The Bowling Green Falcons (7-4, 8-4 ATS, 7-5 O/U) meet with the Minnesota Golden Gophers (5-7, 3-9 ATS, 5-7 O/U) in the Quick Lane Bowl on Tuesday evening in Detroit. Bowling Green went 7-5 along with a 5-3 mark in MAC play. Minnesota issued a 5-7 record and 3-6 in Big Ten play. These squads last met in 2021 in a game Bowling Green won by a 14-10 score.
Bowling Green Enters Bowl with Confidence
The Bowling Green Falcons have won five of their previous six games going into the bowl. In non-conference play, the team had a 2-3 record, including a road win over Georgia Tech of the ACC and a defeat to Michigan. After suffering a 32-31 defeat to Toledo in November, Bowling Green triumphed 34-10 on the road over Western Michigan to cover the three-point spread in the last regular season game. In four of their previous five games, the Falcons have covered.
Late in the season, Connor Bazelak showed promise, finishing with 286 and 217 passing yards in his final two games. The senior quarterback has 1714 passing yards, an 11:7 touchdown to interception ratio, and one 300-yard touchdown pass this season.
Bowling Green will pass less and run more. In two of his last three games, Terion Stewart has rushed for more than 100 yards; on average, he has gained 6.1 yards per rush. This has resulted in 762 rushing yards. Stewart is uncertain because of a leg ailment. In his last four games, Harold Fannin Jr. has recorded at least 89 receiving yards in three of them. There are 573 receiving yards for the sophomore tight end. For the past three games, the Bowling Green offense has scored thirty points or more.
There Goes That Man 💪
Ta’ron Keith punches it in to put BGSU up 31-0 before the intermission.
📺ESPNU pic.twitter.com/SECndIxZ8n
— BGSU Football (@BG_Football) November 22, 2023
The Falcons’ greatest asset is their defense. In MAC play, they gave up more than 27 points just three times. The team only gave up 10 points on 258 total yards against Western Michigan and gave up 19 points in a 49-19 victory against Kent State earlier this month. The run defense is ranked 43rd, and the pass defense is ranked 25th.
Bowling Green is ranked 73rd in the league with an average of 26.3 points this season. They rank 49th because they are limiting opponents to 23.5 points.
