I’ve finally brought myself around to do it. Three days later, and I’ve finally found the motivation to write about the events of Saturday afternoon. Sure, I could have written it up in a notebook, or even made the entry from the hotel room immediately following the game, or Sunday night when I got home, or yesterday when I spent an eventful Labor Day full of nothing (and it was terrific!), but I didn’t. Now, the threat of an impending BlogPoll deadline is forcing my hand. At least the football side of the hand, there is so much more to write about Madison, Wisconsin, that it might get it’s own post. But more on that later.

Now onto the football…

For one shining moment, I thought that not only would my Falcons beat Wisconsin, but it looked like they were going to smack them up, flip ’em and rub ’em down. (Oh no!) Thanks in part to the lack of a map and a very confusing layout to Camp Randall Stadium, we missed the first score. We had updates by phone that BG was driving, but hung up when we got to the tunnel. In that time, we heard a brief roar, then could see the referee chatting with the replay official, raise his arms in the air, and when the boos rained down, it was on. Omar Jacobs to true freshman Corey Partridge, and the Falcons were up 7-0.

After filing through a maze and over at least two dozen bodies to get to our seats, BG was back at it. BJ Lane weaved his way to the end zone on a beautiful shovel pass pattern, and despite the best attempts of Joe Timchenko to kick the ball backwards on the PAT attempt, I felt good about being up 13-0. Then the tide changed. Thanks in part to a slobberknocker of a hit on Wisky QB John Stocco, the Badgers decided they couldn’t trust the backup QB to throw, and ran the ball. And ran it. And ran it. Then Stocco came back in and tossed an easy TD pass to close the gap to 13-7.

But, 20 or so seconds later, Omar had BG on the board again and all was good. Until the ensuing kickoff came back to the BG 8-yard line. From there, it was on. Wisky took that momentum and never gave up. BG hung well in the role of chaser, tying the score just before half, 35-35.

To say the third quarter belonged to Wisconsin is a slight understatement. Running back Brian Calhoun ran over, through, in and around BG defenders all quarter in easily the worst defensive performance since the Mexicans bumrushed the Alamo. (History lesson: Don’t forget that the memorable catchphrase “Remember the Alamo” wasn’t because of victory, but because of the ass-whoopin’ the Texans took there.) There were missed assignments, holes the size of Phil Fullmer’s bathtub, arm tackles, anything you could imagine to let a guy run for 250-plus on a Division 1 football team. It was so ugly, I think Calhoun just ran for 8 more yards on the BG defense. Even worse, Chief Justice William Rehnquist just went over the century mark on them as well.

The end of the game brought a little excitement, especially if you find a dropped pass in the endzone, a long pass down to just short of the goal line and two running plays with no timeouts, less than a minute left and down 14 points exciting.

The bad news is really bad news. The defense was pathetic. Fortunately, BG won’t have to face a running back like Calhoun until at least the Toledo game, if at all. Unfortunately, the same was said after they couldn’t tackle anybody at Oklahoma last year, and Eastern Michigan ran up and down the field on them (even more fortunately, EMU’s defense made BG’s D look like the ’85 Bears). The downside on the offensive end of the ball is that senior RB PJ Pope might be out for a few weeks with two sprained ankles (my math and basic anatomy knowledge tells me that’s all he’s got) after being twisted around on a kickoff return. Not only do the Falcons lose a two-time 1,000-yard rusher, but they also lose the element of surprise they had revealed this weekend, with two stud RB’s in the backfield. I have faith that BJ Lane will shine in the feature back role, but with that passing attack, having the proverbial two-headed monster in the backfield at the same time is a fun idea.

The good news is, the offense is possibly better than ever. Wisky’s defense isn’t exactly the gold standard, but it got alot more pressure on Jacobs than any other team to date. Considering the bits of inexperience dotting the line and that Jacobs had hands in his face all day, I’d say 458 yards and five scores is a pretty impressive job. Steve Sanders and Charles Sharon held their own with 100-plus yard days and three scores between them (though if Sharon catches the bunny in the fouth, it’s a whole new ballgame), and redshirt freshman gave us all a bright spot for many years to come with a 160 yard day, with a TD and a 2-point converson.

Despite their problems, this team is still good. So much so that I’m tempted to leave them in my top 25 on the BlogPoll. Partially out of homerism, partly because of all the losses and mediocre performances by bottom-half teams, BG showed the most potential to overcome it’s issues. (Not that I saw all that many of the other games, mostly just followed scores, but I’m about giving BG another chance to shut a team down on defense. Granted, the next team up is lowly Ball State, but the offense should be rewarded more than the defense penalized, I think.)