With a crushing loss to Toledo last Tuesday, the Bowling Green football team is feeling like the season ended a bit too soon.
The Falcons lost a 20-point first half lead and couldn’t keep up with a Toledo offense that came out firing in the second half. The brown and orange eventually lost to their bitter rivals 49-41 in the Glass Bowl.
The loss was the Falcons’ regular season finale.
“I feel really bad,” BG quarterback Omar Jacobs said. “If we were going out winners it would soften the blow.”
Getting the ball in the end zone proved to be the difference in the end. Toledo scored seven times – all touchdowns – and the Falcons scored seven times – five touchdowns and two field goals.
The BG offense was dominating at times and the numbers didn’t lie.
Jacobs finished the game with 415 yards and four touchdowns through the air. Running back P.J. Pope had 98 rushing yards, 104 receiving yards and three touchdowns, and receivers Cole Magner (nine catches, 113 yards, touchdown) and Charles Sharon (seven, 93, touchdown) showed they are among the league’s elite at their position.
“My hat’s off to Bowling Green,” UT head coach Tom Amstutz said. “They are just about unstoppable.”
The performance prompted Amstutz to see a bright future in the BG postseason.
“They’re definitely a bowl-caliber team,” he said.
That is the song BG coach Gregg Brandon has been singing recently. The Falcons were in the Top 25 until the loss and went on a seven game winning streak that saw them beat opponents by an average of nearly 40 points, and that still puts them fourth in the Mid-American Conference, right out of reach of an automatic bowl bid.
“I’m damn proud of this football team; they fought their tails off,” Brandon said. “We’ve won eight games this season, I hope the bowls are listening.”
And the Falcons are certain they don’t want their season to end on such a sour note. A bowl would be a perfect place for them to redeem this loss.
“[We want a bowl] real bad,” Jacobs said. “If we go out winners, it would soften the blow … if we get a bowl bid you better believe we’re going to come out firing.”
The team’s unity is what makes it really hard for the players to walk away.
“We love each other on this team,” senior Keon Newson said. “I don’t know how normal it is on other teams, but the atmosphere on our team is just so great … I think we got a team that if the season ended today guys would still be hanging around each other because they can’t let go of that feeling.”
A bowl bid would give this team one more chance to shine.
“I just want to go back out there and see Jovon Burkes, Scott Mruczkowski and [Andy] Grubb, their hearts are just full of gold; just to be with those guys on the field again,” Newson said. “We want a bowl game really, really bad.”
As of now, a bowl game is up in the air for the Falcons, with plenty of options for the eight-win team, everyone from the GMAC Bowl to the Houston Bowl. Now all BG can do is sit and wait for a word from bowl representatives.
