Bowling Green gets the win and looked like the better prepared team. Tigers defense played well enough to win. Bowling Green defense shows up big tonight behind LB Rece Jones to pitch the shutout. Tigers helped with timely drops by wide receivers. St.X QB Giles Pooler threw some nice balls but Tigers couldn’t get it done in the redzone. 

Congrats Purples!

 

Okay, first of all I owe Bowling Green an apology. I was way off on my score prediction here. I feel like I need a self imposed one game suspension from picking scores. Horrible on my part.

 

On the other hand, Bowling Green looked really strong and St. X didn't look as strong as I thought they would. If BG doesn't have a bunch of silly mistakes they probably win 28-0.

 

The play calling tonight from BG coaches was spot on. The Purples dominated up front on both sides of the ball, which surprised me.

 

Conner Cooper looks really good, especially throwing on the run. Great offense drives and work by the Purples. Lots of play makers, great running backs and O-Line was strong. BG's speed just ran all over St. X tonight.

 

BG's defense which was supposed to be their weakness because of their youth was very, very solid tonight as well. They really stepped it up making up for some of the BG offensive mistakes.

Can't wait to see what happens next week against PRP. 

Not surprised with Bowling Green winning just surprised that St. X didn't score.  Bowling Green my have a really good D.

Simple question, does this game say more about Bowling Green or Saint X?

Is X in panic mode, or still too early?

Mekhi Smith dropped a ball on 5 that would have been 1st and goal but resulted in missed field goal. Another drive late in 2nd half he dropped two balls in endzone. He did make some other plays but those two were critical. I thought St.X defense played well considering front 7 is inexperienced. BG made clutch plays when they needed. Had some phenomenal catches. QB Cooper also did well with his feet when needed. Going to be a long two weeks of practice for Tigers but need it.

Nice Purps!

 

1 minute ago, NLTanker1 said:

Is X in panic mode, or still too early?

I would say concerned mode. 

Whatever they’ve been doing didn’t work for tonight.

 

I knew Bowling Green could win this game.  But with the way Covid took the wind out of everyone's sails with a very inexperienced (on paper) defense I just thought the Formula One Standing Start would be too much on the road at a really talented St X team.

For Bowling Green:, the negatives were easy to see:. At least 3 fumbles, the center had snap issues all night that really hurt BG, there were some unnessary penalties to, but for those negatives I thought the Purples showed a lot of poise and always kept coming. And those are things that can be fixed.

The positives: where do I start?  This was the best play calling from Bowling Green since Coach Wallace wore purple.  The defense - WOW!  It exceeded all my expectations by a LOT.  Most notable were the 2 Sophomore Corners who just kept making plays.  Both lines played incredibly well for an opening game.  The BG skill guys were really good.  Conner Cooper was so poised.  His first pass should have been picked off, but after that he was tough to stop.  RB Bunton played well.  Dingle played like a D1 recruit.  New RB Burwash fumbled some but showed real spark.  Heck even Eckles a DB got a run in for BG, when has that happened for BG?  Never.  So refreshing.

I was concerned when I saw Bridger Knee playing both ways (from a getting run down when you play better teams standpoint), but they inserted SR Hewitt in the OL and put Knee only at DE and it worked great!  Little things, but great coaching!

I am really pumped because this is so much better than I expected .

I do think X is down a bit, but more so from a Covid timing and repetition standpoint than a talent and effort standpoint.  I thought their defense easily played well enough to win, but didn't make a couple of plays that could have given the ball back to the offense.  Still they are a good unit, but late BG did what they wanted when they needed to up front.  I think the St X O will continue to get better.  I thought the X QB Poole looked really good.  The X receivers dropped a lot of balls.  That is fixable.  But the difference in this game and many of the recent past is X couldn't generate much run yardage at all tonight.  That if anything would be my biggest.concern for them going forward, but they will improve no doubt.

I wish BG played tomorrow.  Coming out of Covid, I really needed to get back to the field and do something normal.  It was fun tonight.  I will end by saying I thought both teams displayed very good sportsmanship.  I saw many helping each other up, etc.. I appreciate that from a good team.  Good luck to X the rest of the way.

15 minutes ago, Purple88 said:

I knew Bowling Green could win this game.  But with the way Covid took the wind out of everyone's sails with a very inexperienced (on paper) defense I just thought the Formula One Standing Start would be too much on the road at a really talented St X team.

For Bowling Green:, the negatives were easy to see:. At least 3 fumbles, the center had snap issues all night that really hurt BG, there were some unnessary penalties to, but for those negatives I thought the Purples showed a lot of poise and always kept coming. And those are things that can be fixed.

The positives: where do I start?  This was the best play calling from Bowling Green since Coach Wallace wore purple.  The defense - WOW!  It exceeded all my expectations by a LOT.  Most notable were the 2 Sophomore Corners who just kept making plays.  Both lines played incredibly well for an opening game.  The BG skill guys were really good.  Conner Cooper was so poised.  His first pass should have been picked off, but after that he was tough to stop.  RB Bunton played well.  Dingle played like a D1 recruit.  New RB Burwash fumbled some but showed real spark.  Heck even Eckles a DB got a run in for BG, when has that happened for BG?  Never.  So refreshing.

I was concerned when I saw Bridger Knee playing both ways (from a getting run down when you play better teams standpoint), but they inserted SR Hewitt in the OL and put Knee only at DE and it worked great!  Little things, but great coaching!

I am really pumped because this is so much better than I expected .

I do think X is down a bit, but more so from a Covid timing and repetition standpoint than a talent and effort standpoint.  I thought their defense easily played well enough to win, but didn't make a couple of plays that could have given the ball back to the offense.  Still they are a good unit, but late BG did what they wanted when they needed to up front.  I think the St X O will continue to get better.  I thought the X QB Poole looked really good.  The X receivers dropped a lot of balls.  That is fixable.  But the difference in this game and many of the recent past is X couldn't generate much run yardage at all tonight.  That if anything would be my biggest.concern for them going forward, but they will improve no doubt.

I wish BG played tomorrow.  Coming out of Covid, I really needed to get back to the field and do something normal.  It was fun tonight.  I will end by saying I thought both teams displayed very good sportsmanship.  I saw many helping each other up, etc.. I appreciate that from a good team.  Good luck to X the rest of the way.

Great write-up as usual.  I agree with everything in this post.

 

Did you get to go to the game?

1 hour ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Simple question, does this game say more about Bowling Green or Saint X?

Jumper, I think you need to wait a little bit to tell.

With Covid, everything is a little different so different teams will start sluggishly.

But for BG, you have to be impressed with how they handled a first game road trip, up in class against a quality opponent.  X will be back though.  But they have a tough schedule so it's going to require discipline and good coaching to get there. 

Just my opinion.

2 minutes ago, Killowatt59 said:

Great write-up as usual.  I agree with everything in this post.

 

Did you get to go to the game?

Watt,

I was very fortunate to get a ticket.  And will never forget this game.  I love going to the games in person.  I just get a lot more out of it that way.  Beautiful weather too!

The continued theme for St. X the past few years on offense has been a complete lack of a running game versus quality opponents. 
 

BG played a solid game but actually made more mistakes than X did with turnovers and botched shotgun snaps. BG was BY FAR the more physical team.