Special Teams Research: UMass Edition

It was another difficult game for BG on special teams.  Not that everything was negative, but on balance the special teams made one really bad play that negated a bunch of smaller but effective plays.

The negative play I am referring to is obviously the TD return from UMass.

The other issue continues to be kickoff returns.  BG has swapped out the return guys at least a couple of times and it doesn't seem to help.  I'm in favor of BG downing the ball every time it ends up in the end zone--even by a little.  If I was opposing teams, though, I'd try to force a return, because BG has a disturbing tendency to not get to the 20 and then to get a penalty.  BG had 3 KORs that failed to get to the 20 yard line and received gifts because UMass put two of them OB.

Anyway.  BG was -3 and UMass was +7.

BG Positive (+6)

BG KO TB (+1)
BG punt to UMass 18 (+1)
UMass KOR to 19 (+1)
BG KO TB (+1)

BG KO TB (+1)

BG KO TB (+1)

BG Negative (-9)

BG KOR to 9 with penalty (-1)
BG KOR to 19 (-1)
UMass KOR TD (-6)
BG KOR to 18 (-1)

UMass Positive (+10)

UMass KO TB (+1)
BG KOR to 18 before penalty (+1)

BG KOR to 19 (+1)
UMass KOR TD (+6)
BG KOR to 18 (+1)

UMass Negative (-3)

UMass KO OB (-1)

UMass KOR to 19 (-1)

UMass KO OB (-1)

Odds and Ends from UMass

A few odds and ends....

For those that did not note it, that was goodbye to the Minutemen, who leave the MAC after this year after having gotten no actual traction.  I don't know what the purpose of the experiment was, but the MAC asked them to leave and we won't be playing them, at least in a league game.  Honestly, the switch to FBS has been rocky.  People objected on campus, success has been thin and they played like an hour from campus much or most of the time.  Anyway, they are really the first transient member that didn't leave voluntarily.  Whipple and Babers know each other, so I wouldn't rule out future games, though how long they will be at their current stops is not clear.

BG was battling o-line injuries this week, including Logan Dietz and Alex Huettel.  Dietz didn't play at all and Huettel only played a couple series.  Coach said after the game that they could have gone but we were trying to get them 100% healthy for the stretch run rather than playing them at lower health for the rest of the year.

Austin Labus stepped in for Dietz and Coach said he played really well in his first significant game action.  He is from western Michigan and was one of the top 10 prospects in Michigan that year.  (He signed in '14, making him a Clawson verbal/Babers retain type guy.)

JJ Beggan played for Huettel.  Beggan is from Pittsburgh and had some pressure from bigger schools after committing to BG but stayed solid.

I don't have the ability to grade each guy, but I felt like Johnson had time to throw and the running game was effective, so it seems like a good day for the offense.

BG broke the record for most yards in a game in program history.  The previous record was over Grand Valley State in the late 70s.  I was at that game.  At that time, it wasn't normal for D1 teams to play below their division, so it was considered pretty strange and in fact hilarious that we were playing them.  I had never even heard of the school, as I recall.  Anyway, it was a total blowout.  Other trivia is that future longtime Oakland U basketball coach Greg Kampe set a school record for longest punt with a Grand Valley guy lost a low punt in the sun and it rolled for like 30 more yards.

BG drew 17,000 or so for the game.  Given the weather you would have hoped for something more, but the students were on break, so if you add them in you end up with a respectable crowd, historically.

Johnson erased the Doyt record for passing yards in a game formerly held by Ben Rothlisberger in the 2003 MAC Championship game, aka The Night of Many Horrors.  It is good to delete at least that part of the night from our official memory.

You know how many picks Johnson has thrown this year in 275 attempts?

Three.

That's 1.1% of passing attempts and it is ridiculous.  Just astounding and a tribute to how important he is to our team.  Paxton Lynch of Memphis has thrown zero in 174 attempts, which is also incredible.

Here's the best part.  According to Coach Babers, the team blames Dieter for the pick against Umass and Ronnie Moore for the pick earlier (due to tipped balls) and therefore Johnson only has the one overthrow against Purdue against him.

The 1985 team was in the house Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their MAC title.  This was my senior year at BG...that was MY team.  The victory over Miami is the single most exciting sporting event I ever saw in person.  McClure injured.  BG down BIG.  Never used backup Rick Nieman in the game.  BG recovers two onside kicks and rallies to win the game.  Absolutely the most exciting sporting event in my life.  If anyone from that team is reading, thanks guys!  Glad so many of you (60+) made it back to the Doyt Saturday.  You are champions forever.

Johnson and Tate gain MAC East Players of the Week

Today is MAC award day, which also means it is Matt Johnson offensive player of the week day.  And it was.  Johnson is a having a historic season.  Yes, the game has changed but Johnson is clicking at a high level.

Bowling Green senior quarterback Matt Johnson (Harrisburg, Pa.) paced the offense on a record-setting day leading the Falcons to a 62-38 win over UMass. Johnson passed for a Doyt L. Perry Stadium record 450 yards in the game, surpassing Ben Roethlisberger's previous record of 440 yards set in 2003. Johnson was 33-of-39 (84.6%) on the day with five passing touchdowns. Johnson's record-setting day led the Falcons' offense to set a new school-record for total yardage (725) and passing yardage (515). For Johnson, who now leads the country with 2,534 passing yards through six games, it was his fifth 400-yard game in the first six games of the season. To put that in perspective, just three other NCAA quarterbacks have had as many 400-yard passing games in the first six games of a season since the year 2000. Additionally, in Bowling Green football's previous 95 seasons, there had only been 10 total 400-yard passing games (935 games). Johnson has done so five times in just six games this season. His 84.6% completion rate ranked fifth in school history for a single game.

FWIW, the MAC record for single season passing records is 4,436 by Big Ben (playing 14 games that year) and Johnson is 56% of the way there in 6.

Tyler Tate is back winning the special teams award.  Our touchdown-first strategy has kept him from a bigger contribution this year, but he nailed both his FGs, had a good day with kickoffs and made 8 freaking xps.  Mark my words, he will win or tie a game with 0:00 on the clock this season.

Bowling Green senior kicker Tyler Tate (Carroll, Ohio) scored 14 points in a 62-38 win over UMass. Tate was perfect on eight PAT tries, setting a new career mark. He also connected on two field goals, from 37 and 27 yards out. On 11 kickoffs, Tate totaled 694 yards (63.1 avg.) and had four touchbacks – also a new career-high.

Past and Future Opponent Land

Tennessee  (3-3) Shock Georgia 38-31
Maryland (2-4) Lost to OSU, appear to have fired Edsall
Memphis (5-0) Idle as all git out
Purdue (1-5) Destroyed 41-13 in West Lafayette by Minnesota.  Projected job opening here too.
Buffalo (2-3) Idle
Akron (3-3) Beat EMU 47-21
Kent (2-4) Smoked by UT
Ohio (5-1) Destroyed Miami
WMU (2-3) Beat arch rival CMU
UT:  (5-0) Smoked Kent
Ball State (2-4) Lost to NIU in 59-41 Maction shoot out.

MAC Vs.

All FBS: 12-29
P5: 4-20
Non P5-FBS: 8-9
FCS: 9-0

Sweet Victory #4: The Defense

I always write the offense first because it is a lot easier than the defense, which is always complicated.

UMass put up a shitload of yards and first downs on BG yesterday.  Like 30 first downs in 76 plays, which is 39% of the plays.  They had 516 yards of total offense with is 6.8 yards per play, including 486 yards passing.

Which is not unexpected.  Frohnapfel is a very good QB and Tajae Sharpe is just uncoverable at WR.  Much like Freddie Barnes, you know he is going to get the ball and yet there does not seem to be a way to impact that.  He had 13 grabs for 156 yards a 1 TD.

So the defense continues to give up real estate in pretty big numbers.

Once again, though BG's defense was up to the ask with red zone stops and turnovers and, in the end, good enough to win.  Yes, UMass had 38 but 7 came on a kickoff return and 7 against the backups.

Here's a list of things BG's defense did well.

BG forced the UMass to be a pass-only team.  (This is a team accomplishment as much as a defensive accomplishment).  The Minutemen ran for only 30 yards--55 if you give them the sack yards back, but either way that isn't great.  Their running backs had only 8 carries.

BG continued to play well in the red zone, giving UMass only 17 points in 4 red zone trips, with one outright stop.

Speaking of which, BG forced a key INT and a key fumble that were each big plays in the game.

While Frohnapfel had big passing numbers, he had to throw 61 times to get there, which means 8 yards per attempt and 61% completions.

BG held them to 6 of 13 on 3rd down, which I mention not because it is a great number but because it seemed a lot worse in the stadium.

BG had 5 sacks and 6 hurries.  There was a lot of pressure of Frohnapfel, which is important since he isn't really very mobile.  BG put some bodies on him and it made a difference on some situations where he had an open guy and missed the connection.

And remember, much of that was done with Austin Valdez in the locker room following his ejection.  He gets a significant share of our tackles and the defense still got the job done.  James Sanford had big day with 10 tackles, 2 sacks and 1 breakup.  Eilar Hardy had 9 tackles, Ballew with 8 tackles (career high), 1 sack and 1 FR.  Mack had the INT, Colvin and Bush with 1 sack each.

Anyway, the storyline for the defense remains consistent.  They certainly are not great, but they are playing hard and making their share of plays to keep the team in the game so the offense can score.  They benefit from the pressure the offense puts on teams.  By and large, the unit is ahead of what I would have expected and getting the job done.  Even more importantly, I think better things are ahead for the defensive side of the ball.

Sweet Victory #4: The Offense

What are you going to say about the offense?  BG set a school record Saturday with 725 yards of total offense...beating the record set in the 1970s against Grand Valley State.  More on that game tomorrow.

Also, 515 passing yards is a school record, besting a Tyler Sheehan number from 2009.

BG scored 62 points, which was the most since Omar Jacobs hung 70 on Temple back in the day.

Coach says the offense can still get better--and I suppose that's true--but it is difficult to imagine an offense being much better than that in the aggregate.  Those 725 yards came on 91 plays, which is an average of 8 yards per play.  Yeah.

There were 37 first downs by BG.  With 91 plays, that means BG made a first down on 41% of its plays.  That's unbelievable.  BG was 9 of 13 on 3rd down (same) and 6 of 6 in the red zone with 4TDs and the 2 FGs coming after the game was over.

BG had the ball for 37 minutes, aided by having it for 10:43 in the 4th Quarter.

The passing numbers are amazing.  Johnson was 33 of 39...84.6% completions, for 450 yards, 5 TDs and 1 INT.  That's 11.5 yards per attempt and 16.7 yards per completion, both of which are show stopping numbers.

These are video game numbers.  No other way to see it.

BG found 9 WRs.  Lewis was 8 for 142 and a score, and Dieter had 8 for 85.  Both of those guys are open a lot.  Ronnie Moore and Ryan Burbrink both had big TD grabs.  There are just a bunch of WRs out there.  Chris Gallon had a couple of catches while getting the start at TE.  Great to see him making a contribution as well.

It wasn't all passing.  Last week, I wrote about appreciating the player we have in Travis Greene, #8.  This guy is just a beast.  He carried 15 times for 122 yards and a TD and caught 3 passes for 35 yards and a TD.  Thanks to our depth we are able to keep him from getting too many carries (and hopefully, therefore, healthy).  He's just deadly in this attack.

Fred Coppet also played well, with 68 yards in 17 carries and 1 TD.  He's had better games, but he remains an effective part of the running game that requires depth.  And Donovan Wilson played in short yardage for a score.

It was a record-setting game.  The thing is coming together like Coach said it would.  The question is whether it will take us where it is supposed to.

Sweet Victory #4: Recap

There's lots more to come...was this the game between game 4 and 6 when the offense finally got it?  They certainly had a record-setting day.  Anyway, slice it how you like BG got a comfortable win at home that they need.  With Akron, OU, and Toledo, WMU and Ball State lying ahead, BG has a lot of tough games ahead that they are going to need and this was one you had to have you and you got.

UMass won the toss and deferred.  This is something I always liked to see.  UMass was playing the "keep it in front of you" approach, and BG went on an 11-play drive to get an opening TD.  The drive featured a DPI on UMass when Dieter had completely torched their DB, two big runs by Travis Greene, and finally a TD pass on third and goal when BG brought the heavy lineup in and then dropped Lee off in the end zone for a pass.  He was wide open.  BG 7-0.

UMass has a good QB and a good offensive system and completed 5 straight passes to move to the BG 29.  BG had a defensive holding on a 3rd and 3 and UMass ended up with a 3rd and 3 from the BG when the BG defense did the one thing it does pretty well, which is get a stop in tight space.  Frohnapfel threw an incomplete pass on 3rd down and Whipple did something he hasn't done too much of this year, which is kick at FG to make it 7-3.

BG's next drive was cut short by a holding penalty and UMass started on their 19.  What ensued was a pretty dominant drive by the Minutemen.  BG got two sacks on the drive and still gave up first downs--they converted on 3rd and 13 and 3rd and 14--and eventually capped an 11 play, 4+ minute drive to take the lead 10-7.

BG took the kickoff, tried to run it back, got a penalty and started on the 9.  BG picked up 2 first downs and then blew a hole in the "keep in front of you" strategy by tossing a 71 yard TD pass from Matt Johnson to Ronnie Moore on the last play of the first quarter.  When Moore caught the ball, he was about even with the UMass defender, but from there he just ran right away from the guy for the score.  BG 14-10.

UMass went on the roll again.  They completed a pass deep into BG territory before what was a key sequence in the game.  On the pass, the officials called targeting on Dernard Turner.  I didn't get a real close look at it...one iphone replay in the stands...but it was one of those plays where the guy is moving to the ground being tackled by 3 guys.  Anyway, they go to the review and announce that the targeting was confirmed and #16 was ejected...which is Austin Valdez.  Assuming it is a mistake, Dernard Turner headed to the locker room.

There's a ton of confusion on the sideline, they go back to the replay and confirm it was Valdez, BG's leading tackler.  A trainer goes SPRINTING off to the locker room to fetch Turner while Valdez left angrily.  Finally, Turner comes back and he's now exhorting his teammates.  Following the keystone cops routine by the officials, BG actually seemed to get some fire on defense.  BG got an incomplete pass and a 1-yard run and then on third down Alfonso Mack made one of the game's biggest plays with an end zone pick to keep UMass from scoring.

As an aside, I really like Mack.  He a young player and he loses some battles out there, but he absolutely keeps fighting and you'll see him make another big play a few seconds later.  He's a battler and he's only going to get better.

After the game, Johnson and Babers both talked about the pressure this offensive style puts on other teams.  When you throw a pick (or even punt) and BG has the ability to stick the ball right back down the field, it is a big momentum switch.  And then, as Babers says, you have to come get us, which is something that is tough when we are humming.

Which is what happened, as BG drove the 78 yards in 1:46, ending with a 32 yard TD run by Travis Greene where a UMass back went to tackle him on the 5 and Greene just stiff-armed him like a boss for the score.

It is 21-10.

Set back by a personal foul, UMass punted and BG started on the 33 again.  BG was still humming and went on a 9 play, 3:47 drive to get down the field---including a play when Matt Johnson was hit while sliding...one of the problems of the targeting thing is you rarely seen two calls in one game--and Donovan Wilson punched it in and BG led 28-10.

There was 4:29 left in the 2nd Q.  UMass really needed a score and they got it, moving the 81 yards in 1:39, aided by a BG personal foul and ending with a TD pass to Sharpe to make it 28-17.

BG got the ball back with 2:51 left...time to score twice...just kidding.  Anyway, BG was inside the UMass 25 when they were hit with a personal foul and then on a 2nd and long Johnson threw a pass to Dieter.  It went off his hands and was intercepted with :07 left in the half.

Babers said after the game "there is no grey area in our program.  If it hits your hands, you catch it.  If you don't want that, then when Johnson scrambles, don't get your butt open."

All right then.

The start of the 2nd half initiated the game's decisive sequence.  UMass took the ball and drove to their 42.  On 3rd down BG made a big tackle to stop the Minutemen one yard shot.  Then, they decided to go for it--another example of us putting pressure on their decision-making--and Frohnapfel threw the ball into a tight space for an incompletion.  He was upset there was not a call on BG, but those are harder to get when you try and fit the ball into those tight areas.

BG took over and did what they do, which was to take 8 plays to score and go up 35-17.

On the first play of the next drive, Nate Locke (getting more snaps with Valdez out) drilled the UMass RB and forced a fumble.  Johnson was sacked on the first play, but on 3rd down with an offsides penalty in play, Johnson took his shot, drilling a 100% perfect to Burbrink on the very edge of the end zone for a 40 yard TD and a 42-17 lead.

At which point the game was more or less over.

UMass took the next kickoff to the house to get it to 42-24, but BG kept them on the mat with a TD drive that culminated with a 12-yard screen pass to Travis Greene that was wide open.  At this point, there was 5:49 left in the 3Q and BG led 49-24.

UMass scored a TD and BG responded with a FG to make it 52-31 at the end of the 3Q.

UMass drove inside the BG 25 before they stalled out again, and on the next drive Johnson hit Roger Lewis for 68 yards and a long TD to go to 59-31.  With Knapke at the helm, BG added a FG and UMass picked up a TD with the backups in the game to get to the final 62-38.

A lot of records were set.  BG needed a win and they got it.  That is how the offense is supposed to work.  Now, will it work that way against OU or UT?  Or Akron?  That remains to be seen.  My feeling is that while we may not get 700 yards in those games, I do believe we can score on anyone in our conference.  There's just huge weapons and Matt Johnson is playing at a really high level.  He made some big time throws Saturday.

Obviously, I don't know what is going to happen, but it is going to be worth watching, that's for sure.