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NIU was in tune. They've worked on the things they needed to this week. I didn't see anything fancy, they just executed and were ready to play. Kinda like last year in reverse.

-Home field
-death of a young falcon
-too long of a break
-the receivers taking the night off (and receiving some cheap shots)
-leaving the playbook on the bus
-poor tackling
-etc ...

I think there were a lot of factors. We just assumed the coaches would get them ready to play. The last two weeks might have been tougher than we realize. Who knows? I'm going to put the blame on the coaches and playcalling and try to move on. Perhaps they could put Brandon up in the box and get Studrawa down among the players. I saw an unmotivated team far too often last year and that team was back tonight.

I know we are better than we played tonight. That is a fact. Time to get into the season routine and get better. I am trying to keep myself motivated by remembering it's great to have Omar, Pope, Newson and others.

I'll be at Philly next week.

cheap shots?? there was one of them and it was called for a personal foul on NIU on the first drive. This was a very physical game and you could have called many more PF on both teams then were actually called. NIU wore down the BG D and that was the difference. I also thoguth the BG play calling got weird because it seemed like they could move the ball when they watned too but decided not too after the first drive.
The game ended with the 9 minute drive in the 4th. Wolfe had an amzing game, although after watching the tape his 2nd td was crap.
Besides that though i think NIU was the better team tonight, partly with the homefield advantage. All in all these are two pretty even teams and tonight NIU was just better. Omar is gonna be a good one.I saw some posts earlier complaining about the NIU student section being behind the BG bench, but all and all the NIU students werent that harsh on the BG team. Some drunken idiot threw a water bottle at the BG team, but the other students boo'd the idiot and got him kicked out. There were a couple of BG backups who grabbed their crotches at the Students so some of them got hounded, but for 95% of the time the NIU students were just cheering for their team.
This was a rivalry between two GOOD football teams. Not two teams who hate eachother, but two good teams who respect eachother on the field. I really hope you guys dont go back to the East, because no matter who wins or loses, you cant complain when you watch good football.
Hope the BG fans who made the trip had a good time and i look forward to going to the Doyt next year
Best of luck

michhuskie wrote: Hope the BG fans who made the trip had a good time and i look forward to going to the Doyt next year
Best of luck

I definitely had a great time and now know how the NIU fans that made the trip to BG last year felt. Also, about your cheap shots remark I did not quote. I will agree on that. What most were calling cheap shots, I turned to a friend and said that's just football. The only questionable cheap shot I saw was when Magner caught a ball on his knees and then got knocked over right as the whistle was blown. I doubt it was a big deal for him though after the hit that sent him doing a 360 in the air, landing, and then getting stepped on in the crotch area.

michhuskie wrote:it seemed like they could move the ball when they watned too but decided not too after the first drive.

That was my unmistakable impression. I just don't understand how we didn't fail to score another touchdown until there were just three minutes left.

Bowling Green was moving the ball all night. They had so many second and short situations where they ended up punting.

It was awful.

How many times were they able to pressure Omar with a three man rush?
We should not be relying on a Soph QB to make plays to win. We have so many Sr's and experienced JR's on offense that he shouldn't be asked to carry that much of the load.

We weren't able to get to Horvath at all even when we blitzed. NIU beat us running wide. Our quickness on defense is supposed to take that away. We tackled very poorly and there was minimal to no run support from the corners and safeties. I can live with a smaller DLine (gotta tell you hammb--you're winning me over on that) if it gives you the quickness to disrupt and pursue. We sure didn't show that last night. We looked very slow sideline to sideline.

We need to ditch that deep zone we play on third down. We're leaving waaay to big a gap between the corner and the safety along the sideline. I lost count of the number of wide open completions we've given up on those 15-20 yard patterns to the sideline. Guys run right past the short zone corner and the safety gets there just in time to push the guy out of bounds after a 20 yard gain. Miami killed us with it last year and NIU had that play open all night as well.

Schadenfreude wrote:

michhuskie wrote:it seemed like they could move the ball when they watned too but decided not too after the first drive.

That was my unmistakable impression. I just don't understand how we didn't fail to score another touchdown until there were just three minutes left.

Bowling Green was moving the ball all night. They had so many second and short situations where they ended up punting.

It was awful.

This has become the MO of this coaching staff in big games, and I don't like it. We're more than willing to open up the offense against the crap teams, but it seems every big game we play we go into a shell.

Last night's game was lost by poor coaching and our DL getting dominated.

I would like to see the game film of this one about the DL. My impression watching the game was that the biggest mistakes were by the DEs. They played undisciplined football and it bit them hard in the butt. I understand our defensive scheme is a one gap designed to get penetration and disrupt the play in the backfield (which didn't work), but I guarantee you every defensive call has someone responsible for the backside containment. That containment was lost all game long. In most cases our LBs weren't there, it certainly looked like the contain was the responsiblity of the DE, although you wouldn't know it by their play; they constantly took inside position on the OT and overpursued. The tackles were feasting because they'd sense the cutback and just give the DE a little nudge the direction his momentum was already taking him and the cutback is wide open.

Add another to the list of people thinking that we got COMPLETELY out coached!!!

michhuskie wrote:NIU wore down the BG D and that was the difference. I also thoguth the BG play calling got weird because it seemed like they could move the ball when they watned too but decided not too after the first drive.

I think that's right. It was almost like we didn't care if we scored or not until the last drive when Magner decided it was time to hurry. NIU had all cylinders going but BG didn't want it bad enough. That's not the same BG team, but congrats to the huskies. It did help strengthen the rivalry.

The cheap shots were the three shots to the head. One got called. Sharon's gets a helmet to helmet right in front of an official. I don't know if the touchdown that never was could have changed the game, but BG would have had the ball and perhaps some G%#@D(M*N MOTIVATION!

Flipper wrote:How many times were they able to pressure Omar with a three man rush?

That was definitely a problem. I think that we have a problem with the whole pass protection scheme. Did you all notice how many times the RG ran through the pocket right in front of Omar to help the LT block? Now if the LT needed help, I understand that. But it looked like the scheme was designed that way. Do you really want a 300 lb lineman cutting in front of your QB so he can't step up and make a throw? If the RE is that good, why isn't the LG double teaming with the LT? And I am sure other teams will see this and run a delayed blitz right through that huge hole where the RG would have been and Omar will get creamed. Not good times.