Three Keys to Victory: SHSU
The Dogs are back in Ruston tonight for a Homecoming battle against the Sam Houston Bearkats.
After losing a tough one last week against WKU, what can the Tech do to return to the win column against a winless opponent?
Take care of business
Statistically speaking, the Bearkats are pretty awful in every way. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when they’re still seeking their first win on Halloween night.
But the Kats have the distinct honor of having the 6th worst offense in FBS (294 ypg), the 6th worst scoring offense (17.0 ppg), the 7th worst defense (456.3 ypg), and the 4th worst scoring defense (38.9 ppg). Suffice it to say, they struggle in a lot of categories.
The mission, should Tech choose to accept it, is to make a bad team look bad by taking care of business. We should be able to outrun, outpass, and crucially, outscore Sam Houston tonight if we play our game and make them play theirs. So let’s do it!
Turnover battle
Perhaps the one area where Sam Houston hasn’t struggled this year is in the turnover battle. In fact, they’re currently averaging a turnover margin of 0.00 per game (meaning they generate as many takeaways as they do giveaways).
In their lone close game of the season, a 29-27 loss to Jax State on October 9th, Sam Houston tied the turnover margin, with both teams fumbling once.
Tonight, I hope that the turnover margin is an afterthought because the Bulldogs put up 900 yards and 12 touchdowns. But if we should fail to do that, let’s tally some takeaways and keep the giveaways to an absolute minimum. There’s no reason to give a team a spark!
It starts at the top
Last week’s game against Western Kentucky featured some… shall we say questionable… playcalling and clock management.
And I’m not completely against the idea of the Andrew Burnette Wilddog formation. But the timing of those plays, coupled with the fact that each time it appeared it was the same playcall – often back-to-back-to-back… that makes me scratch my head.
But it’s not just the offensive side of the ball – the defense had some great plays… but failed to adjust to Rodney Tisdale Jr.’s ability to read zone coverages every single time we dropped 8 in coverage. On 3rd and 7 in Overtime, we brought pressure, confused the RS Freshman QB, and sacked him. On 4th and 10? Well, we dropped 8 in coverage and Tisdale kept the ball just high enough off the field turf for his guy to make an 11 yard catch. We all know what happened next.
And don’t get me started on the last possession of regulation. Sheesh.
To win any game, we’re going to have to do better than that in the playcalling and clock management departments. Hopefully tonight is a “neck crack” game where we can finally get back on track.
Evan is a contributor at go tech pls dont die, a weekly podcast, Twitter, and blog that covers Louisiana Tech sports in a not-so-serious way.
