BG Special Teams be on alert for next week!

[Falconwriter]

Over on FalconBlog he broke down the mishaps. There were essentially 9 special teams mistakes which is even more than I realized:

Allowed punt returns of 47, 34 and 21 yards which all led to 3 TD's drives less than 30 yards by Tennessee!
A kickoff return of 67 yards plus a penalty, just after BG had cut the lead to 8, led to another Tennessee TD
A blocked FG
A kickoff out of bounds
Penalties on 2 kick returns
A player who ran out of bound on the 4 fielding a kickoff that was headed into the end zone for a touchback or out of bounds

This is a recipe for disaster no matter who you play on our schedule this year. The idea of us just using our offense to outscore teams is useless when you fail on defense (allowing 400 rushing yards) and special teams (9 mistakes/breakdowns). We racked up 500+ yards on an SEC team and still got blasted. We can fine-tune our offense all we want but if our defense and special teams don't improve, it's not going to matter much at all.

Excellent post. People can WHINE all they like about how some posters are too negative, but when I'm posting bad stuff about the team, I'm basing it on statistics and history -- not moping and saying the season's over, or any other garbage.

I'm a realist. I see a coach so full of himself that he can't control his emotions along the sideline to the point that he hurt his own team's scoring chances because of it. I also see a coach whose hubris about his offense is almost laughable, given the horrific coaching we saw on defense a year ago, and from what we've seen on special teams the past couple seasons.

Anyone who knows anything about football understands that there are three phases to having a great team, and you are very, very unlikely to have a great team if two of those are sub par. And right now, defense and special teams would have to improve some to reach sub par.

I'd probably be a lot less harsh in my criticism of Babers if I got even the slightest sense that the man had some sense of modesty; especially given how bad some of the coaching has been during his (admittedly) short tenure. I want to like him and I want this team to be a MAC champion again. But this coach does not inspire confidence in me.

As I've said many times: I hope like hell that Babers, his staff and this team prove me wrong.

[falconfan1]

I have never seen a BG head football coach have more outward control of his emotions than Dino Babers. He is- or appears- very level on the sidelines.

This penalty situation in Nashville was not a typical reaction at all. I, for one, was glad to see him become engaged there. Obviously, it was PI. It's a seven point missed call. To everyone in the stadium. Except a couple guys in the back end. So he questioned it. Glad he is sticking up for us there. Apparently it was too much and, as all have heard now, the ref was totally classless in response. Coach Clawson? Great coach, but he might have just gone off there in that situation. He was often questioning things vociferously on the sidelines. Our assts were in a pull back mode. And that's OK too.

We need to play far far better on special teams as far as coverage goes. Other spots of special teams were good to OK. Tate has rarely kicked off in his career and did well.

Our defense is filled with young, inexperienced and, in spots, undersized men. We are playing hard. But we need to work as a unit to slow down the run and get off the field. Our depth is really hurt up front wout Schwieterman and 99 is not 100%. Keep working and get better on assignments and tackling and angles. I am not sure two recruiting classes could have fixed that but some guys are helping early. Bozeman can be a very good player. Glad to see Robert Jackson in there but he has to make big adjustments quickly in the high speed game. We really need to shore things up and get ourselves ready for MAC on that side of the ball.

Go Falcons!

[jpfalcon09]

Over on FalconBlog he broke down the mishaps. There were essentially 9 special teams mistakes which is even more than I realized:

Allowed punt returns of 47, 34 and 21 yards which all led to 3 TD's drives less than 30 yards by Tennessee!
A kickoff return of 67 yards plus a penalty, just after BG had cut the lead to 8, led to another Tennessee TD
A blocked FG
A kickoff out of bounds
Penalties on 2 kick returns
A player who ran out of bound on the 4 fielding a kickoff that was headed into the end zone for a touchback or out of bounds

This is a recipe for disaster no matter who you play on our schedule this year. The idea of us just using our offense to outscore teams is useless when you fail on defense (allowing 400 rushing yards) and special teams (9 mistakes/breakdowns). We racked up 500+ yards on an SEC team and still got blasted. We can fine-tune our offense all we want but if our defense and special teams don't improve, it's not going to matter much at all.

Excellent post. People can WHINE all they like about how some posters are too negative, but when I'm posting bad stuff about the team, I'm basing it on statistics and history -- not moping and saying the season's over, or any other garbage.

I'm a realist. I see a coach so full of himself that he can't control his emotions along the sideline to the point that he hurt his own team's scoring chances because of it. I also see a coach whose hubris about his offense is almost laughable, given the horrific coaching we saw on defense a year ago, and from what we've seen on special teams the past couple seasons.

Anyone who knows anything about football understands that there are three phases to having a great team, and you are very, very unlikely to have a great team if two of those are sub par. And right now, defense and special teams would have to improve some to reach sub par.

I'd probably be a lot less harsh in my criticism of Babers if I got even the slightest sense that the man had some sense of modesty; especially given how bad some of the coaching has been during his (admittedly) short tenure. I want to like him and I want this team to be a MAC champion again. But this coach does not inspire confidence in me.

As I've said many times: I hope like hell that Babers, his staff and this team prove me wrong.

Don't necessarily agree that Babers is full of himself, I believe he's extremely confident in the system he coaches and believes it's the best way to win in today's college football. While his penalty was stupid, it was justified as it was a blatant missed call and it seemed like he felt it was a turning point of the game.

We honestly haven't seen enough of him yet to accurately grade him as a coach. I do believe he places less importance on some aspects of the game and his teams are incredibly undisciplined though, we've seen that be enough of a trend over his 15-game tenure. He also enjoys speaking in generalities and likes to hide shortcomings in his team by making broad statements about his systems and hedging a lot of bets against himself.

Maryland should provide enough of a crystal ball as to how much better this team can get defensively and on special teams. Their QB play is suspect so I envision a lot of running plays, especially wide to use the size difference to their advantage. Dino is lucky BG is in the East division where mediocrity will win you a trip to Detroit, because honestly they're the 4th or 5th best MAC team right now and even that might be too generous.

[Schadenfreude]

as all have heard now, the ref was totally classless in response.

This changed everything for me, and I will not criticize Babers for this particular moment. We don't know what he actually said to that referee that drew the flag, but here's what we do know:

-- The officiating crew blew that call. I don't think anyone would argue that the Vols cleanly defended our guy on that pass play.
-- The referee who threw the flag was having a bad day. By definition, if you cuss at a head coach while your mic is on for the entire stadium to hear, you are having a bad day.
-- Butch Jones was jawing at the refs now and again, and he didn't draw any flag.

In other words: It is possible this penalty flag was more about the referee who threw it than it was about Coach Babers. Maybe the flag was fair. Maybe it wasn't.

[mscarn]

as all have heard now, the ref was totally classless in response.

This changed everything for me, and I will not criticize Babers for this particular moment. We don't know what he actually said to that referee that drew the flag, but here's what we do know:

-- The officiating crew blew that call. I don't think anyone would argue that the Vols cleanly defended our guy on that pass play.
-- The referee who threw the flag was having a bad day. By definition, if you cuss at a head coach while your mic is on for the entire stadium to hear, you are having a bad day.
-- Butch Jones was jawing at the refs now and again, and he didn't draw any flag.

In other words: It is possible this penalty flag was more about the referee who threw it than it was about Coach Babers. Maybe the flag was fair. Maybe it wasn't.

Good points. That was an SEC ref with an SEC crew in a de facto SEC stadium. Combine those factors with the ones you mentioned and it's understandable how Babers would see the need to emotionally stick up for his team. Plus, the footage I saw is no different from the normal back and forth you see every week with almost every coach. Referees have discretion and that's what needed to be exercised in that instance.

To me there was nothing schematically about the defense that appeared unsound. They faced a team with back to back Top 5 recruiting classes favored by many to win the SEC. That's on the AD, not on Brian Ward or the players. When the head coach analogizes the injury potential facing the team during the non-conference season to the Civil War you know you've overscheduled.

An excellent observation was made in a previous thread that deserves repeating: there's nothing necessarily wrong with crafting a high-tempo offense designed to score 50+ points per game and placing your hopes of winning on that philosophy. You can win a football game in a multitude of different ways. However, if that's your philosophy you'd damn better be doing just that: scoring 50+ points and consistently executing at a high level on that side of the ball. 30 is inadequate. The good news is there's no reason to believe that won't be the case when the MAC season starts. Flip half those incompletions to completions and get our playmakers the ball.

[BGSU33]

First punt and Maryland takes it to the house. Never even laid a finger on him. We need to punt out of bounds from now on, this unit is simply horrible.

[kdog27]

If we could ever put three phases of the game or heck two phases of the game together we would be scary good.

Until then we will struggle with any team. This team is capable of beating 85% of teams in division one but they are just as capable to lose with their inconsistencies.

[BGSU33]

Fake punt allowed for a first down, missed FG from dead center, missed extended PAT from dead center, multiple kickoff returns botched to start drives inside our 10, personal fouls, the special teams continue to be abysmal. Abd it could've been worse, Redding was carrying the ball like a loaf of bread on one return into a wedge that I don't know how he didn't fumble.

[Schadenfreude]

multiple kickoff returns botched to start drives inside our 10,

This is the most frustrating piece of it for me. Missed kicks happen. Some players are slow. But, for goodness sake, every Falcon on that field is a college student. If you are running a kickoff out of the end zone, you damn well better expect to get to the 25.