How good is Ohio?

[MarkL]

I certainly hope the BG football team is NOT looking ahead to Ohio, but I'm going to take a peek ahead here. I'm a little unsure of exactly how good OU is. Let's review ...

Week 1, OU beat Penn State, under a new coach and as the first game after all of the mess in Happy Valley. Great, great win for OU and the MAC, but it would have been a loss if it weren't for some key plays, including a big reception off what should have been a PSU pick.
Week 2, OU has a hard time putting away a pretty bad NMSU team until the fourth quarter. Great, great halftime adjustments and second half execution change a close OU lead into an OU blowout.
Week 3, OU sneaks past Marshall. They held Marshall to 24 points who later scored in the forties on Purdue.
Week 4, OU beats the crap out of Norfolk State.
Week 5, OU barely, I mean barely, beats UMass. The MAC has a ton of parity and it showed. Everybody knew going into that game that OU was the best team in the conference and UMass was the worst, yet they were only three points apart. OU had to rally to win. By no means at all were they dominant, especially considering they allowed UMass' QB to pass four TDs.
Week 6, OU is down by 14 to UB and rallies to win. The rally was started by a huge kickoff return for a TD. UB is a decent team, although they can't pass worth a damn, but they should, should be nowhere near a team that is halfway to a perfect season.

So how good is Ohio? Are they dominant but right now in a bit of a lull? Are they good but not great? Are they OK and lucky? My take, at least as of now, is that they are a very, very well coached team and execute extremely well. They do not have a talent level significantly higher than anybody else in the MAC, but between playing very well and nearly mistake free, having a great game plan, and having a pretty veteran team, OU continues to just win. I think they are overall the best team in the conference but I don't expect them to dominate anybody in the conference. I also think they chances of them being undefeated when we meet them are pretty good. Their next three opponents are Akron (we just beat them), that team down south (our next opponent), and Eastern Michigan (our opponent right before OU), so we will have a really good feeling going into that game how each team stacks up.

Go Falcons!

[Falcon137]

OU struggled mightly stopping the run against Buffalo. Thought BG ran for a bunch against Akron? Buffalo rammed it down their throat to the tune of 313 yards. Buffalo controlled the clock and if it wasn't for 2 turnovers inside their own 20 that would have been a much different game.

They are extremely banged up on defense, especially in the secondary. I don't expect Akron to beat them, but, they could put some points up on them.

Then they have to go to Miami, another pass happy team. They should beat up Eastern before getting BG and then Ball State and Kent State.

They're schedule is ridiculously backloaded. They got Penn State in maybe the strangest game of all time, New Mexico State has 1 win, Marshall 2 wins, Norfolk is FCS, Buffalo has 1 win, UMass is winless.

At Miami in a big rivalry game against a team with a good passing attack will show us how good they are. The 1 good passing team they have played threw for 432 yards against them and they are even more banged up since that Marshall game.

[Falconfreak90]

They are beatable...just like everyone else in the MAC.

[bgsufalcon24]

They are beatable...just like everyone else in the MAC.

Strange...I actually think the MAC is much more divided between the Haves and the Have-Nots than it has been in recent years.

Good - Ohio, Toledo, Northern Illinois, Kent State
Meh - Bowling Green, Miami, Ball State, Western Michigan, Central Michigan
Scrubs - Eastern Michigan, Buffalo, Akron, Massachusetts

The teams in the scrub tier have competed in-game with the teams in the good tier, but nobody has beaten any of them. In fact, no team in the scrub tier has a conference win yet, and no team in the good tier has lost a conference game yet.

We'll see if that changes this week but with matchups like Buffalo-NIU, Toledo-EMU, and Akron-Ohio, I wouldn't count on it.

[Falconfreak90]

Nobody in the league is unbeatable...that was my point. Sure there are better teams than others but nobody is head and shoulders above the rest.

[jscottfitzwater]

Injuries are really starting to mount for the Bobcats, especially on defense.