 WESTERN MICHIGAN 41, BOWLING GREEN 7
Western Michigan defeated Bowling Green 41-7 at Perry Field. It was the Falcons’ final football game of the season as BG finished 2-10 overall and 1-7 in the Mid-American Conference.
“It was another disappointing loss in what was a really disappointing season,” BG head coach Dave Clawson said. “In a lot of areas we didn’t make progress as the year went along and that’s disappointing.
“We have a lot of work to get the program back where it needs to be,” Clawson added. “I feel bad for the seniors in the (locker) room that they didn’t leave on a better note.”
It was the same old story for the Falcons against the Broncos — the defense allowed too many big plays and the offensive line failed to play up to a winning standard.
“It’s very hard to play defense when you give up big plays in the pass game and you can’t tackle in the secondary,” Clawson said. “When it’s a missed tackle in the secondary, it’s going to be a long, long play and that happened a number of times (Friday).”
Willie Geter, a senior running back and team captain, said Friday’s game played out like so many during the season.
“That last game was just a testament of the season,” Geter said. “We had big plays here or there, but we killed ourselves at times.”
Quarterback Alex Carder was the offensive catalyst for the Broncos. He was 23-of-33 passing for 251 yards and four touchdowns.
Western built a 27-0 halftime lead, with the Broncos offense clicking and the WMU defense holding the Falcons in check. BG did not have a first down in the first quarter and finished the first half with just 130 total yards on 29 plays.
The Falcons put together a quick scoring drive early in the third quarter, with Matt Schilz hitting Kamar Jorden with a 19-yard scoring pass. A 37-yard pass from Schilz to Alex Bayer helped set up the score.
However, Western added two more touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game away. The fourth quarter was scoreless,
“Really ever since the Marshall game (game three on Sept. 18), we’ve struggled on offense,” Clawson said. “We have not had a lot of explosive plays. We haven’t had good balance in terms of running the football. We haven’t protected well.
“Every game on offense has been really an uphill battle.”
The decline in offensive productivity directly relates to Schilz suffering a sprained throwing shoulder in the Marshall game. Schilz came back after missing two games, but was inconsistent.
“It would have been tough for Tyler Sheehan (who was BG’s standout in 2009) to play quarterback for us this year,” Clawson said. “Just the amount of hits he (Schilz) has taken all year.
“At a certain point in the second and third quarter(s) it looked like he started settling in, setting his feet and making some of the throws that he made (at the beginning of the year),” Clawson said about Friday’s game. “That’s the quarterback we had hoped to have all year.”
Schilz finished 19-of-31 passing for 282 yards with one touchdown and one interception against Western Michigan. For the season he was 229-of-347 (65.9 percent) for 2,223 yards with eight touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
“After he got hurt at Marshall, truthfully he hasn’t been healthy the rest of the year. During practice during the week he can’t even throw the ball,” Clawson said. “He gets some pain medicine for the games and that allows him to play.
“I think in a lot of games he goes into it, not trusting the pocket,” Clawson continued. “His feet don’t get set as a result ... We have to get so much better on the offensive line. You need to play at a certain level to just to have a little bit of balance in the run game and to protect the quarterback.”
NOTES
It is, what it is.
In 2010, Bowling Green is a 2-10 football team that went 1-7 in the Mid-American Conference.
“In the off-season you have to live with the result of your season,” BG head coach Dave Clawson said after Western Michigan ended BG’s year with a 41-7 loss Friday.
The 10 losses are the most in school history.
“Right now there are not too many coaches or too many players that can look in the mirror and say: “I did a great job this year,’’’ Clawson said. “There has got to be a lot of hard work, there has got to be a lot of honesty in terms of where we are and where we need to get to.
“And there is not one easy part about it ... We need some leadership to emerge in our program. We’ve got to make some great physical gains,” Clawson continued. “There are going to be 20 freshmen that we redshirted this year that I think will give us an infusion of talent that we really, really need.”
GETER: Senior Willie Geter missed a team meeting last Monday and was suspended for the first quarter of the Western Michigan game.
“It wasn’t a big issue, but still everybody has to be at everything and on time and Willie missed a meeting,” Clawson said.
“Coach made an example, keeping the rules stern,” Geter said.
Geter played the last part of the season nursing a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee.
“I’ve been trying to come back as much as I can, getting three treatments a day,” Geter said.
Geter capped off his Falcon career with a 15-carry, 92-yard performance against the Broncos. Geter finishes his four years at BG with 2,161 rushing yards, eighth on the school’s career list.
JORDEN: Junior Kamar Jorden completed an outstanding season with eight catches for 114 yards and a touchdown for the Falcons.
Jorden had 97 catches for 1,109 yards and four touchdowns this season.
Jorden now ranks third on BG’s all-time list for single-season receptions and receiving yards, behind Freddie Barnes (155 receptions for 1,770 yards in 2009) and Cole Magner ( 99 catches for 1,138 yards in 2003).
WOODS: Sophomore linebacker Dwayne Woods finished the game with a team-high nine tackles. Those nine gave him 134 on the season, which places him in a six-way tie for 13th on BG’s all-time single-season tackles list. It also vaults him into third place in the nation for tackles during the 2010 season.
BAYER: BG’s redshirt freshman tight end Alex Bayer finished with three receptions for 88 yards, including a 38-yard catch-and-run which set up BG’s only touchdown. The 6-feet-4, 242 pound Bayer ran over a couple of would-be tacklers to help set up the score.
“Alex is going to be a good player,” Clawson said. “I think the speed of the game, he wasn’t ready for it at the beginning of the season. But the more he played, the more he understood what he had to do. I think the game slowed down for him.
“If he works hard, and this is with all of our young players ... If they work hard I think we have a number of guys that will develop and become good players and Alex is certainly one of those guys,” Clawson said. “He made more good plays out there than anybody (Friday) and you don’t normally expect that from a tight end.”
FANS: The announced attendance was 5,121.
“I really want to thank our fans. This was a 2-9 football team playing today. For all the people who showed up to this game under these weather conditions we really appreciate their loyal support,” Clawson said. “It means a lot we had fans out here today and that they continue to support the Falcons through the good times and the bad.”
NEXT: Bowling Green is scheduled to open the 2011 season at Idaho on Sept. 3. |
