Looking back after a disappointing 40-31 loss, Ball State football head coach Brady Hoke said his team had blown a great opportunity to win against a good Bowling Green team.
Hoke said the Cardinals didn't protect quarterback Joey Lynch, didn't run the ball until late in the game and gave up big plays defensively against a Falcons team that was predicted to win the Mid-American Conference in the pre-season.
"This is a game we had a chance to win with good opportunities that we didn't take advantage of," he said.
Those opportunities came after Ball State had charged back from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter.
With 10:44 remaining in the game, Ball State re-took the lead with the help of two freshmen. Dante Love's 42-yard reverse run play ended at Bowling Green's 3-yard line. Three plays later, Chris Clancy scored his first touchdown of the season on a 1-yard pass from Joey Lynch.
Clancy's score gave the Cardinals its first lead since the beginning of the first quarter, when Lynch threw a 64-yard strike to Dan Dunford on a third and five situation.
The Cardinals then turned to its defense, which almost came up big during Bowling Green's next possession.
On second and 10 at its own 20-yard line, Falcons quarterback Omar Jacobs threw a pass intended for Charles Sharon, who finished with seven receptions for 63 yards and two touchdown catches. Jacobs' throw bounced off the hands of Ball State defensive end Cortlan Booker, who would have seen nothing but the endzone had he caught it.
Jacobs and Sharon connected on the next play for 55 yards, and the Falcons scored two plays later.
"We had the momentum and because we didn't focus and we weren't accountable doing our job, they get a big play," Hoke said. "We had opportunities to win this game, and we didn't do it."
Entering halftime, Ball State was behind 21-14. Lynch said the team talked about believing they could pull off an upset.
"We really talked about believing and doing what we had to do to get back in the game," he said. "We did that to a point. It gave us a chance and we just didn't get it done."
After Bowling Green took its largest lead, 28-14 with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter, Hoke decided to throw a trick play in from the playbook. Love's pass back to Lynch and Lynch's resulting 22-yard gain to the Bowling Green 7-yard line ended with the Cardinals narrowing the deficit with a field goal at the 4:14 mark.
"It's something that we worked hard on a lot," Hoke said. "We ran it at Michigan a lot."
Hoke said the Cardinals aren't mentally tough enough, but he didn't want to use the team's youth as an excuse.
"When you're not mentally tough enough, you don't concentrate, you don't focus, and you don't do the things you have to do to win," he said.
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