If you would’ve told any BGSU football fan that these Falcons would lose by seven to #8 Penn State and six to #25 Texas A&M both at their place, any fan would have accepted that in a heartbeat.
Maybe to the average fan, we count these past two games as moral wins for BG, but to Scot Loeffler, these losses sting just like any other.
“Our mindset is that anyone that we play, we’re gonna go try to win the game. They wanted to win the game, and we didn’t. That’s why we’re not gonna eat that rat poison that’s out there. “
“Oh, you guys did so great; moral victory. Well, no. We lost the football game, and we were in a position to win it. We got a good football team and when you have a good football team you go out and try to win every single game.“
A few years ago? Loeffler and the Falcons would be jumping for joy if that result happened but that’s not the mindset anymore.
“I like our mentality with our team, they were bummed. 2 years ago when we walked into games like three years ago, you’re just hoping to survive,” said Loeffler. “We would have been jumping up and down and doing cartwheels and somersaults all the way back from College Station three years ago.”
Yes, taking these previous two teams down to the wire may feel good as a mid-major team. But Loeffler doesn’t want to hear or give into the rat poison that the media puts out.
“I don’t think we’re gonna eat the rat poisoning at all. That’s not my nature, not my nature at all.”
Loeffler enforces to his team that they have a 24-hour rule whether that’s after a loss or a win to put it to bed and prepare for the next game.
“I‘ve got a 24-hour rule. You put the great victories to bed, You put the tough losses to bed because you can’t change them. With all the noise out there, it’s really similar to preseason rankings. It’s really similar to recruiting rankings. None of that matters.”
In any game where you lose by one score, you can easily look back and say certain plays would have affected the outcome.
You could play the “what if” game all you want for any game, and any team. But what about the plays that they did execute, and more importantly execute well?
“You’re preparing for when your numbers called, that you’ve done it over and over and over and over and over and over the right way, that when your number is called, you execute,” said Loeffler. “There was a lot of really good plays that we executed in that game. But you always remember the two or three that could have changed the game and what we’re trying to eliminate as coaches and in players are those two or three.”
Games that come down to the wire won’t be stopping anytime soon, especially when MAC play starts.
“We’re gonna play some games that it’s gonna come right down to the wire, and we wanna be on the positive side of those 2 to 3 plays compared to our opponent.”
Junior safety Darius Lorfills preaches much of what Loeffler said as well as focuses on the small things.
“Sometimes 3 or 4 plays in an entire game can make the difference between winning and losing the game. So I feel like we’re making strides and just paying attention to the small things.”
A look ahead, the Falcons host the Old Dominion Monarchs for the school’s 102nd edition of Bowling Greens homecoming.
This will mark the first home game since the Falcons defeated the Fordham Rams back on August 29th.
What’s better than playing at home?
Loeffler, along with his players are more than excited to be back home again.
“We are jacked to get back home. That crowd that we had in week 1 was awesome, and I think we’ll have a ridiculous showing for this ODU game. I wanna encourage everyone in the community to come out.”
Senior running back Jamaal Johnson said much of the same.
“It’s gonna be a very nice, you know, homecoming game, so I think it’s gonna be a good environment.”
Kickoff for this Saturday is set for 5:00 p.m. You can listen in on Falcon Radio where Falcon Media Sports Network’s Rhys Patrykus and Carter Leonard will have the call with coverage starting at 4:45 p.m.
