MAC this year

[Falcon137]

The Buffalo game ended poorly, but, going on the road for the 4th time in 5 weeks and then building a 21-6 lead, there was bound to be a letdown in the 2nd half. It was encouraging them to see them pound the ball to seal the W. Looking forward to seeing them in back to back weeks at the Doyt.

I stand by my statement that no one from the east gets close to BG this year. Ohio, Akron, and Kent don't have the horses to keep up. UMass, if their offense starts clicking they can put up enough points next week to keep things interesting. Buffalo is good enough to upset a team or two. Miami has their new indoor facility to look forward to.

The west is loaded. NIU getting beat by CMU wasn't surprising, NIU giving up 23, 3rd quarter points was. Central appears to be the real deal this year, they played Oklahoma State, Syracuse, and Michigan State tough and then beat NIU.

Toledo is the current leader for the, group of 5 access bowl. They should be 7-0 heading into their final 4 games (vs NIU, @ CMU, @ BG, vs WMU).

Western is the wild card, still think they are one of the most talented teams in the conference. But, after a nice showing against Sparty, they haven't shown much.

Going to be fun watching it all play out.

[BGSU33]

The Buffalo game ended poorly, but, going on the road for the 4th time in 5 weeks and then building a 21-6 lead, there was bound to be a letdown in the 2nd half. It was encouraging them to see them pound the ball to seal the W. Looking forward to seeing them in back to back weeks at the Doyt.

I stand by my statement that no one from the east gets close to BG this year. Ohio, Akron, and Kent don't have the horses to keep up. UMass, if their offense starts clicking they can put up enough points next week to keep things interesting. Buffalo is good enough to upset a team or two. Miami has their new indoor facility to look forward to.

The west is loaded. NIU getting beat by CMU wasn't surprising, NIU giving up 23, 3rd quarter points was. Central appears to be the real deal this year, they played Oklahoma State, Syracuse, and Michigan State tough and then beat NIU.

Toledo is the current leader for the, group of 5 access bowl. They should be 7-0 heading into their final 4 games (vs NIU, @ CMU, @ BG, vs WMU).

Western is the wild card, still think they are one of the most talented teams in the conference. But, after a nice showing against Sparty, they haven't shown much.

Going to be fun watching it all play out.

I agree with your points except for the part about no one from the East gets close to BG or has the horses to keep up. And that is exactly the kind of mindset I hope like hell our team does not have whatsoever. If anything, Buffalo proved teams can indeed keep up and do have the ability to beat us, even at our own game. Buffalo is a team that wants to run the ball and uses its run game to set up its passing game. They are not designed offensively to throw the ball 60 times a game, rack up 500 yards of offense, or run 100 plays on offense - yet - they did, and they were one possession away at the end of likely beating us. I expected a close game but if someone told me one of the two teams was going to have those numbers I 100% withiut a doubt would have said it would have been BG. No way did I see that coming from UB, not a chance, yet, they did. Point being, even in poor weather, and even in a game where BG did not have a turnover, UB's offense went toe to toe with BG's. The main reason we came away with that win was because UB traded a few FG's for our TD's early on. I keep thinking how nice it would be to put away a team and let our second-string guys get some meaningful PT, but we're not running away anywhere from many of these teams. We're wearing a big bullseye and we're going to get their best shot, even if we didn't know they had it in them. These teams want to beat us badly, and we need to want to do the same.

[jpfalcon09]

The conference certainly is deeper than most thought before the season began. CMU is looking extremely solid on both sides of the ball and may just be the darkhorse in the West. Ohio has also fared very well and are a couple plays away from being 5-0. I'd rank the MAC as follows:

Toledo
BG
Ohio
CMU
NIU
WMU
Buffalo
Ball State
Akron
UMass
Kent State
EMU
Miami OH

[Falconfreak90]

CMU is legit. I am thinking they will win the West. I cannot believe they are a 6 pt dog at WMU this week.

I am still not convinced slUT is as good as #24 in the country. But kudos to them for the ranking.

BG...yeah it was not a good ending but traveling 4 outta 5 weeks to start the year? We are 3-2, 1-0 MAC and a play or two away from 4-1. Gotta shore up the D, though. UB showed the way to beat us and we need the D to play at a higher level. The O could have been better as well.

[Falcon137]

The Buffalo game ended poorly, but, going on the road for the 4th time in 5 weeks and then building a 21-6 lead, there was bound to be a letdown in the 2nd half. It was encouraging them to see them pound the ball to seal the W. Looking forward to seeing them in back to back weeks at the Doyt.

I stand by my statement that no one from the east gets close to BG this year. Ohio, Akron, and Kent don't have the horses to keep up. UMass, if their offense starts clicking they can put up enough points next week to keep things interesting. Buffalo is good enough to upset a team or two. Miami has their new indoor facility to look forward to.

The west is loaded. NIU getting beat by CMU wasn't surprising, NIU giving up 23, 3rd quarter points was. Central appears to be the real deal this year, they played Oklahoma State, Syracuse, and Michigan State tough and then beat NIU.

Toledo is the current leader for the, group of 5 access bowl. They should be 7-0 heading into their final 4 games (vs NIU, @ CMU, @ BG, vs WMU).

Western is the wild card, still think they are one of the most talented teams in the conference. But, after a nice showing against Sparty, they haven't shown much.

Going to be fun watching it all play out.

I agree with your points except for the part about no one from the East gets close to BG or has the horses to keep up. And that is exactly the kind of mindset I hope like hell our team does not have whatsoever. If anything, Buffalo proved teams can indeed keep up and do have the ability to beat us, even at our own game. Buffalo is a team that wants to run the ball and uses its run game to set up its passing game. They are not designed offensively to throw the ball 60 times a game, rack up 500 yards of offense, or run 100 plays on offense - yet - they did, and they were one possession away at the end of likely beating us. I expected a close game but if someone told me one of the two teams was going to have those numbers I 100% withiut a doubt would have said it would have been BG. No way did I see that coming from UB, not a chance, yet, they did. Point being, even in poor weather, and even in a game where BG did not have a turnover, UB's offense went toe to toe with BG's. The main reason we came away with that win was because UB traded a few FG's for our TD's early on. I keep thinking how nice it would be to put away a team and let our second-string guys get some meaningful PT, but we're not running away anywhere from many of these teams. We're wearing a big bullseye and we're going to get their best shot, even if we didn't know they had it in them. These teams want to beat us badly, and we need to want to do the same.

What teams do you want them to run away from? Undefeated Memphis? SEC Tennessee? They didn't beat Maryland and Purdue by enough?

BG had a 21-3 lead and was 2 inches from making it 28-3. Buffalo isn't bad and Licata is a good QB. BG was clearly more talented and won. Buffalo traded FGs for TDs and lost. If my aunt had nuts she'd be my uncle. If the Chiefs would have scored 7 TDs instead of 7 FGs they would have beat Cincy yesterday...they didn't. That game played out exactly like you want it to as a BG fan. They jumped out to a huge lead and forced Buffalo to do something they didn't want to. In the 2nd half human nature took over and they didn't play as well. They made the plays they needed to down the stretch to win. I'm willing to cut them some slack considering they were playing their 4th road game in 5 weeks.

If they come out and squeak by or lose to UMass or Akron I'll start to worry. After seeing Ohio and Akron pillow fight it out to a 14-12 score, I'll stick with, no one has what BG has.

[Flipper]

we don't do as well offensively in the 3rd qtr as we do the first two...defenses are adjusting at halftime and we don't have an answer that first couple of series. We need to come out and run some fakes off the plays that we ran the most in the first half.

Agree that no one in the east...maybe the conference... can touch the talent we have on offense....can they execute for four qtrs?

[Falconfreak90]

Our O has the ability to explode at any time. Flip makes a good point about the adjustments.

[BleedOrange&Brown]

In my opinion the offense was "slowed" in the second half because of what Buffalo was doing offensively not BG. They had long drives that ate a lot of clock and make it tough for our offense to get in any rhythm when they did get the ball. The defense did what had to be done and held them to field goals. Very encouraging to see us run the ball to seal it, as well as win without the passing game exploding for crazy yards. The MAC is no joke this year, there are a lot of teams that can do some very positive things, it will be fun to watch!

[Flipper]

YTD...MJ's completion % goes from @ 70% in the first half to 57% in the third qtr before coming back up to 60% in the 4th. His QB rating is in the 160's in the first half...130's in the 3rd qtr and over 170 in the 4th. He's got a 3rd qtr TD/INT ratio of 2-1 vs 6/0 in the 4th qtr and 6/1 in the first half.

We seem to have some issues in the 3rd qtr

[Falcon137]

YTD...MJ's completion % goes from @ 70% in the first half to 57% in the third qtr before coming back up to 60% in the 4th. His QB rating is in the 160's in the first half...130's in the 3rd qtr and over 170 in the 4th. He's got a 3rd qtr TD/INT ratio of 2-1 vs 6/0 in the 4th qtr and 6/1 in the first half.

We seem to have some issues in the 3rd qtr

That's an interesting stat. BG has received the ball in every game, except Maryland.

Here is the opening drive of the game for the offense -
FG vs Tennessee, MFG vs Maryland, TD vs Memphis, TD vs Purdue, TD vs Buffalo.

2nd half
TD vs Tennessee, MFG vs Maryland, MFG vs Memphis, Punt vs Purdue, Punt vs Buffalo.

I think it's a combo of teams settling into what BG does offensively and also catching their wind at half and coming out with fresh legs.

As a side note, with Tate's miss Saturday, he is now 3/8 on the year. He missed 6 kicks all of last year.

[MarkL]

UB possessed the ball for 10+ minutes of the third. We had the wind in the third. Not hard to see the strategy and the reason for the strategy.
Their offensive time of possession largely knocked our offense out of rhythm. I said previously UB showed a way to beat us. Expect more time of possession games against everybody except UMass, who will be Memphis-lite.

[jpfalcon09]

UB possessed the ball for 10+ minutes of the third. We had the wind in the third. Not hard to see the strategy and the reason for the strategy.
Their offensive time of possession largely knocked our offense out of rhythm. I said previously UB showed a way to beat us. Expect more time of possession games against everybody except UMass, who will be Memphis-lite.

The two ways to beat BG are to possess the ball on long drives which result in TDs and have enough talent in the secondary to be able to go man coverage and blitz every so often. UB was fortunate to get some coverage sacks on Saturday which the OL quickly resolved, and when they did go to man coverage, typically MJ found his man (except for drops on a couple 4th downs).

There's no doubt the defense won the game on Saturday in their ability to force FGs and come up with a timely interception in the end zone. If UB converts a couple extra times for TDs, there would have likely been a different outcome. Speaks to how balanced conference play is going to be this year and how much the offense will need to execute so the defense doesn't feel some of the pressure it felt late against UB.

[Falcon137]

UB possessed the ball for 10+ minutes of the third. We had the wind in the third. Not hard to see the strategy and the reason for the strategy.
Their offensive time of possession largely knocked our offense out of rhythm. I said previously UB showed a way to beat us. Expect more time of possession games against everybody except UMass, who will be Memphis-lite.

That was interesting how that played out. If BG converts the 4th and 1 from the 10 and it goes to halftime 28-3 or 28-6, Buffalo likely has to scrap the idea of trying to possess in huge chunks. It's the idea of the Baylor system. You are generally dead in the water if you get down 3 scores because now you have to get in a track meet. I would guess UMass tries to employ the same strategy. Saturday should be fun.

It's personally why I was so impressed with the way BG won. Buffalo did absolutely everything right in the 2nd half to win that game. But, BG was able to salt the game away and get a 6 point road conference win. Encouraging.

[Flipper]

There were two mental mistakes that hurt us in the second half. First series on 3rd down in our territory, Moore doesn't get to the sticks and catches the ball a yard short so we punt. That's a three and out sandwiched between two long Buffalo drives (they only got three points though thanks to the D). The other play was the Burbrink drop on 4th down in UB territory. It gave UB their best field position (own 38) of the day and they scored again quickly. According to the ply by play, UB had a 6 minute TD and the offense was only on the field for 2 minutes before the D had to go right back out there. If the OL and Lee hadn't been able to open some holes fro Greene to kill the clock...the D might not have had the gas left to stop them

[mscarn]

I think we run far too many screens and short, 3 yard West Coast offense style passes. We have the horses to go down the field and need to utilize them more. The UB defensive coordinator said that our screen package keeps defenses honest by preventing them from blitzing, but in the UB game Johnson was heavily pressured in spite of them as he is in most games. In 2 years of this offense I've rarely seen the screens amount to much of anything outside of a couple Ronnie Moore bursts while Roger Lewis and the other receivers regularly win contested one-on-one matchups going deep.

We also should expand our running game to include more pitches and tosses to the perimeter to get the backs in some space to maneuver.