The beauty of the Mid-American conference is the pure chaos that can ensue each week.
Upsets happen left and right in this league, and yesterday could have been a disastrous one for the Falcons.
Despite the Falcons taking care of business in Muncie, defeating Ball State 38-13, the final score doesn’t show how close this game felt for a very long time.
It was a tale of two halves, and heading into halftime, it was a 10-7 ballgame.
The message Scot Loeffler said to the team at the break?
Don’t panic.
“I thought everyone didn’t panic. We did a great job adjusting, and we found a way to win the second half and play better football, said Loeffler postgame.”
“There was no panic. We were not happy with a couple of things that we did on defense, and obviously, on offense, we didn’t run the ball very consistently,” said Loeffler. “We missed some uncharacteristic big plays that normally hit. If you hit those big plays, you probably started what happened in the second half.”
Explosion plays were a reason Loeffler thought that the second half was different than the first.
“I thought as a team, we played better in the second half. I thought defensively, we did a nice job. Offensively, we started making our explosions play.”
Usually, when you think of explosion plays for the Falcons, you probably think of Harold Fannin Jr.
While Fannin was doing Fannin things yesterday, the explosion came from junior wide receiver Rahkeem Smith.
Smith had his breakout game as he finished the day with three touchdowns, with one coming on the ground, as well as four receptions for 81 yards through the air.
“Rock [Rahkeem Smith] had a great day today. It was nice to see him get into the endzone. He’s super-fast, he’s a great kid, his preparation is ridiculous.”
As mentioned above, yesterday could have been disastrous for the Falcons, but they took care of business and are now just one win away from the main goal.
The MAC championship.
The only thing standing in their way is the defending champion Miami RedHawks.
“Now we go to work and have the best preparation we can have and let it rip.”
It’s time to go to work, as Loeffler said, and he, along with the Falcons, might clock in some overtime over the next five days to prepare for the biggest game in the Loeffler era.
