Article published September 07, 2008
NOT THIS TIME
Gophers avenge '07 loss to BG
Bowling Green's Jermiah Kelley snags one of his five catches in front of Minnesota's Tramaine Brock, who got revenge later when he intercepted a Tyler Sheehan pass.
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THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
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By RYAN AUTULLO
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
BOWLING GREEN - Big Ten 4, Mid-American Conference 0.
The MAC was shut out yesterday by the Midwest's bigger college football conference. But unlike its league brethren, Bowling Green State University stood a real chance at victory.
That, of course, was before the special teams began making mistakes and the turnovers began piling up.
A week after pulling off a major upset over a top-25 team, the Falcons were blasted in a 42-17 loss to Minnesota at Perry Stadium.
Yes, that is the same Minnesota team that won just one game last year when it lost to the Falcons in the season opener.
There was nowhere to hide for BG last night as a spirited crowd of 23,184 was on hand to see what all the hype was about following a 27-17 win over Pittsburgh. It wasn't pretty as the Falcons turned the ball over five times and never led in the game."Turnovers," BG coach Gregg Brandon said. "That's why we lost the game, no question about it. We had our chances in the third quarter."
The deal breaker came early in the fourth quarter when Minnesota's Deon Hightower ripped the ball away from Willie Geter in Gopher territory.
Minnesota, as it did all night, capitalized on the miscue when quarterback Adam Weber scored from three yards to up the lead to 35-17.
Geter lost a fumble later, and, naturally, the Gophers tacked on another touchdown.
"I thought we played at a high enough level to win if you take the turnovers out," Brandon said.
The Falcons (1-1) turned the ball over just once against Pitt.
The special teams failed time after time last night.
Roger Williams fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, and Minnesota recovered at the Falcons' 23. Later in the drive on third down, Weber found Nick Tow-Arnett wide open in the corner of the end zone for an eight-yard strike, upping the Gophers' lead to 21-10.
It wasn't the only special teams gaffe. Sinisa Vrvilo, who sent last year's meeting between the teams to overtime with a late field goal, missed from 34 yards on BG's first drive of the game.
Later in the half, a sloppy kick return unit allowed Minnesota to take over on the home team's 48. The Gophers proceeded to break the 7-7 tie on a 12-yard touchdown run by Eric Decker.
"We got in trouble with the short field [most of the night]," linebacker John Haneline said. "We didn't execute the way we wanted."
BG's big-play ability was absent for most of the night until Tyler Sheehan threw a beautiful ball to Chris Wright on a post route in the end zone midway through the third. The score, a 27-yarder, knifed Minnesota's lead to 21-17, but Sheehan misfired on an attempt to Wright on BG's first possession of the fourth quarter, and Minnesota's Tramaine Brock picked off the pass. Sheehan should be faulted for overthrowing his receiver, but Wright is to blame as well for slowing down on his route.
Sheehan was decent, completing 29 of 44 passes for 261 yards. He completed passes to eight different receivers, most frequently connecting with
Corey Partridge (60 yards, seven catches) and Jermiah Kelley (73 yards, five catches).
Weber rarely missed. Just four of his 25 pass attempts fell incomplete. He accounted for 233 passing yards and three touchdowns while also running for a score. Weber put the Gophers (2-0) ahead 28-17 on a picturesque completion to Decker for a 28-yard score.
Weber looks much improved as a passer from a year ago, as does the entire Gopher team.
"After this game, [I'd say] yeah," Brandon said. "I thought they were [improved] going into the game."
One bright spot for BG was the play of defensive end Diyral Briggs, who followed last week's two-sack performance with three more.
Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com.
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