2008 Woodie Awards
Homewreckers
Eastern Michigan spoils Falcons' Homecoming game
By: Andrew Harner
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Sports
Following BG's 24-21 Homecoming loss to Eastern Michigan, one of coach Gregg Brandon's explanations for the defeat stuck out.
"They made more plays than we did. That's the bottom line," Brandon said. "They made one more play than we did."
That one play was a 16-yard reception by a wide-open Tyler Jones with 36 seconds left in the half that capped the fastest scoring drive of the game.
"That was a critical error at a huge time in the game," Brandon said. "It's just disappointing that that occurred."
Otherwise, the two teams played a very similar football game in BG's Mid-American Conference season opener.
The Falcons had 391 total offense yards on 63 plays while the Eagles had 410 yards on 68 plays, neither team had a turnover, neither team had a lead of more than four, the time of possession was split by just under six minutes and even kick returns were similar as the Falcons returned four kicks for 74 yards and the Eagles returned six for 76 yards.
The difference came in Eastern's ability to rush the ball and the number of penalty flags thrown on the Falcons.
EMU came at the Falcons with seven different rushers throughout the game to gain 147 yards on 38 carries. Anthony Turner carried the brunt of the rushing load for BG with 55 yards on eight carries.
Perhaps bigger than that though was the 80 yards the Falcons gave EMU in penalties, including the back breaking 15-yard late hit penalty on Corey Partridge after Kenny Lewis returned BG's final kick to the 46-yard line.
That penalty would show to be the difference between Sinisa Vrvilo's 53-yard field goal which flew far left and what could have been a more manageable 38-yard try as time expired.
Other mistakes by the Falcons throughout the game included Antonio Smith's fair catch interference, off-sides calls and holding penalties as well as mental errors throughout the game.
Penalties had not been a big issue for the Falcons this season as they had no more than seven in a game prior to Saturday. However, they did have seven against both Boise and Wyoming which when combined with the ten against EMU is making Brandon rethink his strategy.
"They made more plays than we did. That's the bottom line," Brandon said. "They made one more play than we did."
That one play was a 16-yard reception by a wide-open Tyler Jones with 36 seconds left in the half that capped the fastest scoring drive of the game.
"That was a critical error at a huge time in the game," Brandon said. "It's just disappointing that that occurred."
Otherwise, the two teams played a very similar football game in BG's Mid-American Conference season opener.
The Falcons had 391 total offense yards on 63 plays while the Eagles had 410 yards on 68 plays, neither team had a turnover, neither team had a lead of more than four, the time of possession was split by just under six minutes and even kick returns were similar as the Falcons returned four kicks for 74 yards and the Eagles returned six for 76 yards.
The difference came in Eastern's ability to rush the ball and the number of penalty flags thrown on the Falcons.
EMU came at the Falcons with seven different rushers throughout the game to gain 147 yards on 38 carries. Anthony Turner carried the brunt of the rushing load for BG with 55 yards on eight carries.
Perhaps bigger than that though was the 80 yards the Falcons gave EMU in penalties, including the back breaking 15-yard late hit penalty on Corey Partridge after Kenny Lewis returned BG's final kick to the 46-yard line.
That penalty would show to be the difference between Sinisa Vrvilo's 53-yard field goal which flew far left and what could have been a more manageable 38-yard try as time expired.
Other mistakes by the Falcons throughout the game included Antonio Smith's fair catch interference, off-sides calls and holding penalties as well as mental errors throughout the game.
Penalties had not been a big issue for the Falcons this season as they had no more than seven in a game prior to Saturday. However, they did have seven against both Boise and Wyoming which when combined with the ten against EMU is making Brandon rethink his strategy.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
All
posted 10/06/08 @ 11:41 AM EST
BG can still dominate and I appreciate how you guys (finally) sided with BG. It seems like the BG writers are often out to point out the footballs team mistakes rather than being supportive. (Continued…)
Post a Comment