The Greatest BGSU Football Games of the Past Decade

[Falconfreak90]

The 2003 Purdue game is still the best game I have ever attended. Had a perfect view of Chuck's catch. I think we're stealing 24s thunder.

In my top 5.

BG vs Purdue 1.jpg

Will never forget that game...Class of 61 and I made the drive from NE Ohio and man was it well worth it.

[kdog27]

I think what gets forgotten is Purdue had a pretty darn good team that year. They only went 9-4 but the 4 losses were by a combined 13 points or something like that.

[Schadenfreude]

I think what gets forgotten is Purdue had a pretty darn good team that year. They only went 9-4 but the 4 losses were by a combined 13 points or something like that.

They finished the season ranked 18th. Purdue was good that year. Bowling Green was better, (but we kept getting in Miami's way).

[bgsufalcon24]

Game #11 - Bowling Green 37 - Toledo 10 - November 23, 2007 - Doyt Perry Stadium, Bowling Green, Ohio

There are few MAC teams with winning records against BG over the past 10 seasons. None are in the MAC East, which BG has owned in recent years, and usually did well in but not quite well to win outright for much of the Brandon and Clawson eras. Indeed, BG has gone sub-.500 in MAC play only 3 times in the last decade, and only once (2010) have they been worse than 3-5 in conference play. One exception to this winning trend has been the Toledo Rockets, who beat BG 7 of 10 times within the past decade.

The 2007 season was a mixed bag but generally positive for the Falcons. They split against a pair of B1G opponents to start the season but then hit a skid in midseason, dropping key conference games against Miami and Ohio. Despite that, BG was 7-4 heading into the final week against Toledo. The Falcons likely needed this game to go bowling, and with Toledo coming in at 6-5, the Rockets definitely needed it. The game was greatly entertaining, if you're a Falcon fan! The two former QBs from 2006, Freddie Barnes and Anthony Turner, had been re-assigned. Barnes had become a go to WR alongside teammates like Corey Partridge and Tyrone Pronty, while Turner had become an effective "slash" player, sometimes lining up in the backfield, out wide, or even under center. Toledo had a murderous day trying to slow down the falcon offense, led by QB Tyler Sheehan. BG turned this game into a rout on what was a cool but sunny day after Thanksgiving, winning by four touchdowns and claiming the Peace Pipe Trophy for the first time since 2003.

The win gave the Falcons the most wins in the MAC for the season and also the best record in the East Division by percentage, but due to a horrificly bad grasp of mathematics and scheduling by the MAC, BG was denied a trip to the MAC championship game as for that season, only East division games counted in the standings. (The division champ, Miami, went 5-2 to BG's 6-2, on account of only playing 7 conference games, the imbalance caused by Temple coming on board that offseason and having all division teams play each and having 8 conference games each is a statistical impossibility, which nobody at the MAC figured out before it was too late. Duh, This one season calamity was junked, but the legacy of a 13-team conference continues to this day, as to accommodate 8 conference games each, 2 sets of East division teams do not play each other in the regular season. BG has been one of the paired teams every year since this schedule's inception, currently missing Miami)

[MarkL]

That 2007 UT game was so damn much fun. The whole 2007 season was a blast. 2006 was a disappointing season of what-ifs where everything went wrong. But I detected nothing but positive vibe coming from the team going into 2007. The attitude was in the right place, the team hit the gym like I've never seen before, and the team was even having fun. Anybody remember the enormous ball of tape?
2007 brought a HUGE win over Minnesota which effectively sank their season before it began, a near win over Michigan State, and a flip in overall record (4-8 to 8-4). The offense was at point damn near unstoppable with Tyler Sheehan and Freddie Barnes leading the way. Sheehan's first start was against a Big Ten team and he came away with a win in OT. Barnes was in his first year in the new position and AT found some redemption in a do-it-all position after losing the QB battle. The defense lost some big stars from 2006 but the young talent returned and they generally improved. But the big difference was if a game was tight in the second half, BG would win. In 2006, tight games more often than not meant losses especially late in the season. But where the 2006 team was at one point 4-4 and finished 4-8, the 2007 team found themselves 4-4 and finished 8-4.
The UT game was ... validation. Where BG flipped from 4-8 to 8-4, UT remained 5-7 as they did in 2006. After losing three straight in the series, we whipped they by I think more than the previous three margins. Even the little things worked our way - trick plays worked, we picked off errant passes, and Barnes found a pass slip out of his hands in the end zone fall safely into Jermiah Kelley's hands for a TD. Fun, rewarding game and demons exorcised.

Does anybody besides me sense the same positive vibes out of the 2015 team that we sensed out of 2007?

[bgsufalcon24]

Game #10 - Bowling Green 13 - Temple 10 - October 22, 2011 - Doyt Perry Stadium, Bowling Green, Ohio

The Falcons in 2011 were a team in transition. They had just suffered through an absolutely godawful year in 2010, prompted partly by the washing out of most of their 2006 recruiting class as well as the firing of Gregg Brandon a year previous. New coach Dave Clawson led BG to a fairly strong year in 2009 but with tons of graduations following that season and the cupboard bare, 2010 was hell for BG, going a miserable 2-10. 2011 wasn't expected to be a great season, but BG started strongly, beating up Idaho and Morgan State before dropping a last second heartbreaker to Wyoming. The season started to trend downward heading into this matchup with Temple. Unlike their meetings in 2005 and 2006, the roles had now reversed, with Temple a contender for the East division title.

This game was a tight, defensive encounter, with the two teams playing a lot of the field position battle through the first three quarters. The falcon defense had struggled mightily in recent weeks, most notably in a blowout loss in Kalamazoo, but BG tackled hard and tackled well in this one, not letting standout Temple RB Bernard Pierce to really get untracked. QB Matt Schilz didn't have a great day, but managed the game well enough and didn't make crucial errors, something he didn't do in the previous week against Toledo. BG trailed for most of the day before finally finding the end zone late in the 3rd quarter to take the lead. Temple's offense had their chances, but could do nothing against the Falcon defense, while on the other side, strong running by BG's young yet growing stable of RBs took time off the clock and punished the Owls physically. Temple's final drive ended up stalling just outside field goal range, sealing a surprising win for the Falcons.

This game sent Temple into a bit of a tailspin, as they lost the next week in Athens, a loss that ultimately cost them a trip to the MAC Championship Game. BG would lose to that same Ohio team by a single point later in the season, but would beat Buffalo to finish 5-7, a three game improvement over 2010. More importantly though, this victory signaled a change in philosophy for BG, that they could and would play smashmouth football, and could beat quality MAC teams doing so. Dave Clawson's transformation of the program from a shotgun spread sideshow was complete, and would lead to greatness in a short period of time.

Extra point - BGSU's records over the past decade:
Overall - 64-61
MAC - 47-35

[Falconfreak90]

BG 51, Missouri 28....Sept 2002.

Mizzou fans were laughing at our "glorified high school stadium" on the way in. Not much laughter on the way out as we totally manhandled them. On the message boards after the game, all they could say was "Bowling Freaking Green???". Well, we lead the series 3-2 so yeah, Bowing Freaking Green.

One other from that year....BG 72, Ohio 21. We simply did whatever the hell we wanted all day and rolled up over 700 yards of offense.

[Schadenfreude]

BG 51, Missouri 28....Sept 2002.

Mizzou fans were laughing at our "glorified high school stadium" on the way in. Not much laughter on the way out as we totally manhandled them. On the message boards after the game, all they could say was "Bowling Freaking Green???". Well, we lead the series 3-2 so yeah, Bowing Freaking Green.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bryan Burwell was kind of in awe of what he saw that day. The Big 12 was humbled:

http://orangeandbrown.blogspot.com/2009 ... ittle.html" target="_blank

That was one of the best games I've ever seen in Perry Stadium. My personal top five home games dating back to the late 1980s, in no particular order:

1994: Bowling Green 59, Navy 21
2002: Bowling Green 51, Missouri 28
2003: Bowling Green 34, (No. 12) Northern Illinois 14
2003: (No. 22) Bowling Green 31, Toledo 23
2014: Bowling Green 45, Indiana 42

Honorable mention: Bowling Green 24, Toledo 21, 1991 (big, loud crowd, nice day, and key win en route to a MAC title)

[Falconfreak90]

My Top 5 home games of all time:

2003 - BG/NIU (34-18)
1985 - BG 21, tsun 0 to clinch the MAC title in front of 28,000+. The GP came down.
2002 - BG 51, Missouri 28
1985 - BG 28, Miami 24...the miracle game
Tie - 2001 - BG 56, tsun 21
1998 - BG 34, Marshall 13. The Herd was undefeated at 8-0 and we were 2-7 or something.

[Schadenfreude]

1998 - BG 34, Marshall 13. The Herd was undefeated at 8-0 and we were 2-7 or something.

That was a sweet game. We always played Marshall pretty well.

[bgsufalcon24]

Game #9 - Bowling Green 24 - Buffalo 7 - November 29, 2013 - Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, New York

This game was a game that, at first glance at the schedule didn't look very meaningful. BG was expected to contend for the East Division title in 2013, but Buffalo was not, and BG had pounded the Bulls each of the previous 2 seasons. But the Bulls were a crafty bunch in 2013, overachieving to the point that they were in title contention the whole season. And they were savvy too, moving this game in the early season from their home stadium to Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills. When the two teams dusted off Ohio and Akron, the other two East contenders in the penultimate weeks of the season, the stage was set for a winner-take-all showdown for a trip to Detroit and the MACC.

The day was cold...verrrry cold, and conveniently, the good people of Buffalo saw to it to only brush the snow off the seats on the side behind the Bulls bench. You stay classy Buffalo. Oh yeah, this game was a slugfest early on, with neither team really able to get going offensively. The Bulls actually had the lead thanks to a 2nd quarter touchdown, and led for much of the day until BG gambled and went for it on a 4th down late in the 3rd quarter. On that play, QB Matt Johnson threw deep, finding WR Sean Joplin in the end zone for the go ahead score. Buffalo then turned the ball over on the next possession, leading to a quick BG touchdown drive capped (IIRC) by a Travis Greene touchdown run. Down 10 with time ticking away, the Bulls offense was a cold mess, and never really threatened again. The BG defense had been on fire in recent weeks, having shut out Ohio a few weeks prior and laying waste to Eastern Michigan the week prior, and they were outstanding again in this one. Dave Clawson got the Gatorade shower, the players celebrated, and the mass of brown and orange clad fans felt a little warmer as victory coursed through their veins. The win would set up a championship encounter with Northern Illinois the next week, a game that will undoubtedly come up later in the countdown.

Extra point -
Buffalo is the only East division opponent that has never beaten BG at home in the past decade, be it in Amherst or Orchard Park. They are 0-5 at home vs BG, 2-8 overall, with their only wins coming in walk off fashion at the Doyt in 2008 and 2010. The only other teams to not record a home win vs BG over the past 10 years are Ball State and Eastern Michigan, both of whom are 0-2 at home vs BG. However, the rest of the East Division has generally been horrible against BG in their home stadiums too. The Ohio Bobcats are 1-4, the Akron Zips are 1-3, and the Kent State Golden Flashes are 1-4. Even the Miami Redhawks, they of the once-fearsome Miami Whammy, are also 1-4. Moral of the story? If BG wouldn't have lost so many key conference games at home in the Brandon era and the early part of the Clawson era, they would've been in Detroit virtually every year this decade.

[jpfalcon09]

The Johnson run in that game may have been the play of their season...turned about the offense in that game and ended up putting UB on their heels.

[bgsufalcon24]

Game #8 - Bowling Green 42 - Miami 14 - November 15, 2005 - Yager Stadium, Oxford, Ohio

Coming into the 2005 season, BGSU had suffered from a long run of futility against the Miami Redhawks. Their misfortune was so rampant over the years that people would refer to this matchup as the "Miami Whammy". With 2 games remaining in the 2005 campaign, BG had been through big ups and downs, losing against some tough opponents early, then ripping off a win streak, before Omar Jacobs's injury resulted in a pair of crucial home defeats. Still, BG was 5-4 coming into this game with a chance at the East Division title. Defending division champ Miami was in the mix as well, and so were the Akron Zips, who had vaulted into the contest 2 weeks earlier by catching BG at the right time without Jacobs and walking out of the Doyt with a win.

Before this game even started, a massive line of thunderstorms swept through southwest Ohio, producing tornado warnings. The game was delayed by more than 2 hours, a dilemma that resulted in NIT basketball being shown in many parts of the country over this game, which was a scheduled national broadcast. Unaware of this, the Falcon offense came out hot, scoring on their first possession of the game. Miami was forced to punt, and thus began a humorous, Bad News Bears kind of night for the Redhawks' special teams unit. First, the long snapper snapped the ball way over the punter's head, forcing him to kick it out of the end zone for a safety. Then later the punter dropped a snap, leading to BG recovering the ball. Then another bad snap on a 3rd punt attempt again led to BG taking advantage of a short field. For his part, Jacobs played as though he hadn't skipped a beat with the injury, passing the ball all over the yard on a windy night and finding open receivers, while the BG offensive line kept his jersey clean. To make matters worse for the Redhawks, the long delay had driven away most of the home fans (it was a weeknight after all), and mother nature was even on BG's side as between the 1st and 2nd quarter, a major cold front passed through, causing temperatures to quickly fall and the wind direction to swing around from the southeast to the northwest, making the Redhawks go against the wind for the entirety of the first half. By the time halftime arrived, BG was ahead by 3 touchdowns and by the end of 3, the Falcons were warming up the buses, preparing to leave Oxford with a W.

Extra point -
This result, along with Northern Illinois' win over Toledo the next night, set up a wild, ridiculous final week of the season in the MAC. Going into the final week of the season, UT, NIU, Miami, BG, and Akron all had a chance to play for the MAC Championship. For BG, the situation was simple at first, and that was to beat Toledo. The Rockets and Falcons played an absolute heart stopper of a contest, a game that Toledo won on a walk-off touchdown in double overtime. That same day, Miami beat Ohio, a result that had all three East teams still alive pending Akron's game against Kent State 2 days later, with cross divisional SOS being the third tiebreaker if needed. In a key matchup a day after the BG/UT game, Northern Illinois beat Western Michigan, a result that put NIU into the MACC over UT in the West, and left Akron in control of their own destiny, largely because Akron's SOS became harder with them having played NIU earlier in the season and BG's getting worse with them having played WMU. The Zips went on the next day to beat Kent State and win the East in a 3-way tie situation with Miami and BG, the cross-divisional SOS being their golden ticket. They then upset NIU to win the MAC. Bottom line...MAC tiebreaker scenarios are very convoluted...AND...if Omar Jacobs isn't hurt for the BG-Akron game that year, the Zips don't win the MAC. You'll never convince me otherwise.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Ah the Monsoon Bowl, my first ever road trip for a BGSU sporting event. Will always be a memorable one. Took a student bus down and want to say we got back to campus between 4 and 5 in the morning. Safe to say I didn't make it to my 8:30a and 10:30a classes that Wednesday morning.

[bgsufalcon24]

Game #7 - Bowling Green 29 - Buffalo 28 - November 3, 2009 - UB Stadium, Amherst, New York

This was yet another thriller between BG and Buffalo, and I swear, I'll stop picking on the Bulls after this but this was a classic. Coming into this game 2009 had been a tough year for the Falcons, as they had started 1-4, then fought back into divisional contention only to lose a tough home game to Central Michigan to drop to 3-5. BG needed their last 4 games to have any realistic shot at the conference title or a bowl, and this was the first of that four game stretch. The Bulls started fast in this one, taking the lead into the half. Scoring a touchdown late in the third quarter, the Bulls led 28-16 with 7:30 remaining in the game. BG was down and close to being out. But one thing you'll know about the 2009 Falcons, they were a resilient bunch. BG went 80 yards in barely 2 minutes to make it 28-23. Buffalo then got the yips offensively, running up the middle two straight plays, then going incomplete on third down and punting. At that point, you could almost see what would happen before it did, another Falcon touchdown drive capped off by a Tyler Sheehan to Freddie Barnes touchdown strike. The Bulls then turned the ball over on the next possession, and BG ran out the clock to escape Amherst with their season still intact.

Extra point:
This comeback win was a thriller, and it was payback for BG's loss to Buffalo the previous season, where BG led 27-13 with 3 minutes left and were lining up for a 39 yard field goal. The kick was missed, Buffalo then went down the field in less than a minute to score, then recovered the onside kick and scored again to force overtime, eventually winning 40-34 in double overtime. That epic collapse by BG included the team dissing the band by leaving the field during the alma mater and coach Brandon publicly calling out the fans for not showing up (for a cold as hell 6pm game on a Friday). That game ranks as my #1 worst BG game of the past decade, with #2 being the GMAC Bowl beatdown at the hands of Tulsa. Luckily, the Falcons remembered this, and paid back the Bulls in spades on this chilly November night.