BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Tuesday Morning Defensive Breakdown

Yesterday, hopefully you saw the offensive breakdown in down and distance situations.  On Tuesdays, I will give you the other side of the ball.  The defense against Southern Miss was not that difficult to breakdown.  The pass defense wasn't too bad, although the TD bomb at the end of the first half changed the whole game.  The run defense was atrocious, especially tackling.  Southern Miss figured out they could get a guaranteed 6-7 yards every rush and UK would make no adjustments.  The defense has a TON to improve upon.  Take a look at the breakdown below and give your thoughts in the comments section: 1st Down Pass: 7-11, 137 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 1 sack for -10 yards Run: 30 rushes for 120 yards (4.0 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: It's amazing that Southern Miss ever wanted to throw a pass.  Overall the Eagles just kept pounding the ball on the ground and controlled the clock, especially in the 2nd half.  They also hit the bomb at the end of the first half here.  But UK did force 2 turnovers on 1st down and taking away that long touchdown the pass coverage was pretty good. 2nd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 3-6, 12 yards Run: 12 rushes for 72 yards (6.0 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: Pass defense, great.  Run defense, not great.  A theme that played out a bunch over the course of the game.  Southern Miss got the tough yards and tackling was poor.  You could say that about nearly every UK team over the last 30 years. 2nd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 0-1, 1 INT Run: 14 rushes for 92 yards (6.6 ypc) RECAP: Rinse and repeat here.  Southern Miss knew they could get 5 or 6 yards on every rush, so that;s what they did.  UK made no adjustments to that plan and we know how the game ended. 3rd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 3-4, 41 yards (converted 2 of 4) Run: 1 rush for 4 yards (4.0 ypc) (converted 0 of 1) RECAP: 40% is not a conversion rate for a defense in 3rd and long situations. 3rd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 4-5, 56 yards, 1 TD, 2 sacks for -21 yards (converted 4 of 7) Run: 3 rushes for 6 yards (2.0 ypc) (converted 2 of 3) RECAP: UK defense with no answers in 3rd down situations.  The one situation where the pass defense was not effective, although they did get 2 sacks.