Bowling Green and Northern Illinois played well…how do we put this lightly?

A slugfest. 

This was a game that had the score locked at 7-3 for 21 minutes in the first half. The Huskies tacked on another field goal, making it 7-6, which was the score for the next 16 minutes of the game.

Why? 

Well, two missed field goals from BG is a start. 

“The most disappointing thing was we had a guy that was a starter that didn’t go into the game. We had to put in a backup, and he misaligned. We made the field goal, and then obviously, Jackson [Kleather] was out. [He] had an injury. We pushed it and missed the second field goal. When you’re in these wars, every point matters [and] every play matters,” said Scott Loeffler after the game. 

The offense looked somewhat decent in the first half, which held out hope. 

But that was the first-half sloppiness.

So what happened in the second half?

Connor Bazelak suffered an injury after a sack at the end of the first half, which caused him to limp off the field. He returned to start the second half but to no avail, as he had to leave midway through the second drive in pain. 

Unfortunately, the medical staff didn’t allow him to re-enter the game, which brought in freshman Lucian Anderson, which threw off the whole game plan.

But Bazelak genuinely wanted to go back in and fight for his team. But again, I was denied the opportunity.

The Falcons also, in the second half, only moved the ball across the 50-yard line twice. Unacceptable if you want to win a conference title. 

However, the silver lining of it all was that his players and teammates respected him even more for trying to gut it out. 

It’s what your quarterback should do.

“He wanted to play. I saw what [his injury] looked like in particular. It wasn’t pretty, and he wanted to find a way to play for his teammates, and I respect that. That’s what quarterbacks are supposed to do,” said Loeffler.