Things I noticed while perusing the Stats

[trueblujr2]

Just a few observations and things we need to see a big improvement on this week.

1. First two games we had 17 penalties for 121 yards. Stupid penalties are drive killers. 10 of those came against EKU. that's one of the biggest areas we need to clean up. Ball St. and EKU had 8 penalties for 63 yards combined.

2. We are losing the Time of Possession game. Our opponents are beating us in TOP 1:05:55 to 54:05. We can't win against SEC teams losing the TOP game. I want to see us control the ball better this week.

3. We've given up 15-29 third down conversions. The fact our opponents have had that many third down opportunities in just two games is startling to begin with, but 3rd and long has been our nemesis for as far back as I can remember and so far this year doesn't seem any different. On the flip side we have converted just 9-20 against lesser competition. I know several of those opportunities were derailed by item number one on this list. at least two were derailed by Illegal formation penalties. Both of Leary's sacks came on 3rd or 4th down conversion attempts if I'm not mistaken.

 

[K_TIME]

On your first point the penalties....it is on offense doing this stupid stuff. The Oline is still good for 2-3 false starts a game. And then Kattus picks up 2 holding calls that submarine drives. Something that Coen needs to improve upon as an OC....he's a helluva play caller and scheme guy...but his units at UK have not been sharp at the details like ball security and penalties. I hope he gets more focus on this as he grows as a young coach.

This was an issue in 2021 as well.

 

[gamecockcat]

TOP is a bit misleading as we had a KO return for a TD and a fumble return for a TD which takes away two offensive possessions in the BSU game. Plus, the scoop and score that was called back resulted in 3 plays and a FG, so no time consuming drive there, either.

#1 and #3 will kill us against good teams. Can't beat yourself with dumb penalties. And your defense has to get off the field in 3rd and long. Obviously, we need more pressure on the QB but we also can't sit back passively in a zone and let receivers find the holes. Combination of more pressure and tighter coverage would go a long way to fixing the 3rd down problem.

 

[The-Hack]

Along with turnovers converted to scores by the defense, we have focused on, what, 5 deep shots a game?

And we’ve not hit many of them.

Still, interesting statistics tending to show that our opponents punched above their weight class largely as a result of our unforced errors.