The Bowling Green football team stunned the Missouri Tigers Saturday night in a 51-28 victory.
“At the beginning of the game I had every intention of deferring the toss like you are normally supposed to do,” said head coach Urban Meyer. “We were going to play field position ball, and then our quarterback and offensive line convinced me to take the ball.
When you start to develop that kind of trust with your players, and the players know that the coaches are going to give everything they can, I feel as though it is a very special thing.”
And a special thing it was indeed. The Falcons pulled out all the stops against the Tigers and ran nearly every play in the book to come away with the win.
“Coach says every week that winning is fragile, but it’s not by accident,” said tailback Joe Alls. “We went out with the mindset that we were about to play a good Big XII team, and we just executed like we did all week in practice.”
On their first drive of the game, quarterback Josh Harris threw a lateral pass to wide receiver Cole Magner. Magner then threw the ball back to Harris who sprinted 34 yards down the field for BG’s first score of the game. This was the second touchdown pass Harris has caught in his career.
“We came out for the opening drive and set the tone,” Harris said. “I think everyone had a great game.”
The Tigers, however, answered right back with a touchdown of their own to tie the game, but that would be their only score for a while as Mizzou would go three and out for their next three possessions.
The Falcons’ second drive lasted 4:10 and resulted in a Shaun Suisham 34-yard field goal to put BG up 10-7. This was Suisham’s third field goal of the season, which equaled his last season’s total.
On BG’s next drive, Harris handed the ball off to Alls who took it 29 yards into the end zone for the Falcons’ second touchdown of the game. Alls had a total of 119 yards rushing on the evening, his fifth career game of 100-plus yards.
At the end of the first quarter the Falcons seemed to have the upper hand as they led the Tigers 17-7.
BG opened the second quarter with another Suisham field goal, this one from 41 yards out.
The Falcons would score one more touchdown run by Harris before Missouri quarterback Brad Smith threw a 6-yard pass to Zack Abron for the Tigers’ second score to cut BG’s lead to 27-14.
Harris ran in his third touchdown of the night to give the Falcons a 34-14 lead at halftime.
“I think [BG offensive coordinator] Coach Brandon called an excellent game,” Harris said. “We went from our empty package to our one-back package, stayed with the no huddle. We huddled when we wanted to. They didn’t really force us to do anything. Their defensive coaches were guessing when to blitz and when to drop into coverage, which gave us the opportunity to open our playbook as wide as we wanted to and call what we wanted to call.”
Missouri came out for the second half hoping to get back in the game. On their first drive ,Smith threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Justin Gage. However, that was to be their only score for the quarter.
Gage set a Perry Stadium record for receptions with 16. This also set a Missouri school record.
“We knew who their target was, and that was Gage,” said linebacker Mitch Hewitt. “They run a pretty basic offensive. We knew what to expect. Our coaches prepared us for every play they had.”
Harris threw his first interception of the game on the Falcons’ next possession, which ended up only hurting Missouri. The Tigers would have taken over on downs on their own 37, but instead ended up with the ball on their own 2-yard line where Michael Harden caught the interception. Missouri would be forced to punt the ball away.
The Falcons scored once again on a 30-yard touchdown pass by Magner (his second touchdown pass of the night, a team high) to Robert Redd, to increase their lead to 41-21.
Redd totaled 209 yards receiving on 10 catches for his eighth career game of 100 or more yards receiving and his second over 200 yards. He also became the first Falcon ever to have 200 receiving yards in a game at Perry Stadium.
“They run a good offense,” said Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel. “I said that during the week. Harris is a good player, and Robert Redd. They were clicking. And they were clicking on everything. We didn’t put ourselves out of position too often, they just made plays. They made great throws. You just have to give them credit, which you have to do when you have someone executing it that well.”
Suisham nailed a 26-yard field goal on the Falcons’ next possession, his third of the game, to tie a Perry Stadium record for field goals in a game.
At the end of the third quarter, the Falcons led the Tigers 44-21.
Pat Fleming came onto the field for the Falcons at the beginning of the fourth quarter for his first punt of the game, a 29-yarder.
Missouri went three and out on their next drive and the Falcons handed the ball back a few minutes later after Harris threw an incomplete pass on fourth down with three yards to go.
Harris passed for 311 yards on the evening, caught a touchdown pass and had two short touchdown runs for the Falcons.
On Missouri’s next drive Smith threw a pass to Ben Fredrickson, but the ball bounced out of his hands and into the hands of Hewitt, who returned the interception 27 yards for a BG touchdown. That would be the Falcons ‘last score of the game. This was Hewitt’s first career interception and first career touchdown.
“It definitely makes it easier to play defense when you have an offense that scores as many points as we do,” Hewitt said.
On their next possession, the Tigers would put seven more points on the board on a 2-yard run by Abron for a score of 51-28. The Falcons have now scored over 40 points in four consecutive games, setting a school record.
“It’s no surprise, and it was fun,” Harris said. “We have been off for 16 days, and we were the most prepared we have ever been. My stomach was not knotted up. I knew something special was about to happen.”
