Week 3 (UK) Thoughts

[catdaddyp]

Where to start? Going to do a little different format this week.

 

Offense:

- From what I could see on tv, it looked like UK was not going to let us beat them over the top and were willing to give up some underneath options. That being said, the few deep shots we took were poorly thrown. UK also got plenty of pressure on DJI by bringing just 4 rushers most of the time. DJI actually did a nice job maneuvering in the pocket considering all the pressure he was under. More on that below…

- The OL had their worst game of the season. The OTs struggled all night. The interior of the OL was better than the OTs in pass pro but struggled with UK’s blitzes, which usually coincided with a 3rd down. Of the 34 pass attempts, DJI was pressured for 25+.

- If we’re going to take all of the underneath throws, the ball placement has to be accurate enough to allow the receivers to catch, turn, and potentially create yards after catch. Basically, no deep ball = no explosive pass plays, unless they are created by YAC. Too often the ball was catchable but not thrown where the receiver had a chance to make further advancement. To compound the issues, perimeter blocking was as bad as I’ve seen under this staff.

- This offense is not good enough (at this time) to overcome penalties. Once we get into 3 and 9 or longer, it’s basically a dead drive.

- I sound like a broken record but Lingard and D. Anderson need the ball more. Whether that’s in the run game or passing game, they need the ball. 

 

Defense:

- The defense did enough to keep it a game. Unfortunately, the sack that turned into a touchdown was a backbreaker and the offense did little to help the D throughout the contest. 

- Consistent play came from Nunnally, T. Jones, KJ Martin, Tallandier, and Lewis. Although, Lewis did get beat on one TD.

- Our DL held their own against UK’s OL. As far as pressure goes, Zips had nearly as much on UK as against Morgan State.

- It may have seemed like there were a lot of missed tackles, but that’s misleading as they came in bunches. We had 13 for the game, which is what we average on the season. Really not much else to say here. It was a wasted effort that ended up with a lopsided score.

 

Special Teams:

- The punt muff can’t happen.

- The missed FGs are disappointing, but heck of a job by the holder getting the high snap down on the made FG.

- Jackson was fine (not great) punting the ball. 

- Nice job by the punt team recovering UK’s muffed punt. 

- Kick off coverage was solid.

 

Defense and special teams forced a combined 3 turnovers which should have been enough to keep us in the game. Until the offense gets on track, it’ll be more of the same. UK’s talent level helped exploit some of the same issues we had last week. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by catdaddyp

[Ham]

Were there new faces on the OL this week?

[LZIp]

11 minutes ago, Ham said:

Were there new faces on the OL this week?

I noticed both Davis and Williams were back. Unsure if they were 100%. Looked like Davis had his hand wrapped.

[catdaddyp]

48 minutes ago, Ham said:

Were there new faces on the OL this week?

Yes. As @LZIp mentioned both N. Williams and Keylen Davis were back this week.
 

Others that were credited with snaps:

WR - Adrian Norton

OT - Jayvin James

DT - Andre Profitt

LB - Jaharon Griffin

S - DiMarco Johnson

 

Pretty much same cast of characters and subbing patterns outside of that.