Schadenfreude wrote:On offense: I'm very surprised we didn't open up the offense more than we did. I listened on the radio, so I don't exactly why this is.
Looking ahead -- neither Florida International nor Kent State are looking particularly tough. We clearly can't look past anybody -- but I think, as fans, we can see that we've got a couple more games to try to grow and get ready for Ohio -- which suddenly looks like it might be a bit of a challenge.
Sorry if I over-did the excerpting. I just wanted to respond to these two things.
First, we didn't open it up with AT last year either. I can only conclude that the people who watch AT (and Freddie) in practice all the time are convinced he can't do any more.
As for Florida International and Kent not looking tough, what about Buffalo? Your understatement on not looking past people is evident. There is no gimmee win on our schedule, and we could easily lose either of the next two or both.
I do think we played with heart. I think the defense was OK. Tackling was poor, but the numbers look better than it looked in person. But the turnovers on offense and the atrocious special teams play do not bode well.
Flipper, it's not about wins and losses. This is about fixing the things that caused us to be mediocre last year. Those things are not getting fixed, THAT is why we are upset. I fully expect us to struggle this year to win games.
I expect our young QBs to make bad decisions and cost us games, either by turnovers or taking sacks.
I fully expect our young DBs to blow some coverages and give up big plays.
I fully expect a pair of FR kickers to struggle with consistency punting and placekicking.
I have no problems losing games this year (clearly a rebuilding year) if those are coming because of youthful mistakes. That is to be expected.
I also think it is reasonable to expect to see signs that the coaching staff is teachcing these young kids how to play D1 football. STs is coaching. Proper tackling form is coaching. How do we expect to rebuild into a MAC power again if we are not teaching these kids how to play the game? Does it take an entire season or more to teach your QBs more than a handful of plays?
Right now this is just a flat out poorly coached team and that pisses me off far more than any losses or eeked out wins do. The players will grow into better, more mature players. That is unlikely to happen with the coaches.
Schadenfreude wrote:On offense: I'm very surprised we didn't open up the offense more than we did. I listened on the radio, so I don't exactly why this is.
Looking ahead -- neither Florida International nor Kent State are looking particularly tough. We clearly can't look past anybody -- but I think, as fans, we can see that we've got a couple more games to try to grow and get ready for Ohio -- which suddenly looks like it might be a bit of a challenge.
Sorry if I over-did the excerpting. I just wanted to respond to these two things.
First, we didn't open it up with AT last year either. I can only conclude that the people who watch AT (and Freddie) in practice all the time are convinced he can't do any more.
As for Florida International and Kent not looking tough, what about Buffalo? Your understatement on not looking past people is evident. There is no gimmee win on our schedule, and we could easily lose either of the next two or both.
I do think we played with heart. I think the defense was OK. Tackling was poor, but the numbers look better than it looked in person. But the turnovers on offense and the atrocious special teams play do not bode well.
This is all I'm going to say on the topic further: Tomorrow's a new day and we're in first place in the MAC ahead of Northern Illinois and Toledo.
Schadenfreude wrote:On offense: I'm very surprised we didn't open up the offense more than we did. I listened on the radio, so I don't exactly why this is.
Looking ahead -- neither Florida International nor Kent State are looking particularly tough. We clearly can't look past anybody -- but I think, as fans, we can see that we've got a couple more games to try to grow and get ready for Ohio -- which suddenly looks like it might be a bit of a challenge.
Sorry if I over-did the excerpting. I just wanted to respond to these two things.
First, we didn't open it up with AT last year either. I can only conclude that the people who watch AT (and Freddie) in practice all the time are convinced he can't do any more.
As for Florida International and Kent not looking tough, what about Buffalo? Your understatement on not looking past people is evident. There is no gimmee win on our schedule, and we could easily lose either of the next two or both.
I do think we played with heart. I think the defense was OK. Tackling was poor, but the numbers look better than it looked in person. But the turnovers on offense and the atrocious special teams play do not bode well.
If we have *this* little faith in AT then maybe we should rip the shirt off Glaud or Sheehan.
I don't think that's it.
It may be that our receivers suck.
Or, we may see that we are having some success running the ball and are now overemphasizing that -- especially when it gets to crunch time.
I think what Brandon is trying to do would make mor esense if we just lined up in a true triple option and just freaking ground it out..
I think he's trying to invent something here -- an option you can run out of a pistol. And, look, the theory of an option is that you run to set up the big pass play, and I'm not gonna argue with that.
And I guess, finally, I don't have much reason to believe Buffalo is worse than Kent State or Florida International. I think that's a better team than we've seen in past years. I might be wrong, but that's my sense at this moment.
I've always thought Buffalo a sleeping giant, and they might be stirring, here.,
I was not able to attend today's game or listen on the radio, so I am basing my comments on the post-game article, notes and quotes on bgsufalcons.com and comments on here. It sounds like special teams made this game close. The offense had over 500 yards of total offense and the defense gave up, what, 13 points in regulation? I realize it is just Buffalo, but this is not BG from 3 or 4 years ago, so if they can do that all year long, I am more than pleased.
I have not been a Brandon fan for a couple years now and he has done nothing to win me over. It sounds like the play calling was an issue today, but again, they did put up numbers, but that is what we expect from his offense. I just can't understand how he can't fix this special teams problem, particularly the punt formation. I don't put that on the young punter, I put that on Brandon. Ray Guy couldn't punt in that formation. The punt game took BG out of the game last week and made this week's game competitive from what it sounds like.
I am still positive about this team and the prospects for this season. I think every other game this year is winnable, save Ohio State. Akron will be tough and OU looks tough, but UT didn't look so good today and I am not sold on Miami. Right now, I still expect this team to win the East and play for a MAC title in Detroit in December. If they can solve the special teams problems (HUGE IF), these expectations can be reached.
Schadenfreude wrote:On offense: I'm very surprised we didn't open up the offense more than we did. I listened on the radio, so I don't exactly why this is.
Looking ahead -- neither Florida International nor Kent State are looking particularly tough. We clearly can't look past anybody -- but I think, as fans, we can see that we've got a couple more games to try to grow and get ready for Ohio -- which suddenly looks like it might be a bit of a challenge.
Sorry if I over-did the excerpting. I just wanted to respond to these two things.
First, we didn't open it up with AT last year either. I can only conclude that the people who watch AT (and Freddie) in practice all the time are convinced he can't do any more.
As for Florida International and Kent not looking tough, what about Buffalo? Your understatement on not looking past people is evident. There is no gimmee win on our schedule, and we could easily lose either of the next two or both.
I do think we played with heart. I think the defense was OK. Tackling was poor, but the numbers look better than it looked in person. But the turnovers on offense and the atrocious special teams play do not bode well.
If we have *this* little faith in AT then maybe we should rip the shirt off Glaud or Sheehan.
I don't think that's it.
It may be that our receivers suck.
Or, we may see that we are having some success running the ball and are now overemphasizing that -- especially when it gets to crunch time.
I think what Brandon is trying to do would make mor esense if we just lined up in a true triple option and just freaking ground it out..
I think he's trying to invent something here -- an option you can run out of a pistol. And, look, the theory of an option is that you run to set up the big pass play, and I'm not gonna argue with that.
And I guess, finally, I don't have much reason to believe Buffalo is worse than Kent State or Florida International. I think that's a better team than we've seen in past years. I might be wrong, but that's my sense at this moment.
I've always thought Buffalo a sleeping giant, and they might be stirring, here.,
OK, one more thing and I am going to bed. A lot of the frustration here is that it is Buffalo (or at least some of it is). Last year, we had the same feeling at losing to WMU and Akron--both of whom turned out to be better than we thought when they beat us. If Buffalo end up 5-6, maybe we feel differently.
But, for the win is a win crowd, last year's team showed that you can see trouble coming even when you win.
I don't want us to open it up. I want to see us continue to evolve into a running team. But if we're going to do it, I want to see a diverse rushing attack. I want to see Freddie Barnes running the ball 10+ times a game, but not necessarily as a QB. We need to let Turner try to get into a rhythm throwing the football at some point. We haven't even given him a chance to throw the ball consistently. I want to see Winovich get more touches. I want to see the sprint draw. I want to see shovel passes out of the 2-back option look. I want to see reverses, WR screens, and quick slants. I want to see at least a couple of deep ball attempts to, at the very least, back those safeties up. I think Turner is more than capable of running this type of offense, a.k.a. the "Harris" offense. Was there ever a better opportunity to give him a chance than today against Buffalo (before it became a dogfight)? Instead, we stuck to the same plays over and over and over again. We threw an intermediate pass over the middle once. It was a 59 yard gain. We ran the two back set and involved Winovich for 1 drive. It was an effortless TD drive. Those extremely successful plays are then immediately replaced by 5 more transparent QB sweeps. The talent and scheme is there -- it's just ripe for the picking, and our staff is frittering it away.
The inexperience of the receivers may have something to do with it, but it doesn't take much experience to run a quick slant, or just run a fly pattern or deep post. If these receivers couldn't do it, they wouldn't be playing D1 ball.
What we did today worked against Buffalo. I doubt there are 5 other teams in D-1A that it would have beaten today. Luckily, we play a couple of those teams. However, if we don't seriously diversify the offense, we will see a lot of 35-14 defeats this year.
Even my girlfriend who is almost completely football illiterate was commenting on the punting game today. It may sound silly now but in the middle of the game she asked me why we don't just go for it on fourth down cause they usually get closer from the punt than they would if we tried for the first. Blew my friggin mind. Punting
Yeah it is sicking to me that we double a team in total yardage and take it down to the very last wire to win. So much talent going in so many differnt directions. I don't even know how to feel.
hammb wrote:Flipper, it's not about wins and losses. This is about fixing the things that caused us to be mediocre last year. Those things are not getting fixed, THAT is why we are upset. I fully expect us to struggle this year to win games.
I expect our young QBs to make bad decisions and cost us games, either by turnovers or taking sacks.
I fully expect our young DBs to blow some coverages and give up big plays.
I fully expect a pair of FR kickers to struggle with consistency punting and placekicking.
I have no problems losing games this year (clearly a rebuilding year) if those are coming because of youthful mistakes. That is to be expected.
I also think it is reasonable to expect to see signs that the coaching staff is teachcing these young kids how to play D1 football. STs is coaching. Proper tackling form is coaching. How do we expect to rebuild into a MAC power again if we are not teaching these kids how to play the game? Does it take an entire season or more to teach your QBs more than a handful of plays?
Right now this is just a flat out poorly coached team and that pisses me off far more than any losses or eeked out wins do. The players will grow into better, more mature players. That is unlikely to happen with the coaches.
I disagree... I don't think the defense performed badly at all. (I'm watching the game on BCSN right now)I think they are tackling better than they did last year. More importantly, they're in postion to make those plays. They're better than they were last year. They're younger and they're already better.
The special teams are terrible right now, but I'm not going to let that diminish the improvement and progress we've seen on defense and the solid effort we've seen on offense.
Schadenfreude wrote:I think what Brandon is trying to do would make mor esense if we just lined up in a true triple option and just freaking ground it out..
I agree with this. Though I am not a big fan of the option I think it best fits this team. We do not not have the talent at WR or QB to pass the ball down the field. I felt like Barnes should be the starter of this team after week one and I still feel the same. He is a better runner and a better leader. A run dominated offense will work with us. With some variation of course.
So much hatred toward Gregg Brandon. Anyway, this day was simply tumultuous. At one point today (after Buffalo returned the kick for TD) I said some deragatory things that really made my girlfriend angry, she left during the 2nd weather delay. I left too in shock of what I had done, only to return at halftime. After we scored on the long run by Macon and then made the Bulls go 3-and-out again, I figured we had the game won and the rout was on. Nope, they score a touchdown, an actual offensive touchdown, followed by an Turner fumble. It was at this point that my best friend (also known here as Svillefalcon) flew the coop. Then after Buffalo gets another field goal and then an interception, my roommate (known here as Jerzyboy247) decided to pack it in and leave. I got halfway out of the stadium before hearing a loud cheer and decided to come back. I honestly didn't know whether to stay or go, the entire season to me was hanging in the balance on this one game.
So then we come through and get the tying touchdown to send it to overtime. By now I'm no longer in the student section, I'm standing and running around in the main aisleway of the home side. The play calling and the play of the special teams today had driven me to the edge and back, but at least, with the Falcons scoring a TD on a PERFECTLY executed pass play in the 2nd OT to tie it at 40, I would be able to scream and shout over a Falcon victory. NOPE!!! Another missed PAT! I never thought I would live to see something like that. At least the offense didn't skip a beat in the third OT, scoring yet another TD, followed by the clutch 2 pt conversion. And then finally, in the 3rd OT, I actually saw something I have yet to see in my time at Bowling Green State University, a big play by the defense with the game on the line! 4th and 1 at the 16, and we stuff Stephen King for the victory. God, if only we could have made a play like that against Akron or Toledo last season, we could have won the damn conference. And as you can expect, I was an absolute wild person, jumping up and down like crazy over the victory, over Fuffalo...
Previous to this game, I had said a loss to Fuffalo was impossible. Lock it up, mark it down, impossible. Well, impossible was only broken by 3 overtimes. Perhaps the worst thing about this game is that I am now forced to admit that any MAC team can truly beat another, something I've had a very slow time grasping. At least we showed the heart and the guts at the end of this game to pull it out. That has been my biggest criticism of this team since the day we got blown out by Western Michigan last year. Whenever the team gets hit with a bit of adversity, or the going gets tough, the team quits. Well they didn't quit today, particularly the defense, which came up with several big stops in the 4th quarter to keep us in the game. Then the offense came through big time in OT.
As for all the criticism against Gregg Brandon, I'm not really in a position to comment on that, but I will say that the play calling was questionable at times, particularly on that 4th down play down at the 8 yard line. What were they thinking running Turner like that? But I won't spend time complaining, we won, Toledo and Northern Illinois lost, and we are 1-0 in the Mid-American Conference like I thought we would be.
Can someone who was at the game explain to me what happened on the last play? Did the refs blow the play dead before he fumbled? Did his knee hit the ground? Why couldn't the quarterback advance the ball after the fumble if neither of the other two above happened?
