BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Tuesday Morning Defensive Breakdown

Every Tuesday, you will get a defensive breakdown from the past weekend's game in the various down and distance situations.  While NMSU put up 42 points and the defense has a long way to go, there were some positives for the Cats they can build off of, especially from the 2nd half. 1st Down Pass: 9-16, 176 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT Run: 22 rushes for 120 yards (5.5 ypc), 1 TD Combined Season Statistics Pass: 22-39, 496 yards, 7 TD, 4 INT, 1 sack for -10 yards Run: 76 rushes for 335 yards (4.4 ypc), 2 TD RECAP: In the first half, the Cats were PATHETIC on 1st round.  NMSU pretty much did whatever they wanted to do.  But in the 2nd half the defense, especially the pass defense, strengthened and made it much more difficult for the Aggies to move the ball.  Still overall a poor performance from the defense on 1st down. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 3-9, 36 yards Run: 5 rushes for 14 yards (2.8 ypc) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 12-25, 119 yards Run: 28 rushes for 141 yards (5.0 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: Awesome defense by the Cats here.  In a game where they gave up 42 points, this is one situation where they dominated all night. 2nd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 2-3, 10 yards, 1 TD Run: 9 rushes for 44 yards (4.9 ypc), 1 TD Combined Season Statistics Pass: 2-4, 10 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT Run: 28 rushes for 151 yards (5.4 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: Despite the fact that NMSU scored 2 touchdowns in this scenario, the overall defense from the Cats was quite good.  The Aggies ran 12 plays and gained 54 yards.  That's less than 4 yards per play, which is pretty good. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 2-4, 43 yards (converted 2 of 4) Run: 4 rushes for 16 yards (4.0 ypc) (converted 1 of 4) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 10-16, 137 yards, 1 INT (converted 9 of 16) Run: 6 rushes for 26 yards (4.3 ypc) (converted 1 of 6) RECAP: Both conversions in the passing game occurred in the 4th quarter when the game was not in doubt.  Overall, UK did a much better job on 3rd and long than they did against Florida and Southern Miss. 3rd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 1-2, 12 yards, 1 sack for -4 yards (converted 1 of 3) Run: 4 rushes for 33 yards (8.3 ypc), 1 TD (converted 3 of 4) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 7-10, 81 yards, 1 TD, 3 sacks for -25 yards (converted 7 of 13) Run: 15 rushes for 110 yards (7.3 ypc), 1 TD (converted 12 of 15) RECAP: UK continues to struggle when needing short yardage stops, especially in the run game.  This is where the defensive line problems have shown themselves big time.