The Bowling Green State University football team took a lopsided loss to Ohio State University (OSU) this past weekend after leading 7-0 early in the game. The Falcons were only able to put 10 points on the board while the Buckeyes scored 77 points by the end of regulation.
The loss was one for the record books as OSU set a school record for total offense with 776 yards. Junior OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett also set a record himself for most touchdowns by an individual player in a game, scoring six in the air and a seventh on a rush. Barrett threw a career high 349 yards, only his second career game breaking 300, and rushed for another 30.
“It’s hard to take positives out of a butt-whooping like that,” Falcon head coach Mike Jinks said. “We’ll go back and evaluate the video and what I want to see is that the kids keep playing hard, because at the end of the day, that’s all you can really ask for.”
The lone touchdown for Bowling Green came on a Buckeye possession with Barrett facing five yards on second down at the Falcon 41. Barrett’s attempted pass was intercepted by sophomore defensive back Brandon Harris, who returned the football 63 yards for the score. It was the first pick-six for Bowling Green since the 2014 season.
Outside of that interception, the Falcons had trouble covering receivers while stopping the run game.
“When you stop the run and you put everybody in that box, you put some of these young corners man to man on some guys that can fly,” Jinks said. “I think we all saw that those corners gave good effort but they have some really talented outside that can really run and it was a mismatch.”
In addition to the defensive struggles, the Falcons had trouble getting anything going on the offensive side of the ball. Bowling Green had one of the most explosive passing offenses in college football last year but were held to just 175 total yards in the air against the OSU defense. They were also only able to score three points and were forced to four three and outs in non-garbage time.
For veteran quarterback James Knapke, this was his first game back as a starter since the return of star quarterback Matt Johnson last year. Knapke completed 12 of his 33 passes for 110 yards in the season opener. He was intercepted and sacked twice before redshirt freshman James Morgan came in for relief.
Though Knapke struggled against OSU’s nationally ranked defense, he was not fazed at the end of it all.
“I didn’t think (starting again) was that difficult. I thought we came in with a game plan and I think they just made more plays than we did,” Knapke said. “I thought they did exactly what we thought they were going to do. There were plays out there to be made and we didn’t make them today. They did. That’s what happens when you play a quality opponent and you don’t make the plays that are necessary.”
Following the loss, the Falcons now look ahead to their home opener at Doyt Perry Stadium against North Dakota. Kick off for that game will be this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN 3.
