There are many factors that allow a football team to win a game, but there are also many factors that make winning a lot harder.

It’s hard to win a football game when the quarterback is on his back more times in one game than he had been all season.

It’s also hard to win when a team rushes for 6.1 fewer yards per carry than its opposition.

But that is what happened to the Falcons Saturday against Marshall as Tyler Sheehan was taken down six times for a loss of 36 yards and BG gained 10 rushing yards on 20 attempts in a 17-10 loss.

Their failure to control the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball was one of the first things coach Dave Clawson touched on in the post-game press conference.

‘Marshall really out-physicalled us [and] outhit us,’ Clawson said. ‘They were just much more physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage.’

Marshall standout Albert McClellan – a 6-foot-2, 254-pound defensive end – tormented BG’s senior offensive line duo of Brady Minturn and Shane Steffy, who are both taller and weigh more than McClellan, all game long as he was able to penetrate the Falcon offensive line for two sacks and a quarterback hurry.

In total, the Thundering Herd broke through the BG line and hurried Sheehan nine times. He was hurried seven times against Troy and zero times last week, according to final stat sheets.

After the game, Sheehan said the bigger linemen and linebackers created pressure he’s not using to feeling in the Mid-American Conference.

‘It was a different kind of pressure,’ Sheehan said. ‘They’ve got a good punch.’

Not only that, the line broke through blocks, preventing BG from effectively running the ball. The Falcons’ longest run of the game was nine yards, and they utilize shovel and other short passes to substitute for their ground game.

‘That was our biggest concern coming into the game,’ Clawson said.

However, the Falcon defensive line also struggled, allowing Herd running back Darius Marshall to open up his game in the second half.

BG was able to contain the Herd’s ground attack well in the first half, allowing 71 yards on 16 carries. But with quarterback Brian Anderson struggling-he had completed half his passes and thrown an interception in the first half-MU continued to push their running game after halftime and were rewarded for doing so.

Over those two quarters, the Herd ran the ball 21 times and gained 175 yards, highlighted by an 80-yard touchdown run by Marshall early in the fourth quarter that would be all the Herd would need to seal the victory.

After the game, Clawson pin pointed that particular run as an inevitable part of the game.

‘When you can’t control the line of scrimmage, at some point in a football game, that’s going to catch up with you,’ Clawson said after the game. ‘Even though we had a lead tonight, I never thought we were controlling the line of scrimmage.’

The defense also had trouble breaking through the Herd offensive line. Senior linebacker Cody Basler and freshman lineman Chris Jones both recorded sacks, but they each were for 1-yard losses.

Senior safety Jerett Sanderson and junior lineman Carlos Tipton each recorded a tackle for a loss, but combined, the two only knocked the Herd back five yards.

In the first two games, BG’s defense recorded 13 tackles for a loss, dragging opponents back 55 yards with two sacks in each game. Clawson noted that disparity after the game.

‘The first game against Troy, I thought our defensive front played extremely well,’ Clawson said. ‘In the last two games, I don’t think we’ve played at that same level.’

Players are going to need to find that style of defense again as they No. 8 Boise State this weekend in their toughest test of the young season.