Sparty

[MarkL]

Morgan missed far too many throws which meant the defense ran out of gas. Probably should have been up 17-3 early. Defense was much improved but they wore out from being on the field too long. Morgan will start next week but I expect we will see some Loy. If neither impresses I sincerely hope we see Doege. Until someone shows leadership and takes command of the offense and completes enough passes, the QB job should be wide open. Maybe Morgan will indeed be the guy but he has to earn it in games.

[threestooges]

Surprised people were expecting to see something different from Morgan? He's never going to be a above avg QB.

He's the type of guy that needs a coaching staff that can really scheme a game plan to help him. We don't have that....there's be a lot of frustration watching the Falcons this year.

Doege might lose his RS...

If I'm coaching BG I'm treating the first quarter of the South Dakota game next week like a Dave Clawson did the first quarter vs Tulsa several year ago. He gave Schilz the opportunity but he failed, and Clawson made a ballsy and what proved to be a HUGE and correct decision to turn it over the Johnson and the rest was history. Morgan without a doubt MUST do something right off the bat next week or we could be smelling a jersey burning.

That was a much different situation. IIRC, Clawson didn't really give Schilz the opportunity; it was a predetermined decision to let Schilz start the opener, but then bring Johnson in to take over. I will agree that it was a gutsy decision, and a very good decision.

This one is much different, though, b/c they obviously don't want to play Doege if they don't have to. I'm guessing we'll see Loy vs. South Dakota (either because Morgan is struggling & they give Loy a chance, or b/c Morgan is NOT struggling and they let Loy see some action in a blowout win), but I would be very surprised if we saw Doege next week.

[hiway44]

I totally disagree with most of you. For one half of football we outplayed them on defense. Offense still needs work. The o line made some holes but our tailbacks were too slow
hitting them. You cannot beat a big 10 team without a running game. The defense was solid on the field 80percent. Expected to be tired and gave up points. Not their fault. I say try to find a more solid running back sonewhere. Try Miller in the backfield.

[bowlgreen]

WOW, lost 35-10 to a power house Big Ten team, proved our team is way better than last year, and it seems everyone on here just wants to gripe.

[Clubber]

WOW, lost 35-10 to a power house Big Ten team, proved our team is way better than last year, and it seems everyone on here just wants to gripe.

MSU is not a powerhouse anymore. If we played an offense a little more dynamic, we'd have lost by 50. Jinks by all accounts is recruiting well...on the field, I don't see much to be excited about.

[fredthefalcon]

WOW, lost 35-10 to a power house Big Ten team, proved our team is way better than last year, and it seems everyone on here just wants to gripe.

The story in today's "Detroit Free Press" indicated that MSU proved little in this game as BG is likely the worst team on their schedule.

[gmartin]

Let's see how Western Michigan does next week against Sparty. WMU gave USC all it could handle yesterday. WMU has a rushing game, nearly rushing for 300 yards against #4 USC.

[hammb]

Let's see how Western Michigan does next week against Sparty. WMU gave USC all it could handle yesterday. WMU has a rushing game, nearly rushing for 300 yards against #4 USC.

I didn't watch their game last night but was watching the score. If they are really that closely matched up with usc then I expect them to beat MSU. That MSU team is not good and we would have been up 17-0 at least with the gifts they have us in the first quarter.

I didn't think we played well at all. Defense was giving up yards even early on when they couldn't complete a pass to save their lives. They got bailed out on 2 turnovers, one of which completely unforced.

Our offense was completely worthless and I'd put that largely on the shoulders of our QB. Plenty of open wrs, especially early, and didn't make the throws. Run game was non-existent as well, but that seems typical when we pay big ten teams. Msu still had a good defensive front so I'm not real upset about the lack of a run game. Far more discouraged about the QB play. Last year most of what I saw to be excited about from Morgan was a big, athletic, rs frosh with a big arm. Nothing on the field to really see those traits turning into quality QB play; sadly yesterday was more of the same in my eyes.

[MarkL]

You expect a QB's biggest development to come after the first year of starting. Morgan had maybe his worst day yesterday. I'm not throwing him out yet but I'm leaving the door open for a early or mid-season QB change. Morgan knows all about those.

[Schadenfreude]

I totally disagree with most of you. For one half of football we outplayed them on defense.

I wouldn't go that far, but, after that first Spartan drive, our defense looked competent.

Offense still needs work.

Clearly. It looked at times like receivers were open and Morgan just wasn't able to get them the ball. With better quarterback play, we could have kept this game closer.

The o line made some holes but our tailbacks were too slow
hitting them. You cannot beat a big 10 team without a running game.

I'm curious if others agree with this. I'm not sure what to think. Does Sparty had a great defensive front? Or is our offensive not creating holes? I wonder. These tailbacks of ours seemed to perform pretty well last year, so I'm not sure why running the ball was such a struggle yesterday.

[MarkL]

Answer for you Schadenfreude. You rarely learn too much after a game against somebody in a different weight class and never put too much stock into week 1 results. We'll learn a ton about the team against MTSU. If we look bad next week against a score happy FCS, we'll also learn a ton but it would be the kind of lessons that would melt this board down for a week.

[BGSU33]

WOW, lost 35-10 to a power house Big Ten team, proved our team is way better than last year, and it seems everyone on here just wants to gripe.

MSU is not a powerhouse anymore. If we played an offense a little more dynamic, we'd have lost by 50. Jinks by all accounts is recruiting well...on the field, I don't see much to be excited about.

I agree. MSU is nowhere near a "power house" right now. A couple of years ago, yeah, I give you that, but now, not a chance. I also failed to see improvement over last year. And let's not kid ourselves, BG benefitted +14 points yesterday too, when MSU fumbled at the 1 on a drive they carved BG up on and were going in for a TD, and the TD we scored on was a gift because he looked down. I'm still stunned they gave it us. So 35-10 could have easily been 49-3 on those two gifts right there alone. MSU doesn't have the vertical attack to put up 70+. Our offense managed just 3 points and looked pretty pathetic. Credit MSU for its part in that, but we had 4 first down midway into the 4th quarter before we started running the ball when they dropped 7-8 late in the game to let the clock run. The drive we scored a FG on looked good because we hit a big play and drilled the kick, but that was the beginning and end of the excitement on offense for basically the rest of the game.

[BGSU33]

You expect a QB's biggest development to come after the first year of starting. Morgan had maybe his worst day yesterday. I'm not throwing him out yet but I'm leaving the door open for a early or mid-season QB change. Morgan knows all about those.

I agree. And another thing that bothered me about Morgan yesterday wasn't even on the field, it was during the post game interview where Jinks quickly stepped in to "save" Morgan during a couple questions. To be clear, the reporters were not coming down on Morgan, they were asking a few basic, simple questions and Jinks interrupted and answered for him and that ended the questions and answers for Morgan. My immediately thought was is Morgan that fragile that he can't even answer a few softball questions lobbed his way about his play??? Isn't this guy supposed to be the leader of our offense? Now our reporters, who weren't even coming after him, have to walk on eggshells with him? I could see if the reporters were coming at him hard and Jinks helped to step on, but man, it was nothing like that. Maybe it's just me, but I got the impressive Morgan has some really thin skin right now and it makes me wonder what kid of mental toughness he has if he can't even answer simply questions like that without his coach coming to the rescue.

[Schadenfreude]

I agree. And another thing that bothered me about Morgan yesterday wasn't even on the field, it was during the post game interview where Jinks quickly stepped in to "save" Morgan during a couple questions. To be clear, the reporters were not coming down on Morgan, they were asking a few basic, simple questions and Jinks interrupted and answered for him and that ended the questions and answers for Morgan. My immediately thought was is Morgan that fragile that he can't even answer a few softball questions lobbed his way about his play??? Isn't this guy supposed to be the leader of our offense? Now our reporters, who weren't even coming after him, have to walk on eggshells with him? I could see if the reporters were coming at him hard and Jinks helped to step on, but man, it was nothing like that. Maybe it's just me, but I got the impressive Morgan has some really thin skin right now and it makes me wonder what kid of mental toughness he has if he can't even answer simply questions like that without his coach coming to the rescue.

I only caught the tail end of it, but I was shocked Morgan was made available to the media yesterday. Morgan didn't have a great game and he's not a professional athlete. I think it was a mistake to put him through that.

[Falconfreak90]

WOW, lost 35-10 to a power house Big Ten team, proved our team is way better than last year, and it seems everyone on here just wants to gripe.

Oh you'll see a lot of that here. lol.