Know A Foe - Bowling Green

Buffalo enters the week at 500, with four game remaining. If Coach Linguist and company want to go bowling this season they will need to topple two of the following teams:

• Bowling Green
• Miami
• NIU
• Ball State

That’s a rough slate of games. All of these teams, including Bowling Green, have shown stints of really solid football so UB cannot sleep on any of them. While Lance Leipold owned Bowling Green over the past four seasons, Maurice Linguist is up against maybe the best iteration of the Falcons since Dino Babers was roaming the sidelines.

Don’t let their record fool you. This is a team that beat Minnesota, a legitimate contender for the B1G10 West division, early in the season. They put a scare into conference undefeated NIU, and they also were tied with MAC East leading Kent State after three quarters.

They are a much better football team than 2-6 would indicate.

The BG Defense

Their strength this season has rested mostly on the defense, but EMU seemed to figure out a recipe to take that defense apart. The Eagles used a very efficient ariel attack to drop 55 points on the Falcons.

The good news, for Bowling Green, is that against the run they have not fallen apart. Buffalo’s bread and butter is the run. Without the threat of a run game quarterback Kyle Vantrease is not nearly as effective as he can otherwise be.

They are not a very sack happy defense, but what they do well is spread the pressure around. Corner back Davon Ferguson has a couple of sacks on the season, and the falcons like to use him to bring pressure. Darren Anders also comes hard from the linebacker spot.

Overall eleven Falcons have gotten to the quarterback this season. That’s almost as many as Buffalo, one of the best pass rushing teams in the conference.

The BG Offense

The offense for Bowling Green has not been nearly as sharp this season. The Falcons are near the bottom of the bowl subdivision with 81 yards per game. Theit passing game is not much better. At 235 yards and less than a touchdown.

Terion Stewart is starting to come alive, but the Falcons will be hard pressed to run on Buffalo. Other teams have found success on the edges, so it is possible that BG will be able to break a big play or two.

Overall

Buffalo’s short on full games this season, and Bowling Green has shown amazing defense during spurts of their year. Because of that no game is a given, but of the four games left this is a must win for Buffalo.