BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Tuesday Morning Defensive Breakdown

[caption id="attachment_208245" align="alignnone" width="501"] UK Athletics[/caption] 1st Down Pass: 13-20, 127 yards, 1 sack for -8 yards Run: 11 rushes for 44 yards (4.0 ypc) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 36-69, 630 yards, 7 TD, 4 INT, 2 sacks for -18 yards Run: 103 rushes for 443 yards (4.3 ypc), 3 TD RECAP: Overall, the Cats did a very nice job on 1st down.  Alabama only gained more than 10 yards twice in 31 plays and the 4 yards per carry is wonderful in college football these days.  Now, the Cats didn't do a great job with any negative plays.  In fact, just 2 Alabama plays went for negative yardage, which gave them manageable 2nd down situations most of the night. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––— 2nd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 6-8, 101 yards, 1 TD Run: 12 rushes for 73 yards (6.1 ypc) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 27-45, 328 yards, 1 TD, 1 sack for -7 yards Run: 46 rushes for 240 yards (5.2 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: Not the best from the Cats here, especially in the passing game.  This has been one of the worst situations for UK all season long, giving up many big pass plays and not getting much pressure on the QB. 2nd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 2-2, 13 yards, 1 TD Run: 6 rushes for 37 yards (6.2 ypc) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 7-9, 53 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT Run: 36 rushes for 197 yards (5.5 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: UA focused on the run game and had solid results.  Overall, UK did a decent job here with limited plays. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––— 3rd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 1-3, 46 yards (converted 1 of 3) Run: 2 rushes for 16 yards (8.0 ypc) (converted 1 of 2) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 13-22, 215 yards, 1 INT (converted 11 of 22) Run: 10 rushes for 53 yards (5.3 ypc) (converted 2 of 10) RECAP: Not too bad here beyond the one 46 yard completion.  Otherwise, UK stopped Alabama on 3 of 4 other chances. 3rd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 3-4, 28 yards, 1 sack for -5 yards (converted 3 of 5) Run: 4 rushes for 16 yards (4.0 ypc), 1 TD (converted 4 of 4) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 10-16, 109 yards, 1 TD, 6 sacks for -36 yards (converted 10 of 22) Run: 23 rushes for 131 yards (6.1 ypc), 2 TD (converted 18 of 23) RECAP: Once again, UK struggled in 3rd and short, especially against the run.  4 for 4 for Alabama, pushing UK to a pathetic 5 for 23 in stopping opponents who run the ball on 3rd and short.  Not to mention the pass defense wasn't much better.