Now the REAL season begins!!!

[BGSU33]

Looking back on the non-conference schedule, I think we can now all agree it was a success. Sure the Memphis game got away from us (still stings), and yes it stinks to have only played one home game (second home game won't be until mid-October), but we beat two Power Five schools - both from the Big Ten - and got paid over $2 million dollars to play Tennessee, Maryland and Purdue and we won two of them. I myself am still on the fence of losing the home game to play UT, and I was afraid we may have over-scheduled ourselves in the process, but in hindsight things turned out pretty well. But I still don't want to see that type of non-conference schedule again any time soon.

That said, now the REAL season begins. As great as it was to beat Maryland and Purdue - and it was AWESOME - neither one of those games helps us get to Detroit. The path to a MAC Championship starts now! Each and every week we must now bring it. No letdowns, no overlooking anyone, we need to play BG football. And once again, we're going to have to do it on the road as for the 4th time in 5 weeks - and for the FIFTH consecutive year, BG must open MAC play on the road (no thanks to the conference schedule makers). And don't think for a second BG isn't wearing a target on its back. We're two-time defending MAC East champs, we're picked to win the East this year, we're coming off a win over a Big Ten team, and you know damn well Buffalo remembers letting the game last year against us get away from them (they really should have beaten us last year). We may have traded blows with the "big boys" for the first month of the season, but those two losses only dented our record. They didn't hurt our MACC chances one bit. However, one slip up from here on our could cost us a trip to Detroit and a shot at the title. Let's keep this going through the MAC schedule. GO BG!!!

[cameron]

I just noticed this, and it was probably discussed when schedules first came out, but the Falcons don't get a traditional off week this season. They have a few extra days before Ohio, and only six days between WMU and TSUN, Other than that, everything is one week with no off-week scheduled. Wonder how the team feels about that?

[Falconfreak90]

Win the East....and then the MAC> I am feeling good about our chance to bring home the hardware for the 2nd time in 3 years.

[Falcon137]

Season gets broken into 2, 4 game sections from here.

@ Buffalo, UMass, Akron, @ Kent. Those 4 games need to be W's.

Ohio - appears much improved, beat up Marshall, should have beaten Minnesota. Clearly the 2nd best team in the East.
@ WMU - talented team on the road
Toledo - Very likely to roll into the Doyt at 9-0, will be favored in every game remaining.
@ Ball State - tough road game to finish the season.

[kdog27]

Sweep the East!

Sweep the West!

[BGSU33]

Season gets broken into 2, 4 game sections from here.

@ Buffalo, UMass, Akron, @ Kent. Those 4 games need to be W's.

Ohio - appears much improved, beat up Marshall, should have beaten Minnesota. Clearly the 2nd best team in the East.
@ WMU - talented team on the road
Toledo - Very likely to roll into the Doyt at 9-0, will be favored in every game remaining.
@ Ball State - tough road game to finish the season.

The winner of the BG vs OU game is gonna be the East Champion. Book it.

[bgsufalcon24]

Looking back on the non-conference schedule, I think we can now all agree it was a success. Sure the Memphis game got away from us (still stings), and yes it stinks to have only played one home game (second home game won't be until mid-October), but we beat two Power Five schools - both from the Big Ten - and got paid over $2 million dollars to play Tennessee, Maryland and Purdue and we won two of them. I myself am still on the fence of losing the home game to play UT, and I was afraid we may have over-scheduled ourselves in the process, but in hindsight things turned out pretty well. But I still don't want to see that type of non-conference schedule again any time soon.

That said, now the REAL season begins. As great as it was to beat Maryland and Purdue - and it was AWESOME - neither one of those games helps us get to Detroit. The path to a MAC Championship starts now! Each and every week we must now bring it. No letdowns, no overlooking anyone, we need to play BG football. And once again, we're going to have to do it on the road as for the 4th time in 5 weeks - and for the FIFTH consecutive year, BG must open MAC play on the road (no thanks to the conference schedule makers). And don't think for a second BG isn't wearing a target on its back. We're two-time defending MAC East champs, we're picked to win the East this year, we're coming off a win over a Big Ten team, and you know damn well Buffalo remembers letting the game last year against us get away from them (they really should have beaten us last year). We may have traded blows with the "big boys" for the first month of the season, but those two losses only dented our record. They didn't hurt our MACC chances one bit. However, one slip up from here on our could cost us a trip to Detroit and a shot at the title. Let's keep this going through the MAC schedule. GO BG!!!

If you really think about it...I'm not exactly unhappy about this. First of all, BG has clearly proven that they can go on the road and win, as they did so in College Park and West Lafayette, two places much more intimidating than Buffalo, where BG has never lost since I started following the program. If you look beyond this week, arguably our three most important conference games this season, Akron, Ohio, and Toledo, are all at home. So really I don't think the schedule makers really did us any wrongs in terms of home/away distribution.

If you want to complain about something scheduling wise...complain about the MAC ripping away our game with Miami. That cost us a sure victory last year that turned into a defeat against Western Michigan/Ball State, and they did it again this year. We would've destroyed the Redhawks last year and we would do it again this year. They're horrible. I saw some of their game vs WKU on CBSSN after our game and it was like WKU was playing an FCS team. It's not fair that the other East teams get to play them and we don't. It was only because we went 5-0 vs the East last year that this scheduling inequity didn't keep us from getting to Detroit!

[Rollo83]

If you had told me before the season that we would go 2-2 during our non-conference schedule, I would have taken that in a heart beat. Especially, when our defense gives up an average of 40 points and nearly 500 yards of total offense in those four games.

But, I am a realist and know that we have at least three or four teams left on our schedule that are better than Purdue and Maryland...or at least they have better offenses. Drew Hare (NIU), Zach Terrell (WMU), Phillip Ely (Toledo), Riley Neal (Ball State), and Blake Frohnapfel (UMASS) are all better QBs than what the Boilermakers or Terrapins had under center. I think the feeling that we'll automatically roll now that we're back in MAC play, is dangerous. I think it will be much harder than that.

That means we'll most likely have to continue to win some more shootouts the rest of the way. I know our young defense is improving, but having them play good enough to give our offense a chance to win, puts an awful lot of pressure on the offense. We have already seen the offense win a game with the ball late, and lose one with the ball late in a game they could of won.

I keep thinking about what experience I enjoyed more?

1. Watching this current team's offense outscore people?
2. Watching the 2013 team, who's offense wasn't quite as potent but was backed by the MAC's best defense?

The Omar Jacobs teams were some of my favorite teams to watch, so I like the offense. But watching this current team, with an offense that has such a small margin of error in every game, is so nerve racking.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the ride again this year. But, it's taking a few year off of me.

[Beaker]

Given the choice, I'll take a great defense any day. Offense is fun to watch, but even great offenses can be slowed by a great defense. That said, tsun will be the strongest defense we'll play and I'm not sure that they rise to the level of "great".

For someone who enjoys stressful situations, this is the perfect team to follow. I have learned to take a handful of tums before each game

[jpfalcon09]

If you had told me before the season that we would go 2-2 during our non-conference schedule, I would have taken that in a heart beat. Especially, when our defense gives up an average of 40 points and nearly 500 yards of total offense in those four games.

But, I am a realist and know that we have at least three or four teams left on our schedule that are better than Purdue and Maryland...or at least they have better offenses. Drew Hare (NIU), Zach Terrell (WMU), Phillip Ely (Toledo), Riley Neal (Ball State), and Blake Frohnapfel (UMASS) are all better QBs than what the Boilermakers or Terrapins had under center. I think the feeling that we'll automatically roll now that we're back in MAC play, is dangerous. I think it will be much harder than that.

That means we'll most likely have to continue to win some more shootouts the rest of the way. I know our young defense is improving, but having them play good enough to give our offense a chance to win it puts an awful lot of pressure on the offense. We have already seen the offense win a game with the ball late, and lose one with the ball late in a game they could of won.

I keep thinking about what experience I enjoyed more?

1. Watching this current team's offense outscore people?
2. Watching the 2013 team, who's offense wasn't quite as potent but was backed by the MAC's best defense?

The Omar Jacobs teams were some of my favorite teams to watch, so I like the offense. But watching this current team, with an offense that has such a small margin of error in every game, is so nerve racking.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the ride again this year. But, it's taking a few year off of me.

The 2013 team was fun to watch because they flat out became dominant once Matty J grasped the offense. Besides the IU game that year, BG lost their other 3 games by a combined 7 points and should've beaten an SEC team on the road. Obviously winning a MAC championship and destroying NIU in Detroit was the feather in the cap.

I will say this...Babers scheme gives us the chance to take down Power 5 schools whose offenses don't have the talent or consistency to keep pace. The defense has shown improvement this season, especially against the run and it appears that special teams may be finally getting itself straightened out. I appreciate defense but also enjoy watching an offense which can execute and be deadly.

[bgsufalcon24]

There's no doubt that the high powered offense, spread the field, throw it around 50 times strategy employed by Gregg Brandon and now by Dino Babers is more suited toward knocking off P5 opponents. That's clear. The balanced attack, play ball control, play great defense strategy employed by Dave Clawson wasn't as good for the P5 games because it meant that we were trying to go toe to toe with them in a lot of cases, but it was very, very effective in winning games within the MAC. When you're lining up and playing smashmouth football, that doesn't work as well against athletes bigger and stronger than you that P5 teams have, but against the smaller and more finesse teams of the MAC, Clawson made our team into a vaunted unit that opposing offenses and some opposing defenses wanted no part of. Conversely, the Brandon/Babers strategy seems to be less effective against MAC opposition, or at least in Babers' case it appeared that way in 2014.

This season will be a real tell as to whether Babers' style is capable of winning a MAC Championship. I'm not convinced that you can win the conference by chucking it 50 times a game and not playing much of any defense. My thought is that teams with good defenses like Toledo or Northern Illinois will be able to beat you by slowing you down enough on offense and torching your defense. But I guess we'll find out when the time comes. One game at a time until then. Beat Da Bulls!

[hammb]

I think this is the right way to play football, and I don't think any defense we play can stop us, or even slow us down. The Tennessee game we screwed ourselves. I didn't see the Memphis game, but I bet that when our offense stalled at the end it was more about us failing to execute than it was them stopping us.

Now, I'd love to see us play better defense so that our offense has a bit more margin for error, but I think that the defense wouldn't be nearly as maligned if we could clean up the penalties and special teams issues. Those things have no excuses.

This offense though? It's the right way to build the team for my money. But of course, I'm on record and continue to maintain that I get far more joy over winning against the power 5 schools than I do winning the MAC championship. So long as we win enough MAC games to finish with 8-9 wins this season, I'd already call this season a success, personally. The MAC championship is nice, but doesn't really excite me the way beating Purdue and Maryland does.

[Class of 61]

Brian,
I know you've embraced these P 5 wins, and I know there have been numerous discussions on other threads re: which gets us more publicity/ status etc.

FWIW, had dinner w/ a group old Garfield Hts. teaching buddies last nite. Usually I get ribbed about the MAC ( and BG in particular). Yesterday i was asked questions about our alma mater with some very astute observations. Some of these guys of course went to MAC schools ( but most didn't). So the casual fan was attracted by these P-5 wins and impressed by Matty J.

Also, the Plain Dealer has pretty much given BG featured Mac articles each week w/ excepion of NIU/ OSU game.
Now we have to maintain the performance level without a big emotional letdow as we enter league play. GO FALCONS!!!

[hammb]

Brian,
I know you've embraced these P 5 wins, and I know there have been numerous discussions on other threads re: which gets us more publicity/ status etc.

FWIW, had dinner w/ a group old Garfield Hts. teaching buddies last nite. Usually I get ribbed about the MAC ( and BG in particular). Yesterday i was asked questions about our alma mater with some very astute observations. Some of these guys of course went to MAC schools ( but most didn't). So the casual fan was attracted by these P-5 wins and impressed by Matty J.

Also, the Plain Dealer has pretty much given BG featured Mac articles each week w/ excepion of NIU/ OSU game.
Now we have to maintain the performance level without a big emotional letdow as we enter league play. GO FALCONS!!!

This is exactly why I feel the way I do about these games '61. I (like most of us) live in a world filled with OSU/Big10 honks. My family, co-workers, etc are largely dominated by OSU love with little to no connection to the program, but that's just the way it is. I've had more people asking me about BG football this year since we've beaten two Big10 teams than I did for the entire Clawson tenure. And I have a feeling we'll see some bigger crowds (weather dependent, of course) this year because the casual fans realize we can compete on that level.

This BG team would probably be in the top half of the Big 10 this year, and by showing that on the field they've earned themselves respect and coverage that no number of MAC titles could ever achieve.

[BGSU33]

Brian,
I know you've embraced these P 5 wins, and I know there have been numerous discussions on other threads re: which gets us more publicity/ status etc.

FWIW, had dinner w/ a group old Garfield Hts. teaching buddies last nite. Usually I get ribbed about the MAC ( and BG in particular). Yesterday i was asked questions about our alma mater with some very astute observations. Some of these guys of course went to MAC schools ( but most didn't). So the casual fan was attracted by these P-5 wins and impressed by Matty J.

Also, the Plain Dealer has pretty much given BG featured Mac articles each week w/ excepion of NIU/ OSU game.
Now we have to maintain the performance level without a big emotional letdow as we enter league play. GO FALCONS!!!

This BG team would probably be in the top half of the Big 10 this year, and by showing that on the field they've earned themselves respect and coverage that no number of MAC titles could ever achieve.

I think it's safe to say (proof is in the pudding) that there's no reason to think that BG couldn't compete with or beat many of the other Big Ten teams this year. There's about four of them I wouldn't like our chances against but against the rest, I'd give us a good shot. That said, I hope we don't follow past history when we've had teams that beat P5 schools (then called BCS) only to not be able to take care of business in the MAC and never got a MAC Championship title with any of them. All those P5 (BCS) wins in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008 and even 2014 all saw teams not win MAC titles. If this year's team can now go on to win the MAC Championship, it would hold a very special place in BG football history.