Through two games, Memphis’ new-look defense has performed well, but their opponent this week, the Bowling Green Falcons, will provide them their biggest challenge of the young season.
Bowling Green’s offense has racked up 1249 total yards in their first two games, and has done it against quality competition, the SEC’s Tennessee Volunteers and the Maryland Terrapins of the Big Ten. Bowling Green (1-1) has turned their high-volume yardage into points as they’ve averaged 39 points per game.
Memphis coach Justin Fuente said at his weekly media luncheon Monday the Tigers (2-0) is facing a significant increase in competition this week, because not only did the Falcons defeat Maryland on the road but Bowling Green is an experienced team on both sides of the ball.
“Defensively their two deep is filled with juniors and seniors,” Fuente said. “Offensively they deserve every bit of credit they have gotten so far. They can run the ball and throw the ball with equal effectiveness. Their quarterback (redshirt senior Matt Johnson) is a fantastic player. It says a lot about their team that last year when he got injured in the first game of the season and they still had an enough around them to go to the MAC Conference Championship and win their bowl game."
Without Johnson, Bowling Green, led by coach Dino Babers, finished 8-6 in 2014, and won the 2014 Camellia Bowl against South Alabama Jaguars 33-28, their first bowl victory in their last three consecutive bowl appearances.
Johnson, who has thrown for 915 yards and eight touchdowns this season, has three solid receiving targets in sophomore Roger Lewis, redshirt junior Ronnie Moore and junior Gehrig Dieter. The three receivers have averaged more than 15.5 yards a catch, and have combined for 570 receiving yards.
Despite being listed second-string on the depth chart, Falcons junior running back Fred Coppet leads Bowling Green in rushing. He’s averaged 86 yards per game and 6.4 yards a carry out of the backfield. However, as a team the Falcons average just 3.9 yards a carry.
"It's hard to slow somebody down because of how the rules are,” said Fuente, when asked about how to slow down Bowling Green’s offense. “They can continue to push the tempo. If you can win first down hopefully you can put them in second and long. It is a little bit harder to go as fast when you're behind the chains. If they did not run the ball so well, then it would be a different dynamic. But they really are a balanced team. They want to run the ball, do a lot of play action, and throw the ball over your head. So there's no real strategy to try to slow them down other than playing good defense."
The Tigers’ offense led by redshirt junior quarterback Paxton Lynch, who has completed 81 percent of his passes this season and thrown three touchdowns to no interceptions, should have plenty of opportunities to exploit the Bowling Green defense, which could led to a high-scoring shootout between the two teams.
Bowling Green’s defense has given up 59 points in their loss versus the Vols and 27 points in their victory against Maryland, but they have forced five turnovers (three interceptions and two fumble recoveries) in those games. Falcons’ senior free safety Denard Turner leads the team with two interceptions.
Tigers quarterback Paxton Lynch has completed 30 of 37 passes and thrown for three touchdowns and no interceptions through two games this season.
