Sunday morning QB -- BG football loss at Virginia Tech

The Falcons fell to 1-3 this season with a 37-0 loss to Virginia Tech Saturday. Certainly it was a frustrating game for BG, especially offensively. The Falcons stayed even through the first quarter, but a 21-point run by the Hokies in the second put the game out of reach. Here are some thoughts about BG after the loss ...

OPENING THOUGHTS: I was struggling with some of the comments on my Twitter feed Saturday, and I’ve had two days to think of a better explanation to my disagreement with what I’m seeing/reading/hearing. Here goes … Let’s focus on the offense, because I think the conversation is “cleaner.” Some people think the problems are play-calling and style of play, some people think the problems are execution, some people think the problems are talent (or lack of same). I think we all agree that, to some degree, all three of these things are part of the problem. We just disagree on the degree. I think play-calling and style of play combine for the smallest percentage, and here’s why: This is the same system that has been used the past four seasons, and (unless everyone was silently thinking it) I rarely heard complaints about play-calling before this season. Yes, I think it has been conservative, to a degree; but I think the conservative route is warranted when you are playing defenses like Florida and Virginia Tech –- two of the best in the country. I also don't think the problem is talent, although the talent at some positions is down (as you might expect, the most obvious position here is receiver, where the Falcons are replacing a two-time All-MAC receiver). I thought yesterday’s game was the most glaring indication that the “playmakers” on this team aren’t making plays, especially at wide receiver. Would BG have had a leading receiver with THREE catches if Freddie Barnes or Kamar Jorden were on the field? Obviously not. Of the three causes for the Falcons’ struggles on offense, I think lack of playmaking/execution is problem one. And by a big margin.

OFFENSE: Unlike last week, when the offense struggled at the start, the BG offense had a few chances early but never converted. On the Falcons’ second drive Matt Schilz had a deep pass to a wide-open Je’Ron Stokes in the end zone … but was late delivering the ball, and Stokes was out of bounds when he caught it. Then Stephen Stein had a strong kick on his 43-yard field-goal attempt … and hit the right post. And that was that until midway through the third quarter, as BG didn’t have a drive covering more than 30 yards until Matt Johnson took over at QB and led an eight-play, 50-yard drive in the third quarter. He also had a nine-play, 74-yard drive, but that came in the fourth quarter. The Falcons had six of 14 drives go without a first down (42.9 percent). Another ugly stat: BG didn’t have a SINGLE first-half play longer than nine yards, and had just six plays of 10-plus yards in the game (out of 68 plays, or 8.8 percent). And another ugly stat: Not counting incompletions, the Falcons had 14 plays gain two yards or less, with seven resulting in no gain or negative yardage. If you include the 28 incompletions (ANOTHER ugly stat: two-thirds of BG’s pass plays were incomplete), that means 35 plays gaining zero yards or negative yards (or 51.5 percent). Enough ugly stats: The offensive performance was just ugly.

DEFENSE: I suppose I’m going to get killed for saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway: I thought the defense played very well against Virginia Tech. In the post-game coach Dave Clawson talked about the "pick-your-poison" decision the defense faced against the Hokies: do you fill the box to keep a 6-6, 260-pound QB from running (and leave the secondary in a lot of single coverage)? Or do you try to stop the pass, and force the front seven to stop a QB who is bigger (or at least as big) as all but two of BG’s starters? In the first quarter, the Falcons handled that challenge very well, limiting the Hokies to just 43 yards of total offense on 13 plays. In the second quarter BG seemed to wear down, as Virginia Tech had the ball for 11:20 (75 percent of the quarter) and had 184 yards of total offense (including 102 passing, thanks in part to the 42-yard TD pass). In the third quarter VT had 76 yards of total offense (all on the ground), and 40 of those came on the long run that set up the touchdown. The Hokies didn’t complete a single pass (except the one Darrell Hunter intercepted) and had 36 yards on eight other running plays in the third period. And the fourth quarter was a lot of BG second-teamers (against Virginia Tech’s first team early in the quarter, but I’ll have no further comment on that). The two “real” series it was second-vs.-second teamers, BG forced a three-and-out (three yards) and a five-and-out (15 yards). After the struggles to stop the pass the previous two weeks, I think Bowling Green fans can feel a little better about the defense after Saturday’s game.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The BG special teams weren’t bad against Virginia Tech, but there remains room for improvement. Freshman kickoff specialist Anthony Farinella had a touchback on his only kickoff, which is a win. Punter Brian Schmiedebusch averaged 43.1 yards on eight punts, had two go at least 50 yards and put two inside the 20 with one punt into the end zone. The problem came with the Hokies’ strong punt return; they averaged 15 yards per return, including a long of 25 yards, so with the touchback the net punting mark was 35.0 yards per kick. Bowling Green was not able to generate a punt return on six VT punts, which resulted in a net punting mark of 39.2 yards for the Hokies. The Falcons had seven kickoff return opportunities and brought back five for 91 yards, giving them an 18.2 yards per return mark which simply isn’t good enough. Worse, BG never started out beyond the 25 on any of the seven kickoffs, which is unacceptable. And finally, there was only one place-kick, the 43-yard boot by senior Stephen Stein that bounced off the right upright.

THE LAST WORD: OK, Saturday was ugly. Virginia Tech sportswriters weren’t especially impressed by their team’s performance … basically because they judged the Falcons’ performance to be so poor. As faithful readers know, I have preached a little patience –- not because it is early, but because two of the games were against highly regarded national programs (Florida and Virginia Tech) and the third was against one of the best teams in the MAC (Toledo). Don’t be fooled into thinking Saturday’s game against Rhode Island is a one-game solution … but it is more than a must-win game. It is a must-play-better game for the Falcons.

WANT MORE? Here you go … First, click here to read this Blade game story and click here to read the Blade notebook. Click here to read the in-game chat from the contest, and click here to read the BiG Look at the contest.

Comments

[Orangeandbrown]

Well said. I agree about Rhode Island. It will be as hard to tell much against them, just as it was difficult with the Florida and Va Tech games. But, the Falcons need to play better because the schedule in the second half is looking tougher than it did in August.

[John_Wagner]

I wouldn't disagree with that. But it's dangerous to look too far into the future ... for example, if Tettleton's hurt, Ohio is a very different team, right?

[Michael Henry]

I agree mostly with what you said about BG's problems, but there are some other concerns I have. BG appears to have fallen into a style of losing in the Clawson era where there are breakdowns in different phases of the game that should not be happening. It started in Clawson's first season, especially when we blew that bowl game against Idaho. The defense completely broke down at the end of the game. We allowed a bomb to be completed when well-coached players would have known to take a 15-yard penalty instead of allowing a 40 or 50 yard completion. The following 2-10 season was attributed to lack of experience and depth, and this was probably a legitimate excuse since BG was in total rebuild mode. Last year was tough because you could see we had talent but we gave away some games (Wyoming, OU, and UT) or didn't show up ready to play (Kent). Last year could have been a 9-3 season.
I was really hoping for a big jump this year, and the Florida game was promising even though we blew some chances as in past games. This season is not looking good and we have some tough games coming up. Like you said, our offense is struggling. The QB and receivers seem out of sync and the offensive line has been inconsistent. It does look like we can run the ball at times. Don't even get me started on the kicking game. The defense seems stronger but still prone to breakdowns and giving up big plays.
Now don't get me wrong, I like Coach Clawson and how he is trying to build a solid program. It is frustrating that we are not getting the desired results while other MAC schools seem to be passing us by. When BG released Coach Brandon, I really hoped Beckman would replace him. When UT signed Beckman, I was worried that UT would become good fast and that happened. Campbell seems to be doing well there now. Both Beckman and Campbell had coached at BG before and would have had a leg up on knowing how to succeed in the MAC. BG is currently being out-recruited, out-coached, and out-played by UT, and you can see that UT is getting some NFL-caliber players and BG isn't. OU has become what BG should be.
With all this being said (and I know this is a lot, sorry), I don't know what the solution is. How long does Coach Clawson have to get BG to be a contender in the MAC? Will we ever find a kicker? If we end up going 6-6 this year, will this young team be able to take the big step next year? Will BG ever win the MAC? Being a Clevelander and a sports fan, I don't like waiting until next year anymore.

[Andy]

The 2 games that are troubling is putting up 21 on a bad Idaho team and only 15 against a horrific Toledo defense. Coastal Carolina toasted them, absolutely picked them apart. People have to stop pretending Toledo's defense is something to be feared. It's terrible. So when BG can only manage 15 points, it's troubling.

BG needs more playmakers and speed on the field. We're not at practice everyday, but, it seems guys like Givens and Stokes who have speed to burn would be good compliments to guys like Gallon and Samuel.

[Michael Henry]

I agree, Andy. I thought we could score more on Toledo but after watching us struggle against Idaho, I should have known better.

[Jeremy]

It's a multitude of factors. I watched the VT game again, and noticed a lot of the WRs were struggling against press coverage. Those guys need to do a better job getting off that press and creating space for themselves.

The line is a concern too and is making Schilz get happy feet, which is leading to bad throws and inaccuracy.

Question is, is this strictly a scheme issue or talent issue? I agree w/Mike that a lack of overall team speed seems to be a huge concern. We need to give the speedsters a chance to create space and do their thing.

I hope we see improvement in execution on Saturday, although it won't really tell us a whole lot until Akron the week after.