A battle of birds will appropriately turn into a battle in the air on Saturday at Scheumann Stadium in Muncie, Indiana when the Falcons host the Cardinals.
The Ball State defense is allowing over 400 yards per game this year . That's bad news when your secondary has given up 14 touchdowns already and two of your opponents were FCS New Hampshire and a run oriented Army team. It's even worse news considering Bowling Green's Tyler Sheehan is coming to town and he is averaging 326 yards per game through the air with 11 TDs.
This Ball State secondary could be in for a very long day on Saturday since they have no answer for Freddie Barnes who has an amazing 75 receptions this year. Against the pass-happy offenses of Toledo and Auburn, the Cardinals gave up a combined 91 points in both of those games. They also gave up 728 yards and 10 touchdowns through the air in those two games. So you can see why Sheehan is probably licking his chops coming into this one.
The Bowling Green defense isn't much better giving up 382 total yards per game. Their secondary has been weak and given up their share of big plays. Kelly Page, a redshirt freshman QB, has shown he will definitely turn the ball over and will be giving BGSU good field position now and then but also has shown that he can make a big play and hurt you.
Bowling Green is horrible against the run giving up almost 6 yards per carry and Ball State running back MiQuale Lewis who had 22 rushing touchdowns just a year ago may be even for his biggest game of the season so far.
This game has shootout written all over it and with good weather in the forecast for Muncie we'll play this one to get over the posted total.
Free Pick: Bowling Green-Ball St. Over 54 (-110)