Bowling Green Football Talk

Bowling Green is Bowl Bound as the Falcons Beat the Flashes for the First Time Since 2017! (photo via BG Athletics) Takeaways     WE ARE GOING BOWLING! After so many years of darkness, we are now going to back-to-back bowl games. TaRon Keith became the first Falcon to ever rush and receive over 100 yards in a single game. TK rushed for 103 yards on just 9 carries and caught 8 balls for 130 yards and scored a TD each way. Scot Loeffler notched his FIRST win over the Golden Flashes. BG was on an 0-5 skid to our Anniversary Award rivals, losing last year 40-6. Now BG has flipped the script, capping off a 4 game heater by whooping the Flashes 49-19. While BG had 11 penalties and just 4/10 on third downs, the Falcons gained 476 yards, won the turnover battle and Cam Orth had 3 scores. Connor Bazelak had another efficient game and the defense once again just dominated a MAC opponent. The offensive and defensive lines looked really sharp and BG pounded the rock for 190 yards and...

      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, sc...

Bowling Green Runs Over Akron on Senior Day! (photo via BG Athletics) Takeaways      The rain was pouring down on Family Weekend/Senior Day. BGSU was also celebrating ESPN's College Gameday coming to the Doyt 20 years ago for a huge ranked win over NIU. The seniors got to celebrate their last Saturday home game with a 41-14 win over MAC East foe Akron. Once again, the run game told the story of a MAC game played in pouring rain. BG completed just 3 passes to wide receivers, 8 passes in the game. 2 of them went for scores but the real story was the defense and the run game. The Orange and Brown defense forced 4 turnovers and the offense capitalized by scoring 2 touchdowns of less than 10 yards. BG ran for over 200 yards for back-to-back games behind Terion's 131 yards on just 19 carries. Stewart scored 3 times while averaging 6.9 yards per carry. The O line did a solid job but once again Terion broke a ton of tackles.     Darren Anders forced a fumble along with ...

BG Rebounds and Bullies Buffalo Behind 218 Rush Yards RB Terion Stewart had his 3rd 100 yard rushing game of the year. (photo via BG Athletics) Takeaways     As I expected going into this game, BG was going to do the opposite of whatever happened last week. This Falcons team that was 0-2 in MAC play with a legacy P5 upset sandwiched in between, was going to once again be inconsistent but in a positive way this week. In a torrential downpour, this team looked like the better football team in all three phases of the game. This was a HUGE win, as BG was 0-2 in the MAC while Buffalo was 2-0 despite losing all 4 non-conference games. Buffalo whooped us 38-7 at home last year. Their QB Cole Snyder entered the game 1st in pass yards per game in the MAC, 3rd in TDs, and 1st in completions. He went 5/15, 30 yards and 2 interceptions. That is an INSANE turnaround from how the QBs for Ohio and Miami OH looked against this defense. 24-14 is not a dominant win by any stretch but ...

MAC Gambling Corner Week 8     It's back!!! The return of the Gambling Corner. I have been having a fantastic season on my personal bets and figured it is time to bring back the Corner for the people. I will make one pick on every MAC game and see how that goes.  1. Western Michigan vs Ohio -16.5 O/U 52.5     I think Western has surprised me with how good they have been but I say that because I thought they could go 1-11 and they will likely go 4-8. Ohio dropped a stinker last week but every MAC team does that every year. I think the cats rebound with a convincing win this week.  Best Bet: Ohio -17 2. Akron vs Bowling Green -8 O/U 37.5     Everyone wants to talk about how close Akron has been in their losses. Guess what, they are still losses. Under Coach Moorehead this team always finds a way to lose. On the other hand BG has rarely shown an ability to cover as a favorite, especially one close to double digits. BG is 1-4 ATS under Coach...

State of the Program 10/16/23 (photo via BG Athletics) Vibes?     The vibes should be good across BG nation. The win on the road at Buffalo was HUGE. I said it in my recap blog (will publish tonight), this outcome makes perfect sense. BG is going to be  inconsistent, meaning that after getting blown out 27-0 they will win this much needed road contest. Going into the year, I really thought this team could have been 1-6 with only an FCS win. I thought more likely was 2-5. I really did not give 3-4 much of a thought, so despite the 2 blowout MAC losses, I am quite impressed with the current state of the program. Getting a P5 win is always a legacy win. Even a 4-8 or 3-9 season I would not look at as an absolute nuclear failure for any MAC team if you sprinkle in a P5 win. BG got a bunch of national attention especially after GTech beat undefeated Miami on the road the next week. I always thought Liberty, Michigan, Ohio would be losses and was hoping to split Miami OH and Bu...

Bowling Green Shutout in Embarrassing Loss to Miami OH (phot via Miami OH Athletics) Takeaways     Honestly, if you expected anything else from this team than that may be your fault. Every program defining win since 2019 has been followed by disaster (outside of the awesome Marshall win). 27 point underdogs upset rival Toledo in 2019 for the first rivalry win in a decade is followed up by losses to Central Michigan and Western Michigan 38-20 and 49-10 respectively. 31 point underdog Falcons stun Big10 Minnesota on the road in 2021, followed by a close loss to NIU then a 35-20 embarrassing loss to Akron, blowing a 17-0 lead.  A historic 42-35 win over Toledo is sandwiched in between losses of 40-6 and 38-14 to Kent State and Ohio in 2022.  The homecoming upset of a Marshall team that had just beat Notre Dame was followed by an SEC loss which was fine, then a MAC win against Akron. The Marshall win while not followed by immediate disaster was preluded by a 7 OT loss to...