Ball State vs Bowling Green Recap and Takeaways 2023

     Bowling Green Wins Late to Extend Win Streak to 3!

(photo via BG Athletics)

Takeaways

    Scot Loeffler said after the Akron win to watch, as this team is going to do something special here at Bowling Green. Getting a win in the first weeknight game of the season makes "special" something possible here at BG. The Falcons now are above .500 with a 5-4 record, 3-2 in MAC play. Coach Loeffler and the lads have now won three straight games as BG comes up with a 24-21 win against Ball State (2-7). Despite the record, BG was just a 5 point favorite against Ball State, who came out matching the Falcons blow to blow in the battle of the birds. 

    BG and Ball State traded touchdowns until Alan Anaya hit a late FG to take the lead which Ball St could not match, missing a 52 yard boot just short with 0 seconds left. Looking at the numbers, the game was basically even exempt for one stat, the turnovers. The Falcons won the turnover battle 2-0, scoring two touchdowns off of the takeaways and making the difference in a tight game. The Orange and Brown defense was getting pushed around in the run game in the second half as Ball State finished with 217 yards on 49 carries. However, the bend but do not break strategy payed off as Ball State took a long time to score, thus only getting 21 points and fumbling twice. Trent Simms, Ali Saad, Dontrez Brown all had over 5 tackles while Darren Anders had another career night with 10. Overall the defense allowed just 283 yards and got the crucial 4th down stop at the end of the game whilst also not allowing the Cards to get closer for the game tying field goal. 

On offense, Connor Bazelak got the majority of the snaps and while 13/21 for 128 does not seem great, he tossed 2 touchdown passes on 3rd downs, made some good throws under pressure and most importantly had 0 interceptions. One went to Ta'ron Keith while the first went to TE Harold Fannin who had 5 catches for 92 yards. Terion Stewart went for 92 yards on 15 carries and had a 55 yard TD run after stiff arming a defender into the core of the Earth. The run game eclipsed 100 yards despite having a down performance compared to the last 2 MAC games. The blocking was good, the O line is playing by far the best football the line has under Coach Loeffler. 

Looking Forward

    That "something special" I referred to before could be a couple of things. First thing I can think of is finally beating Kent State under Coach Loeffler. He is 0-4 in our secondary rivalry, the Anniversary Award. A second thing would be making another bowl this season. After breaking a long bowl drought, it would be something special to go bowling for a second straight year after so many "experts" predicted this team to fall short of that as 5 of the 6 wins last year were by one score and Karl Brooks was drafted into the NFL. The third special thing in my mind that can still be accomplished getting a winning season for the first time since 2015. A win against Kent would put the Falcons in a situation where splitting Toledo and WMU to end the year guarantees a winning record. 

    BG has found a formula. Play blue collar football. It is cold, it is a weeknight, you have to be the tougher team to win these weeknight MACtion games. BG is running the football, winning the turnover battle, and toughing out wins. BG is winning the turnover battle 11-2 in the last 3 games. That is an ASTOUNDING stat that is very much going to lead to a lot of wins in this league. Going into the year, many people predicted BG to miss a bowl. Making one is now seemingly inevitable with Kent and WMU likely to be games BG is favored in even on the road. It would be pretty awesome to get back to a bowl game and possibly win one, would be the first BG bowl win since 2014.