Oversimplification

The Bowling Green Falcons will roll into town in a couple of days to take on the Broncos. The Falcons are coming off a tough home loss at the hands of Minnesota and prior to that a nice win over sorta-ranked Pitt. Conversely, the Broncos are coming off a half-hearted drubbing of the Idaho State Bengals and an excruciating bye week. It's safe to say that neither team knows exactly what to expect come Saturday. How will Boise State's young team respond to a veteran squad? Will BSU's O-line really be fine? Is Minnesota as terrible as they were last year? We just don't really know these answers, but one thing is clear: Boise State knows a lot more about Bowling Green than their team knows about Boise State. Let's look at the following examples...

Falcon Five-O
It's no surprise that what doomed Bowling Green against Minnesota last week were the turnovers...the Falcons had 5. Certainly, they had the Gophers right where they wanted them, but gave the ball away far too many times. However, insiders in the program appear to believe that a) Minnesota can be compared favorably to Boise State, and b) playing in Boise is something akin to playing at home against a weak Big Ten team. I believe this to be true because of the following head scratcher of a comment from BGSU coach Gregg Brandon:

"If ['5'] happens we're going to lose, probably," Brandon said. "If ['0'] happens, we'll win. We have a great chance."

Oversimplification? So...if the Falcons have 5 turnovers they will lose "probably"...I'd say "definitely". Also, coach Brandon also seems to think that if the Falcons have 0 turnovers they will win. Well, coach...you certainly will have a better shot at winning, but let's not mince words here—Boise State is FAR superior to Minnesota and Pitt offensively, and I think your defense may have to factor into this one too. It will not only take 0 turnovers offensively for the Falcons, but some takeaways by the defense because if you leave the Bronco offense on the field, they will score.

It ain't the uniforms
Bowling Green defensive end Diyral Briggs thinks the Falcons are in for a test. Why? Well because of our jerseys, of course!

"I think it's an advantage," Briggs said. "I went up there my redshirt sophomore year. It was pretty tough to play in there. They got the crowd behind them, and having the blue turf and the blue jerseys, it definitely gives them an advantage."

Oversimplification again? Bingo. The Broncos are also pretty good on the road, Diyral...if it were the jerseys that made the Broncos so good wouldn't Marshall, USF, Oregon, and others have the same "advantage"? I think disciplined football, few errors, good coaching and gameplan, high powered offense and defense factor in as well. I'm just joking...it's the uniforms.

I would welcome Bowling Green players and coaches to believe that they can put up a similar effort against the Broncos that they did against Pitt and Minnesota (sans turnovers) and come away with a win. The Broncos aren't 59-2 since 1999 on the blue for no reason (jerseys, remember?) and have had a bye week to prepare some crazy offensive and clean up any sloppy defensive play. Might want to keep in mind that Boise State is incorporating the no-huddle this year as well, and while the Bowling Green defense sees their own version of the no-huddle all the time...they haven't seen the Broncos run it and it will keep them guessing with the personnel sets that BSU is constantly rotating in and out. If the Falcons can get to Kellen Moore early and often and force the Broncos to run behind their young O-line, they might have a chance to slow the offense a bit—even then, Ian Johnson, Jeremy Avery, Doug Martin and DJ Harper don't need huge holes to run through. Of course, the Falcons are going to have to answer with some offense of their own—how's that for oversimplification?