BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Where Does the UK Offense Need to Improve Most?

by:Bryan1308/16/16
drew-barker Last season the UK offense seemed to get worse and worse as the season progressed.  The rushing attack was dynamic at the beginning of the season and still had its moments through all 12 games.  But Patrick Towles was not consistently effective and was downright bad at certain points.  And Drew Barker in the Louisville game was maybe the worst half of QB play in UK history.  Below are UK's stats for the 2015 season in each down situation.  Where can they improve the most in 2016? 1ST DOWN Combined 2016 Season Statistics Run: 189 rushes for 1,000 yards (5.3 ypc), 5 TD Pass: 84-149, 960 yards, 6 TD, 7 INT, 8 sacks for -50 yards RECAP:  These stats weren't awful.  Over 5 yards per carry and over 10 yards per completion.  But the completion percentage was low on the INT's were high.  Let's see if the Cats can get the YPC up around 6 for the season and Barker can hit some more big plays on 1st down. 2ND DOWN AND LONG (6 yards or more) Run: 86 rushes for 563 yards (6.5 ypc), 3 TD Pass: 51-98, 478 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 5 sacks for -30 yards RECAP: You'll see this a lot that UK really rushed the ball pretty well in many situations but their completion percentage was just bad in clear passing downs.  Just a little over half of the passes completed and very few big plays. 2ND DOWN AND SHORT (5 yards or less) Combined Season Statistics Run: 44 rushes for 160 yards (3.6 ypc), 7 TD Pass: 16-22, 123 yards, 1 INT RECAP: This was interesting too.  On 2nd and short, when rushing plays are more expected, the Cats struggled.  To me, this was offensive line play.  The inability to block the defense effectively when they would think the run was coming.  Good teams can still gain serious yards even when the other team knows. 3RD DOWN AND LONG (6 yards or more) Combined Season Statistics Run: 16 rushes for 169 yards (10.6 ypc), 1 TD (converted 9 of 16) Pass: 49-87, 733 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT, 11 sacks for -74 yards (converted 30 of 98) RECAP: Converted just a little over 30% with passing plays last season.  Also gave up 11 sacks in this scenario.  They were able to surprise some teams with some effective rushing plays here. 3RD DOWN AND SHORT (5 yards or less) Combined Season Statistics Run: 30 rushes for 166 yards, 1 TD (5.7 ypc) (converted 19 of 30) Pass: 10-26, 151 yards, 4 sacks for -33 yards (converted 9 of 30) RECAP: Completing passes for 5 yards or less was awful last year.  Completed 35% of passes and only converted 31% of 3rd downs through the air.  Can Drew Barker improve upon that or not will be key?

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2024-03-28