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Date: Saturday, September 14, 2019
Kickoff Time: 4 p.m. CT
Location: Bowling Green, Ohio
Stadium: Doyt Perry Stadium
Streaming: ESPN+
Series Record: La Tech leads 2-0
Betting Line: La Tech -10.5
Over/Under: 57.5
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs will be seeking a more complete performance when they head north to face the Bowling Green Falcons on Saturday.
The 1-1 Bulldogs have shown flashes of potential through their first two games, but they haven’t been able to put it all together for a full 60 minutes thus far. The Bulldogs were able to move the ball against Texas, but struggled to score. The Dawgs were in control for the first half against Grambling, but nearly let the game slip away in the second.
As they prepare to face their first fellow group of five program this week, they’ll need to learn from the mistakes of the first two games.
Tech is averaging just over 400 yards per game, but only 17 points. The Bulldog offense has been able to move the ball, but unable to finish drives consistently. That will be the big challenge going forward.
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Like the Bulldogs, the Falcons come into this game 1-1. BGSU dominated Morgan State in a 46-3 win, but were completely shut down in a 52-0 loss to Kansas State. The two games looked completely different for the Falcons. They totaled 620 yards of offense and surrendered just 70 to Morgan State, but totaled only 140 yards against Kansas State while allowing 521. Reality is probably somewhere in between, but which performance is a better representation? Perhaps this week will reveal that.
Griffin Hebert and Cee Jay Powell have been the leading receivers for La Tech so far. Hebert has two touchdowns, and both are already over 100 yards. This does, however, beg the question about Adrian Hardy. The junior was the leading receiver a year ago, but only has six catches for 69 yards so far, making him the fourth receiver. Perhaps he has a breakout game coming?
The other big, lingering question has to do with Jaqwis Dancy. His 6.2 yards per carry dwarfs the rest of the running backs with multiple carries, with the next best being Israel Tucker at 3.8. Tucker is the leading rusher with 83 yards, but that is only nine more yards than Dancy, who has 10 fewer carries. Tech has recorded 67 total rushes in 2019, but Dancy has just 12 of them.
Dancy was also by far the leading rusher in 2018. However, he is listed third on the depth chart. Will his workload increase as the season progresses? Or will Tech continue to lean on Tucker?
The players to watch for Bowling Green are running back Davon Jones and wide receiver Quinton Morris. The leading rusher and receiver for the Falcons have combined for half of BGSU’s touchdowns so far.
For La Tech, the keys in this game will be finishing drives and playing to its potential for the entire game. The Falcons will be trying to figure out just what kind of team they really have after two dramatically different performances in the first two games.
Both teams should learn a lot about who they are as they prepare for their respective conference openers next week.