-10, BG got four yards.

On 4-6 BG was ready to go for it.....they got a false start.

On 4-11, BG was still going for it.  BG got a false start.

On 4-16 BG punted for a touchback.

On the next possession BG got a stop on 3-1, and then roughed the kicker on the ensuing punt.  (Akron did not score, however).

Up until now the defense has been playing very well against a productive offense.  They would get a couple first downs here and there, but they would stall out.  BG was battling dreadful field position, but the Zips were not scoring.

As you would have to expect, in the second quarter, Akron mounted a 70 yard drive for a TD to lead 7-0.

BG's offense then had the opportunity to respond, and drove to the Akron 49 before stalling and punting.

Akron had an offensive rhythm going now.  Akron drove from its own 10 to the BG 5 in 6 plays.  before they fumbled inside the 5....in what was a huge play in the game, looking back.

At this point, there is 4:32 left and BG is still in some serious peril.  Inside its own 5 and with little offensive productivity, we are faced with giving the ball back to them around midfield.  It would appear that they still have a very solid chance of scoring.

On script, BG tried to drive out and went 3 and out, using :31 of the clock and Akron had the ball at the 50.

The defense really responded to getting that fumble.  In the eight possessions after that, Akron got 10 yards exactly zero times and were in negative yards twice.  (They did finally get over 10 yards on the last garbage time drive).

So, the defense got the stop and Akron punted BG down to the 6.  There is still 3:04 left.

It was pretty clear BG was just trying to make a couple first downs and head into the locker room.  Samuel ripped off a 20 yard run on the first play and BG had some breathing room.  BG made another first down and had the ball at its own 41.  At this point, BG decides it has a shot to open up the playbook a little.

They first take a pass interference call and then on the next play throw a 20 yards pass or so across the middle and Schilz was high as he was all day except he was WAY high and it was a pick inside of 90 seconds left.  Akron ended up with a FG (to lead 10-0 at halftime).

There were two periods of confusion.  We talked about one earlier.  In the other, Akron had the ball on the BG 29 and it was fourth down.  You're expecting a FG attempt, since there are about :20 left.  Akron lines up to run a play.  They do have one timeout.  They can't clock it, and if they don't get a first down they will get nothing, so it was hard to figure out what they were doing.

They called signals as the clock ran down inside :10 and then you were starting to wonder if it was going to run out.  Then, with :04 left, you had both Coach Clawson and Coach Bowden running around trying to call timeout--Coach Clawson because he didn't have the right players on the field for a hail mary and Coach Bowden because he wanted the FG.  Anyway, BG called the timeout, which we couldn't figure out, but it didn't matter that much because Akron would have if we didn't.

Either way, they took advantage of the opportunity to kick a FG and go in leading 10-0.

There was another time when Akron was punting and BG's defense ran off the field and no one from the punt team headed back onto the field.  You had the Akron team facing a completely empty field.  BG scrambled and got it covered, but it looked confused.

It can't be described how ineffective the BG offense was.  BG had 140 yards on 38 plays at halftime.  That's 3.7 yards per play.  I calculate that 66 of those yards were on the ground, with gave BG 74 passing yards on 27 attempts.  We completed 10 passes in the first half.

Meanwhile, while our defense had played very well and held Akron to 10 points, Akron had 267 yards on 51 plays.  Two things.  First, 51 plays is a lot to have in one half and 267 yards is a lot for a half.  But, that's only about 5 yards a play.

Chisholm had 90 yards rushing by halftime

I felt very lucky it was only 10-0.

Even just converting that fumble it could have been 17-0 and you'd have to wonder whether BG would have been able to employ the strategy it did in the second half if it was down by 17.

So, the first half ended mercifully.  But, I have to say, it could not have looked bleaker, simply because there was no reason to think BG was going to be able to move the ball enough to win.

Clawson post-game presser

If you want to see what Coach Clawson looks like when he is jacked up, you might check out the presser on bgsufalcons.com.  He was clearly wound up...he might have even had his jaw jutted out.  Anyway, the adrenaline is clearly gushing through him.

He was asked what he told the team at halftime.  He said he told them the following, punching each word through the air. "We're going to win the game.  We're going to run the football.  Shut them down on defense.  We were going to find a way to win...I went to the offensive line and I asked them if they could run the football.  They said they could.  I said, 'I'm putting the game on your shoulders.'"

(Note, that's quotes from two different parts of the presser stuck together...)

The Akron A reporter asked about Akron's "video game" numbers from their previous games.  Coach was having none of it.  "If you noticed, our defense is kind of ranked high, too."

He said that in the first half BG was running the ball well but Akron loaded the box up and BG checked into a pass.  He absolutely did not say what happened next, which was that the passing game didn't take advantage.  He just said that at halftime, we decided we needed to run no matter what, and "our backs made some people miss."

He talked about Samuel (foot sprain), Pettigrew and Martin running effectively, and that there was even consideration of getting Givens in.

As far as defense, he said that Akron ran the ball effectively in the first half because we didn't take good angles when we were unblocked.  He said we adjusted to the speed in the second half and did a better job.

He also noted that BG was getting good pass pressure bringing 3 guys.  That means you are pressuring the QB while you have 8 guys in coverage.  Very difficult to pass the ball under that circumstance.  (Me talking)  The advantages to this just can't be overstated.

He was asked about the time out confusion at the end of the first half.  It appeared to the casual observer that Akron was about to dribble their last play down their leg and BG saved them with a time out.  Clawson said he had sent out a defensive personnel set with :20 left on the idea that Akron would try to run 3 plays.  When it was apparent that there would be only 1, I guess he was afraid it would be a hail mary and he didn't want to give up a TD and called time out.  Actually, it is largely academic since Bowden was ALSO trying to call time out.

Finally one of those sacks was by TE Kendall Montgomery.  He was absolutely mobbed when he got to the sideline.  Coach says the other players "love" Kendall and were thrilled to see him succeed.

More to come...

Falcons Win #3, #500, and it was exciting

Victory for the Falcons in Akron.

It was a badly needed win.  I wrote all week, and I think we covered it pretty completely, that this had the potential to be a pretty tough match up for us.  And, for the first half it wasn't looking good.  The defense had played pretty much exemplary football, but the offense had been dreadful.  The half ended with a bad INT and at least two confused plays where BG did not appear to know what it was was doing.  But, it was only 10-0.

The second half was the best half the Falcons have played all year.  The defense was just smothering, completely shutting down a team that has been scoring by the bucket full.  Meanwhile, our coaching staff showed a commitment to victory by abandoning the passing game almost entirely and just punching the Zips in the mouth again and again--and scored 24 unanswered second half points on their way to the win.  Samuel started it, got hurt, and then Martin and Pettigrew came in and the team didn't miss a beat.

With this win, BG is 3-3.  With only 1 MAC loss and games remaining against the rest of the East, we are in control of our own fate.  We are 4 wins short of a bowl game.  Without this game, all that math would have been a lot tougher.  I give our guys a lot of credit.  The defense played a great game.  And, the coaching staff did what they had to.

When, by the last time, was running the ball down someone's throat even an option in this program.

Much more to come.

Infocision field.

25 questions that Zip It!

Sometimes they write
themselves.

What is their body of work?

Look, it has been a rough patch over there.   They are 6-35 in their last 41 games.  So, the body of work isn't great.  Their only win is over Morgan State.  They did lose in OT to FIU and put a lot of pressure of Tennessee and Miami.

How many seniors and juniors on the two-deep?

25 which is a decent number.

Who are their statistical leaders?

Marquelo Suel is #11 in the nation in receptions.  Dalton Williams is #14 in total offense and #1 in the MAC.  Their punter and punt returner are both #2 in the MAC.

What is their turnover ratio?

This is not a strong point.  They are -5 for the year.

Offense:

How is their QB Play?

This is a their huge surprise.  They got this guy named Dalton Williams who played at Stephen F. Austin and did one of those graduate and go to grad school deals.  He has been a big difference maker for the Zips.  As mentioned, he is very highly ranked in total offense.  They are throwing a lot, so his yards per game stuff might be a little misleading.  He's 6th in passing efficiency in the MAC.

What is their scoring and yards per play?

They are moving the ball.  They are 1st in scoring in the MAC and have 6.1 yards per play, which is in the MAC's top 4.

Can they run the ball?

They are 9th in the MAC in yards per game and 8th in yards per carry.

Do they pass the ball?

Note passing efficiency above.  They are completing 62% of their passes, have 17 freaking touchdown passes and 11 yards a completion.  The only thing hurting their efficiency rating is 8 INTs.

How is their run/pass balance?

Very pass heavy play calling.  They run on less than 37% of their plays.

Do they convert on 3rd Down?

At 38% they are 10th in the MAC.

Do they score in the red zone?

They are getting 5 trips a game, which is very good, and getting 5 points per trip, also good.

Do they protect the quarterback?

They are sacked on 2.2% of their pass plays, which is very good.  Of course, they play a quick release passing attack, so it is very tough to pressure the passer.

Defense:

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

They are 12th in the MAC in scoring defense and 8th in yards per play allowed, which is 6.1, the same as they gain.

That's "Mr. Zip."  Mrs. Zip is living with
the Fed Ex guy.

Do they defend the run effectively?

They are 6th in the MAC in rushing/attempt allowed (4.3)

Can they be passed on?

They are last in the MAC in pass defense efficiency.

Do they get off the field on 3rd down?

This is a strength.  They lead the MAC at 35% on third down.  Combined with the other stats, you have to figure how much of that might be randomness.  Or think about where they would be without it.

Do they defend in the red zone?

They've allowed 27 red zone trips in 5 games, which is more than 5 and 2 more than they have had, and that was a lot.  They allow 5.1 points per trip.

Do they pressure the QB?

8 sacks, which is 4.5% and pretty typical.

Special Teams:

Punting?

Dude is 8th in net punting.  No blocks and 1 TD allowed.

This guy, name of Heisman,
used to Coach here.

Punt Return?

They are averaging 10 yards a return, 4th in the MAC.

Placekicking?

His name is Stein, too.  He's 6 of 9 and 2 of 3 beyond 40 with a 45 long.

Kickoff?

They are 9th.  Teams start on the 25 against them.  They have 12 touchbacks but they have kicked off 36 times (BG--19).

Kickoff Return?

They are starting on the 24.

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

Here's the deal.  The atmospherics are just terrible for BG here.  In their last 3 losses the Zips have almost won...they have to be so hungry they can taste it.  It is homecoming, could be a big crowd. They just have to be thinking this is where they get over the top.  Just seems to me that all the intangibles are in their camp.

I was surprised to look at the MAC rankings and see that BG has one of the top ranked defenses, even with the schedule we played.  This is  huge test for our offense.  Teams have scored on Akron, and we will need to as well.  I keep thinking it is going to come together for them, starting at WR and QB.  Perhaps this will be the week.