BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Tuesday Morning Defensive Breakdown (South Carolina)

1st Down Pass: 1-10, 7 yards Run: 16 rushes for 64 yards (4.0 ypc), 1 TD Combined Season Statistics Pass: 23-49, 503 yards, 7 TD, 4 INT, 1 sack for -10 yards Run: 92 rushes for 399 yards (4.3 ypc), 3 TD RECAP: Wow, incredible defense on 1st down where the Cats have been awful all year.  Obviously the pass defense was about as good as you could do against the Gamecocks but the rush defense was much improved too.  They had not held a team under 125 yards rushing on 1st down in any game this year but held the Gamecocks to just 64 yards.  It's tough to expect a similar performance against better teams but this is a step in the right direction. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––— 2nd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 9-12, 108 yards, 1 sack for -7 yards Run: 6 rushes for 26 yards (4.3 ypc) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 21-37, 227 yards, 1 sack for -7 yards Run: 34 rushes for 167 yards (4.9 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: This is where the pass defense struggled.  UK had been really good in 2nd and long through 2 games but this is the one spot where South Carolina actually burned the Cats, especially in the 2nd half.  Rushing defense solid though. 2nd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 3-3, 30 yards Run: 2 rushes for 9 yards (4.5 ypc) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 5-7, 40 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT Run: 30 rushes for 160 yards (5.3 ypc), 1 TD RECAP: Not terrible although USC completed each pass here.  Overall on 2nd down, USC goes 12-15 for 138 yards, so the pass defense continued to struggle. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––— 3rd Down and Long (6 yards or more) Pass: 2-3, 32 yards (converted 1 of 3) Run: 2 rushes for 11 yards (5.5 ypc) (converted 0 of 2) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 12-19, 169 yards, 1 INT (converted 10 of 19) Run: 8 rushes for 37 yards (4.6 ypc) (converted 1 of 8) RECAP: South Carolina hit one long, 29 yard play but the UK defense was solid here, where they haven't been solid at all this year. 3rd Down and Short (5 yards or less) Pass: 0-2, 2 sacks for -6 yards (converted 0 of 4) Run: 4 rushes for 5 yards (1.3 ypc) (converted 2 of 4) Combined Season Statistics Pass: 7-12, 81 yards, 1 TD, 5 sacks for -31 yards (converted 7 of 17) Run: 19 rushes for 115 yards (6.1 ypc), 1 TD (converted 14 of 19) RECAP: Finally the Cats step up in 3rd and short situations.  Both USC conversions were 1 yard runs, so not exactly bad news there.  Just awesome stand after awesome stand for UK.