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Official Sports Report: September 09, 2009
Quick Look at Bowling Green
Mizzou's next opponent off to good start
by OSR Staff
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Missouri returns to Faurot Field this week for its home-opener against an always pesky Bowling Green squad. The Falcons are under the direction of first year head coach Dave Clawson, whose squad rallied from an early 14-0 deficit to earn a 31-14 home win against Troy, the Sunbelt Conference favorites.

In case you were wondering, Clawson came to Bowling Green after one season as offensive coordinator at Tennessee, but did masterful rebuilding jobs (as the Head Coach) at both Fordham and Richmond at the FCS level before heading to Knoxville for that one year.

Clawson's specialty is quarterback development and BGSU's first year sideline boss has a good one in third-year starter Tyler Sheehan. The Cincinnati native was masterful last week against Troy, throwing for 339 yards in the 17-point win. The senior hit 32-of-44 passes and two scores as he looks to build on his All-MAC status from two seasons ago.

Sheehan's (Bowling Green's career passing percentage leader) favorite target was fifth-year senior Freddie Barnes. Barnes hauled in a school record 15 passes last week for 157 yards and two scores. Eleven of his catches came in the first half and his two scores helped propel BGSU to those 31 unanswered points. Barnes was named the MAC's East Division Offensive Player of the Week this week as well and will be a focal point for the Tiger defensive backs this weekend.

While Sheehan was great through the air, the Falcons struggled running the football against the Troy defensive front. Bowling Green mustered just 50 yards on 28 carries, an average of just 1.8 yards a rush. However Troy got little going on the ground as well and the two teams combined for a woeful 91 total yards on the ground. Bee Gee's top ground gainer was Willie Geter, who ran for 49 yards on nine carries, however no running play netted more than 16 yards on the evening and should be an area of concern for the Falcons this week after Mizzou's solid defensive outing vs. Illinois.

Defensively Bowling Green was impressive despite the return of just three starters. Outside of a game-opening TD drive by the Trojans, the Falcons played dominant defense in the second half, holding Troy to just nine total minutes of possession time in the second half and limited Troy QB Levi Brown to just 10-of-24 passing in the final two periods.

Bowling Green had nine total tackles for loss, including a pair of sacks. The team's top defender, Roger Williams, led the club with 10 tackles. The senior DB added his first interception of the year as well, which helped spark the 31-point rally. Adrien Spencer also added an INT, returning it 64 yards for a score late in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

On special teams, the Falcons' Nick Iovinelli punted five times, averaging 37.6 yards a boot. He also placed two kicks inside the 20, but his net was a woeful 33.3 yards for the game. Jerry Phillips hit his only field goal try, a 21-yarder in the fourth quarter that gave Bowling Green a 17-14 lead, but it's tough to decipher what kind of special teams play the Falcons have this early in the year.

As you will continually hear throughout the week, Missouri is going for a record home-opening crowd on Saturday. The Tigers are hoping to pack 70,000 into Faurot Field and with numbers currently hovering around 62,000 tickets, a strong push could make that goal a reality.

Game time from Faurot Field is slated for 6 p.m. and with Pay-Per-View being the only TV option, we hope to see you at The Zou on Saturday!

WEAR GOLD & GO TIGERS!

Interesting that the series record is not mentioned? It also doesn't mention how you have to bend over for the pay per view.

tiznow wrote:Interesting that the series record is not mentioned? It also doesn't mention how you have to bend over for the pay per view.

Yeah, very interesting...Let's see, um, 3-1?

BEAT MIZZOU

tiznow wrote:Interesting that the series record is not mentioned? It also doesn't mention how you have to bend over for the pay per view.

The pay per view price is pretty reasonable, IMO. I haven't seen the price for this game, but they have typically been around $30. Game tickets are $44 each for my seats in the South end zone for the BG game. For $30, I can have as many people over to my house as I want and I don't have to pay $40 in gas to drive to the game and back.

The other factor to consider is production cost and target market size. PPV is the only way that the Big XII TV contract allows games to be broadcast if they aren't picked up by the networks. Mizzou has to bear the production costs and they won't bring the game to TV unless it is a break-even proposition. Outside of the state of Missouri (where many people are already going to the game) and Ohio, where are all of the people that we can amortize that cost over? I'm just happy to have PPV as an option.

mutiger91 wrote:

tiznow wrote:Interesting that the series record is not mentioned? It also doesn't mention how you have to bend over for the pay per view.

The pay per view price is pretty reasonable, IMO. I haven't seen the price for this game, but they have typically been around $30. Game tickets are $44 each for my seats in the South end zone for the BG game. For $30, I can have as many people over to my house as I want and I don't have to pay $40 in gas to drive to the game and back.

The other factor to consider is production cost and target market size. PPV is the only way that the Big XII TV contract allows games to be broadcast if they aren't picked up by the networks. Mizzou has to bear the production costs and they won't bring the game to TV unless it is a break-even proposition. Outside of the state of Missouri (where many people are already going to the game) and Ohio, where are all of the people that we can amortize that cost over? I'm just happy to have PPV as an option.

Good points that I had not thought about. In the glass is half-full sense, I've seen a lot worse PPV prices than $30 too, so I'll count that as a win. Does that mean it's 4-1 going into Saturday?