Toledo's Game Plan Against the Falcons

[Redwingtom]

garbage TD's is what im worried about in toledo. That and the deep ball. Everyone keeps saying that Bruce cant throw deep. Replay last years game and you will see differently.

Right-0. He threw deep against NIU too, and with success. On their home field with a title on the line, they will be tough to beat.

Against us last year that deep ball was a wounded duck that the DB should have eaten alive. The deep ball to Moore at NIU was underthrown and was only caught because Moore made a great play to leap over the defender so that the defender could not raise his arms to get to the ball.

[BGSUfanatUT]

...and this entire season, the deep ball has burned us in every game. even EMU burned us with it.

[NWLB]

UT's QB can not throw deep. I do not mean that literally. I mean that in terms of how UT's offense is structured, and what kind of passing game he is best suited and most successful at. UT will run a few deep pass routes like every team does. If UT's QB throws four deep passes, one might get caught, two get dropped, and the fourth gets intercepted. 75% of the time deep passing is a negative for UT. However, that one catch typically is what sets UT to score.

I said earlier this year, that UT was known for its running game, but that it was the passing game that was key to shutting them down. I still think that is true, though it isn't the deep pass I worry about. It is how they use the mid to short range dump off passes to move down the field.

Lance Moore is a great WR, even I'll give him that much. That he wasted his college career playing at UT is a shame. He does make his QB look good. Compare this to Charlie Frye making his WRs look good at Akron.

I agree though, that BGSU must tackle better to stop UT's running game. Their isn't much complexity to their running game. However their RBs won't stand around waiting for you to get a grip. NIU's DBs seemed to start grabbing for the jersey in the second half of their game, and by the end of the game it appeared to be the preferred method. It did work.

It is OU that had the best success against UT. If OU had any offense at all, and this is true of CMU as well, UT would be two games out of the divisional race right now. The Bobbed Cats mixed their looks up, and kept UT off balance all game long. Plus they got to the UT QB.

As for the yardage BGSU gave up to Marshall, people are missing a key point.

BGSU scored. They scored a lot. That means the other team was going to rack up a lot of yards because we kept giving them the ball back. So looking at the several hundred yards of offense is deceptive. The had the ball at least 14 times, and I could be counting. They weren't getting more than 35 yards each time they got the ball on average. Obviously some drives were much longer than others. The majority of the time, BGSU was turning them back pretty fast. So I don't think they played badly at all.

Against UT it will be more critical to shut them down on the ground. They converted so many fourth down gambles because of carving out great first down yardage. This is why BGSU must mix it up, and gamble some on blitz and pressure plays. We can't sit back and let them run their offense.

[Touchdown Rockets]

I expect less than 5 deep balls from Gradkowski and not much more from Jacobs. McDougal will be a bigger force. UT will win, but not in a blowout. If the Falcons lose to a team whose D and O sucks as bad as UT's, does that mean that BG only had a bad game?

[NWLB]

Tis a curious thing. A rational and level headed view from a Rocket fan.

I'd call a close loss by BG to be a bad game combined with it being who we are playing and where.

Historically the game is close, but the growing number of recent games suggests it won't be. In such a game I'd have to favor the Falcons.

[BelieveNBG]

...and this entire season, the deep ball has burned us in every game. even EMU burned us with it.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So just how did Western get no points? The deep ball is not killing us. It's part of the game. There are going to be times when a team hits the deep ball...it's inevitable and it happens to every team. The key is how often does it happen and by the looks of the scoring of many teams against us, it hasn't happened that often.

Temple had 2 (only 1 against starters)
NIU had only 1
Central had only 1
Ball State had none
Ohio had only 1
Eastern had 2
Western had 1


Eastern burned us with the pass underneath...alot of 10 - 15 yarders. Some were the secondary and many were the linebackers.

[BGSUfanatUT]

lets get one thing aside right now. As much as we all(both teams) would like to boast who has more talent, we all know this determines about 55 of the game in this series.

2001: a better toledo squad, sporting the best RB in the nation, is devastated by the falcons 56-21
2002: a FAR superior BGSU team is pounded by toledo
2003: the favored falcons fall behind early, but moutna great comeback and win handily in teh 2nd half.

2004: another ranked BGSU squad against a statistically large underdog rocket team. the winner? who knows.

the last whole bunch of years the home team has always won this game. This year has potential to break the trend with BG probably being favored by at least a TD (anyone know the real line???)

Heart is what will matter most, the mental game, and the crowd. THAT is what being a rivalry is all about. Thats why its such a good game, and deserves the national attention.

[BelieveNBG]

...and this entire season, the deep ball has burned us in every game. even EMU burned us with it.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So just how did Western get no points? The deep ball is not killing us. It's part of the game. There are going to be times when a team hits the deep ball...it's inevitable and it happens to every team. The key is how often does it happen and by the looks of the scoring of many teams against us, it hasn't happened that often.

Temple had 2 (only 1 against starters)
NIU had only 1
Central had only 1
Ball State had none
Ohio had only 1
Eastern had 2
Western had 1


Eastern burned us with the pass underneath...alot of 10 - 15 yarders. Some were the secondary and many were the linebackers.

[BelieveNBG]

That 2002 team was winning handily until somebody decided to fake a freakin' punt in the middle of the field. What a disaster and a momentum shifter? We absolutely can not do anything that stupid again on their field.

Also, that Toledo team was not as inferior as some may think. They lost to Pitt (9-4), Minnesota (8-5), and Miami. We had lost to NIU and South Florida prior to that game.

The good news is that we are a Far Superior BGSU team when compared to the 2002 team.

[BGSUfanatUT]

I still say we had mounds of more talent than them, jsut like I think in 2001, they should have mopped us up with Chester in the backfield. J5 had more rushing yards than the heisman hopefull that day.

[windycityfalcon]

It will be to our advantage to get into a shoot out.
I'm not sure what the forecast is for the game, but that will play a big role in how well we do on the offensive side of the ball.
Screw Toledo's running game.. screw our defense.. we have to score as many points as possible.
Look at the Marshall game.. our D gave up 35 and we still won easily.
That's what we have to do to Toledo to win the game.. run up the score and don't get into a ground 'em out battle.
Toledo is shaky if you get to them.. they lose confidence quickly because we all know they're not behind their coach 100 percent.

[1987alum]

Like a lot of rivarly games, it will all be about momentum. If either team can grab the momentum early, they can take control of the game. It happened last year in our games against Northern & Toledo (to our advantage) and our games against Miami (to our disadvantage); it also happened this year (against Northern, again to our disadvantage).

We need to take control of this game quickly. Get Toodaleedoo on its heels and they'll fall over (insert Amstutz joke here).

Someone stated earlier (hammb? Schadenfreude?) that the Falcons haven't won a big MAC game on the road in some time. Don't dismiss that factor, because its very real. The Falcons need to grab this game by the throat, right out of the chute and put the spRockets away.

[BGSUfanatUT]

...because we all know they're not behind their coach 100 percent.

you sure about that? he is a large individual, I bet they could all fit behind him. And you'd never even know they were there.

[BelieveNBG]

We also haven't played but one big MAC game on the road this year, so I have seen nothing to believe we don't fare well on the road. The other game was against OK and I don't think any of us reallistically felt like we would win that game, even at home. I don't think we can use statistics of the past years, because this is a different team.

However, we beat Purdue in their house, gave OSU a scare, played well against Oklahoma, and beat every team we were supposed to beat on the road, except NIU. We didn't get upset like Marshall by a team like Akron, so all in all, we do play well on the road.

as I continue to say...

WE WILL WIN THE GAME AGAINST UT. :rant: WE WILL PLAY IN A BOWL GAME. WE WILL END THE SEASON RANKED IN THE TOP 25.


GO BG!!!

[orangeandbrown]

We also haven't played but one big MAC game on the road this year, so I have seen nothing to believe we don't fare well on the road.

NIU?