Like I could stay away until Monday...

[BGSU33]

I will never let the excuse "not being ready" slide by. It's the absolute worst thing a team can be. You can have a bunch of less talented guys, but if they play hard, they'll compete. To have a bunch of talented guys not prepared, it's a total waste. I'm not saying that's the case with BG, but if it is, that should never happen. We got our wake up call two years ago!

I look at BG and ask myself, heading into the NIU game, how could we not have been ready for NIU? The tragedy aside (which was a major distraction, I certainly understand that), we still had two weeks to prepare, we were playing on the road, this was a MAC game, it was a MAC West game on top of that, it was against a team that was picked by just about everyone to finish in front of us, it was on national TV, they almost beat Maryland again, etc. How could we not be ready for these guys? We knew they were good, we knew what they wanted to do no matter who played QB or who played RB....they just went right through us. I-AA Southern Illinois at least gave them a hell of a game. I think NIU handled us easier than Oklahoma did. Seriously, at least against I thought in the 4th quarter we had a chance to win. Against NIU, it was over because we couldn't even stop the run after run to get the ball back.

Last year is old news. We were 11-3 last season, that means jack this year. It's history, we aren't owed anything this season. Everything we want again we have to go out and earn all over again. We had to work our @sses off last year to do what we did. We are now one of those teams that carries a bulls-eye on our back in the MAC. Teams in the MAC will get up for BG, especially ones like NIU. To be a great program, you need to have good teams year after year, not just once in a while.

[Warthog]

In retrospect, the third down and 2 call on drive two (when the game looked like a version of last year's BG-NIU game) was huge. PJ narrowly missed a TD on the previous 8 yard screen play and then it appeared to me we were perhaps setting up a reverse on the third and 2. Nobody was there and Omar loses four. Perhaps something else was called but it looked like a broken play/assignment.

Pretty sure that it was supposed to be an option to the right. Not sure who it was, but PJ was taken out before the play even developed and Omar recognized that. He tried to cut it up and was slammed by another guy who apparently went unblocked on the play.

[falconfan1]

wart, thank you for that explanation. I did not have a great view. Because I will never watch the tape of the game, I would not have determined the answer on my own.

It was, therefore, a huge, huge play by Northern's D. We had a couple of those too in that defensive goal line stand. Other than those three plays, precious few big plays on defense. Lackluster. Disappointing. Beat Temple.

Go Falcons!

[orangeandbrown]

In that respect we needed this just to show that we can't take people lightly.

A team with ZERO MAC Championships over the last decade should already know that. What we needed was to prove we could win this big MAC game on the road.