Beat Toledo

[Bgsu2016]

I know it was a decent team we played but that game is just the perfect display of SL. Really dumb decisions at critical times, an atrocious offensive line and has never had a great QB. Maybe you just can’t recruit at BG. Maybe it’s a lost cause but how do we always have a terrible O line?

Bleed the clock and we win. The amount of passing in the second half was absurd

[Globetrotter]

At one point we had so many backs that we didn’t know what to do with it. What happened to the stable of backs. I know Stewart was hurt but what happened.

And I’m not trolling on Bazelek. Some Hyperbole but he’s a very good QB. Better than Matt McDonald. Huge difference with Orth in. Plycalling is so uncreative. Losing by 1 to a 9-1 is still good. But we had them. And we lost for all the reasons we all assume we will never win with Loeffler.

[UofToledoFans]

Nunner nunner boo boo

[mbenecke]

Nunner nunner boo boo

^^Most intelligent thing a Toledo fan has ever said. Just an impressive 4 word phrase from a UT fan - we’re so proud of you!

Congrats, I’m glad you guys are having such an awesome season that will end in the 68 Ventures or Famous Toastery Bowl. Really one for the record books.

[Rocket_Fanatic]

Love it! We want our coach fired too but only because he gives us all aneurysms and heart attacks during the game.

You guys still have the one up on us with hosting game day all those years ago.

Otherwise, we have the better athletes. That’s what won us the game in the end. It was a great game. You guys nearly pulled it off.

[Warthog]

Fannin's last touch was on our last touchdown drive. Our last run play for outside of Orth was with 11:35 to go in the 4th. They could have been banged up but they were out there. ...The play calling difference in each half is the prefect summary of why this team is so up and down and it's frustrating.

This was my biggest issue. Given Bazelak was hurt, so we had to go with Orth. But most plays, especially after the INT, we split everyone out and Orth is the only one in the backfield. One, why isn't our best back getting the ball here? Two, at least keep Keith in the backfield so that UT has to defend against him. Every play was a QB power or a bad pass. Not getting Keith the ball there is inexcusable.

[footballguy51]

I sat on things for the night before calling for people to be fired. This was a gut wrenching loss because, at least for me, this was the first BG/UT game in many years that I felt we had a legitimate chance to win. We won last year and I think we were all shocked. Our wins in this century have been 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2019, and 2022. 2009 and earlier were games that were won because we had a good team. 2019 and 2022 were flukes when you look at the season we were having during those years. But this year, it felt like winning wouldn't have been a shock but instead confirmation that we had a good team this year.

Couple that with watching the dumbest stretch of play calling to start the second half, and I was just sick watching us snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. After that final score, I looked at my wife (a UT grad) and said, "Well, that's the game. We'll either throw an interception on this final drive or we'll end up with a 3rd and 20 somehow and manage to look incompetent." Well, we had 3rd and 17 and then almost threw an interception at the end of the game, so I was almost right on both of my predictions. I also was off by a half on my predictions of the offense that we would run. I figured we would start the game with a flea-flicker, double reverse, double pass, WR/TE sweep, or some other stupid play. No, we just started the 3rd quarter that way after owning the entire first half.

[simpson]

I know it was a decent team we played but that game is just the perfect display of SL. Really dumb decisions at critical times, an atrocious offensive line and has never had a great QB. Maybe you just can’t recruit at BG. Maybe it’s a lost cause but how do we always have a terrible O line?

Bleed the clock and we win. The amount of passing in the second half was absurd

Bleed the clock and shorten the game when we have the lead!!! We were up 28-10 at halftime, despite missing our best RB. Common sense says to bleed the clock to give them less plays on offense. I was so frustrated watching us snap the ball with lots of time on the play clock. I re-watched the game and noted the play clock when we snapped the ball in the 2nd half. All of these occurred while the game clock was running. Not to mention attempting 24 passes vs just 14 runs in the same time frame!
# of seconds on the play clock at the snap in the 2nd half: 12, 21, 19, 10, 11, 10, 18, 14, 16, 14, 9, 12, 20, 4, 33, 5, 15, 11, 9, 9, 10, 5, 3 - then the rockettes took the lead. That is 4:50 of game time that could of been mostly eliminated while we had the lead in the 2nd half. We didn't surrender the lead until there was 1:45 left in the game.

[Flipper]

People laughed at Michigan for not passing at all (2 atrts that were whistled dead). But that's how you run clock and shorten the game

Weird that this game has been decided 2 straight years by long pass plays with tons of yac against defenses that got caught.

[hammb]

I left the game a bit stunned, and disappointed, but I wasn't as angry as I probably should have been because I expected us to get steamrolled. Obviously the first game plan was more than solid. UT played lost and we took advantage of that to build the huge lead. In the moment I honestly didn't realize Bazelak was hurt. The way Loeffler cycles QBs back and forth (which I absolutely despise) it's tough to know if it's an injury situation or more of the stupidity.

It's easy to look back now and say run the ball more, but you cannot run out the clock for an entire half. Well, unless your UM I guess. That was never going to happen. It did seem like the 2nd half was more of the patented "slow developing" pass sets rather than the quick hitters that got us the lead in the first half. But there were also several times where there flat were no options open when we ended up scrambling around/getting sacked.

To me the game was lost when our 2 productive 2nd half drives ended without points. The first time we were in LONG FG range/4dn territory and Bazelak took a sack on 3rd down. Simply cannot do that. We still had to go for it, but it was 4th & 9 instead of 4th & shorter. Pick up a couple on 3rd and you get a FG attempt, instead it was desperation time from no man's land on the field. The 2nd was the Orth fumble. Could anybody tell on TV if that was when Bazelak got hurt? Because he had the long completion to get them down there, then we go with Orth? Makes no sense unless it was injury; I know Bazelak was back later, but maybe he was banged up? I dunno...it's harder to follow those things in the stadium which is why I have gravitated towards preferring football on TV. To make matters worth on the drive after the INT, Orth did throw a pretty deep ball but the angles made it a nearly impossible over the shoulder catch that Hilaire couldn't track down.

My real beef (what Warthog said above) was that they used QB power from empty as their sole plan to run out the clock. I'm empathetic to having to hold on for victory without your starting QB. It's a tall task. But constantly motioning guys out of the backfield when it's an obvious "Try to bleed the clock" scenario is stupid. The logic is supposed to be you pull bodies out of the box, but the QB runs were so predictable that it didn't really have that effect. I'd have to go back and look, but I feel like there were frequently plays where we were asking Orth to run QB power/sweep where we didn't even have numbers. I know Keith was banged up a bit, I know we were without Terion, but you have to at least keep them guessing on who's getting the ball. What we saw was exactly what I talked about earlier with Orth; I'm not a fan. He's a competent runner, but he's not nearly athletic enough to be the type to pick up yards on consistent designed runs. He's not a guy defenses are worried about gameplanning for as a runner. And when he cannot rely on the unexpected runs as a change of pace? Dude can't throw enough to make defenses pay even for over-committing.

Overall we played them tight, it was a rivalry game. We shouldn't have lost, but losing Bazelak clearly left Loeffler scrambling and it didn't work. It was like they had that power run package installed for Orth and when Bazelak was lost they just trimmed the playbook down to that rather than even trying to have him do what was working before. I'll never be a Scot Loeffler fan, but last night's game was at least competitive, unlike so many of his MAC losses over the years. Unfortunately, I still think this is the ceiling for BG football with him at the helm. Just being happy to be in a game against a good team, because usually we get blown out.

[kdog27]

Hammb, no sideline reporter for maction so we knew nothing watching on tv either. I figured he was hurt when they kept rolling Orth out there despite his ineffectiveness.

Bazelak, was getting hit or sacked on every other play so im not surprised he was hurt.

What made me so mad is they abandoned what worked. That trick play to start the half set the tone for the half. A mixed bag of crap.

[jpfalcon09]

We're all singing a different tune today if Orth doesn't fumble, he doesn't overthrow OJ on the 4th quarter corner route, and if the Oladokun INT is seven instead of three. Felt like a perfect storm of unfortunate events in the 2nd half, beginning with that awful snap on the seven yard punt, then the fumble, and finally injuries to Connor, Fannin & Kam Stewart.

Fact is BG didn't execute well enough on a few key plays and they lost because of it. Calling for people to be fired over it is lazy in my opinion. Toledo seized on the momentum swing and BG started reeling. That's what good teams do.

I have no issue trying to throw the ball late, Toledo started loading the box when Orth came in. They knew the offense was going to be limited and they were right. Cam struggled throwing the ball, but it gave BG the best chance to win. Toledo had timeouts to burn on the BG possession before the Stuart TD to win the game. First down run was stuffed. Two more running plays probably would have had a similar result and Toledo takes their timeouts. The fate of the game probably doesn't change a whole lot.

[jpfalcon09]

Hammb, no sideline reporter for maction so we knew nothing watching on tv either. I figured he was hurt when they kept rolling Orth out there despite his ineffectiveness.

Bazelak, was getting hit or sacked on every other play so im not surprised he was hurt.

What made me so mad is they abandoned what worked. That trick play to start the half set the tone for the half. A mixed bag of crap.

Connor was banged up on the play they reviewed for targeting. He took a couple blows after that and was in some obvious discomfort coming off the field.

[BGSU33]

I was very proud of the effort and competitiveness BG displayed all game long. The guys fought hard and literally came up one play short. This loss stings about as much as any of them have in all the years I’ve been a fan. The fat punter CMU loss still stands out as the hardest for me. The bowl loss to Idaho the way it unfolded stung for a long time too. The close loss to Ohio State is up there as well. I can’t stand close losses. I’d rather lose handily than by a point or two. If a team beats you by double figures, then there’s really not much else to say, but that they played a better game and deserved a win. When you lose close, and in this case, when it literally boils down to one play, it will just eat you up inside as to how the result could’ve been completely different if one or two things were different. Thankfully a MAC championship wasn’t riding on this game, but it would have been a big win to beat a very good Toledo team like they are this year. It would have also secured a winning season for the first time in awhile. I hope we can beat WMU next week but what I really hope is that this team can win a bowl game and finally wnd the bowl-win drought and close with a winning season. That won’t erase this loss completely, but it sure would help.

[Falconfreak90]

Just got home this AM....such a disappointing 2nd half and to blow an 18 pt lead on your own turf. UT is good, but the holidays came early for UT as we gifted them the game. Period. Should have been running that ball the whole 2nd half. We got outscored 22-3 in the 2nd half.

Credit the rockettes for making a couple plays more to grab the dub.