There is no argument that Bowling Green's football team is still a work in progress.
While much attention has been paid to Bowling Green's offensive problems running the football and scoring touchdowns when in the red zone and the defensive woes of stopping the run and limiting big plays, the special teams have also been under performing, according to head coach Dave Clawson. The Falcons (1-4 overall and 0-1 in the Mid-American Conference) are looking to improve in all three areas this week before playing at Kent State (2-3, 1-0). Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
"We're very average on special teams right now," Clawson said. "I guess we've gone from being bad to being average, so it has improved."
Clawson said it was encouraging that place-kicker Jerry Phillips made all three of his field goal attempts last Saturday against Ohio in a 44-37 loss.
"His kickoffs are deeper and his location is better. Yet one of the kickoffs that we were trying to put in the right corner went to the left side to their best return guy. And then another one we kick out of bounds with the wind," Clawson said. "There were two terrible kicks that cost us."
Going into the game, the Falcons were one of the best net punt teams in the MAC with an average of less than 2-yards a return.
"Then in the game we boom a 59-yarder (punt) and give up it up for a (72-yard) touchdown," Clawson said.
"We're just inconsistent with a lot of the things that we do."
The Falcons did go from worst in the MAC to fourth in punt returns as Freddie Barnes had two returns for a total of 71 yards, including a 54-yard effort.
"That's gotten better for one day. But as a coach you want consistency," Clawson said.
BREAKDOWNS: While watching the game tape, BG's coaching staff prepares to work on any breakdowns during the coming week of practice.
"We take every situation which happened in a game, the exact formation, context, what happened, what we did, what we did wrong and how we should handle that if it happens again," Clawson said. "At some point during the week ... We'll throw that situation at them again without announcing that it's coming to see if we handle it better."
90 PERCENT: Being successful on an average of nine out of every 10 plays just isn't good enough in football.
"In a lot of games we can execute well for 70 out of 80 plays, but if those 10 plays are three touchdown drops and three missed tackles, it doesn't matter how you played those other 70," Clawson said.
Of BG's four losses, three have come by seven points.
"We have some guys who are playing extremely hard and they are giving us everything they have," Clawson said. "I can't say I feel that way about everybody on our football team now. We've got about 90 percent of the guys rowing the boat in the same direction and playing with great effort and giving us everything they can. And there are some guys who really need to step up their game and they haven't done that for the first four or five games.
"If we're going to turn the corner here that needs to happen."
INJURIES: The Falcons have lost redshirt freshman defensive tackle/end Winston Etheridge to an undisclosed illness and freshman linebacker Eric Jordan to a knee injury.
Etheridge, who was part of the regular rotation on the defensive line in the first two games of the season, may not be able to play again because of the illness, Clawson said.
Also out for the season are wide receivers Tyrone Pronty, Derek Brighton, Calvin Wiley and tight end DeMark Jenkins.
"That's starting to take a toll," Clawson said about the season-ending injuries.
Clawson did say wide receiver Ray Hutson (ribs and knee) is questionable for the Kent State game.
TV: The Kent State-BG team will be televised live on Fox Sports Net Ohio with Jeff Phelps calling the action and Hanford Dixon as the analyst.
The game also be on ESPN360.com.

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