Sometimes you have the joy of watching two teams match blows for 60 minutes and one, in the end, pulls ahead and wins. Sometimes you get to watch a miraculous comeback. Sometimes you watch one team have 'it' on a given Saturday and beat up on the other guys. And then you have this:
Nothing better sums up this weeks game than the famous south park cripple fight!
To be fair the Bulls defense played an amazing game. Even with the last fumble I thought that perhaps, we would drive them back out of Field Goal range. During the weekly 25 Questions I noted that Bowling Green was 0-3 on Field goals longer than 29 yards.
Before I get into this weeks grades let's take a look at this monstrosity of a drive chart
Quarterback (C-): I am trying not to be too hard on Davis for a couple of reasons.
Firstly Dennison has looked no better nor has our running game looked like a consistent threat this season. We all know the Offensive line is making a huge adjustment and that has made life hard on Davis.
Someone pointed out that statistically Davis is having better first year than Drew Willy did, I think that too many people, among which I count myself, have been expecting way too much from him. I still have to give him a six pack of D+ but I feel a bit better about the future.
Running Backs (C-): I'm not going to get blown away by the yards. My grandmother could drop 100 on the Falcons so 200 by the Bulls does not impress me enough to make up for the awesomely bad fumbles. Ike Nduka after playing a very solid game and notching UB's first rushing touchdown of the year coughed the Ball up.
I think the only Bull to yet fumble is Jeffvon Gill, get well soon Jeffvon.
Receivers (C): Had a little fumble issue of their own, but as a unit they did pretty well. It was nice to see Jake Reeder in the mix. The Freshman Tight end now has two receptions in each of the last two games. Davis is going to need that mid range threat if he is going to continue his growth.
Offensive Line (B-): Night and day from the past three weeks. Granted Bowling Green's front seven is not up there UCF, UConn, or Baylor. UB Will play at least three other teams at or around the level of Bowling Green (EMU, Miami, BSU). By then this unit may have the new system down.
Defensive Line (A): I was tempted to ding them for Steven Means late penalty but Quinn handled that by yanking Means for the series. Anel Montanez, despite being the victim a ridiculous call, had a nearly perfect game. Aside from that the unit was amazing. Two sacks does not tell the whole picture. Eight Tackles for loss and *5* Quarterback Hurries does.
Linebackers (A): The only play were they were not perfect was the screen pass. They recognized that about a quarter of a second too late. Steven Mean was everywhere and Khalil Mack dominated the field. The linebackers, as a group, had six of out eight Tackles for loss.
Defensive Backs (A): Can't leave the backs out of this group hug. Three Picks, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble, and seven pass break ups. It helped that they were not facing Bowling Greens best quarterback but even then, the number of open Bowling Green Receivers was minimal.
Special Teams (D): The blocked kick highlights this game, aside form that it was a miserable effort. Bad punts, long returns by Bowling Green, and not too many great returns on our side.
Coaching (B): New rule, when Davis is getting hot don't pull him so Dennison can 'run' the ball. Beyond the fact that it may break up our rhythm you are buying almost nothing because Davis is nearly as good as Dennison when he has to run.
I'm also not going to ding Quinn for not taking the timeout after UB's last fumble. BG had three downs and we had two timeouts, Quinn saved them to ice a very shaky Bowling Green kicker, and it worked.