Tuesday Morning Offensive Breakdown (BTI's Rants and Ramblings)

We’re back again with the offensive breakdown, recovering from the first loss of the season. We saw an offense that didn’t do anything particularly bad but also didn’t do a whole lot great either. In a game where the Kentucky offense needed to break off a couple of big plays, they couldn’t find any against one of college football’s greatest defenses. You will not see a lot of negative in the numbers below except that Kentucky was really good at getting three and four yards a play but not much more than that. They protected Will Levis pretty well and he got the ball into the hands of his receivers, but the run game was a non-factor and that is not how Kentucky football works best.

Take a look, if you must, at the offensive breakdown from the Georgia game. And hope the bye week leads to an offensive breakout against Mississippi State:

1ST DOWN

Against Georgia
Rush: 10 rushes for 16 yards
Pass: 9-14, 60 yards, 1 TD, 1 sack allowed

Combined Season Stats
Rush: 124 rushes for 679 yards, 5 TD (3 fumbles)
Pass: 50-75, 686 yards, 5 TD, 4 INT (2 sacks allowed)

Analysis: This offense had averaged 5.8 yards per carry on 1st down coming into the Georgia game. Against the Bulldogs, they averaged 1.6. That difference put Kentucky in a lot of 2nd and long situations and playing in those kind of downs against Georgia is death. Kentucky needed to control the lines and they just didn’t. The passing game was effective and for the first time since UL-Monroe, Kentucky leaned more pass than run. And that was fairly efficient but no big plays were to be had. Kentucky has to be able to run the ball on 1st down to be at its best.

2ND DOWN

Against Georgia
Rush: 8 rushes for 30 yards
Pass: 11-13, 50 yards

Combined Season Stats
Rush: 84 rushes for 596 yards, 6 TD (1 fumble)
Pass: 38-57, 343 yards, 3 TD (3 sacks allowed)

Analysis: Hard to draw a lot of offensive breakdown analysis from this. Kentucky was trying short passes to their playmakers and hoping they could make plays. They just weren’t able to. Obviously, a high completion percentage but Kentucky wasn’t taking a lot of risks either.

3RD DOWN AND LONG (6 YARDS AND MORE)

Against Georgia
Rush: 1 rush for 4 yards (converted 0 of 1)
Pass: 6-8, 45 yards, 1 sack allowed (converted 2 of 9)

Combined Season Stats
Rush: 6 rushes for 42 yards (converted 2 of 6)
Pass: 20-30, 286 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 2 sacks allowed (converted 11 of 32)

Analysis: You face 3rd and long against that Georgia defense and you are doomed. The Cats just had drive after drive stalled due to lack of productivity on 1st and 2nd down and faced impossible situations here. Much like 2nd down, the strategy was to throw the ball to Robinson or Rodriguez and hope for the best.

3RD DOWN AND SHORT (5 YARDS OR LESS)

Against Georgia
Rush: 3 rushes for 6 yards (converted 2 of 3)
Pass: 5-5, 34 yards, 1 TD, 1 sack allowed (converted 5 of 6)

Combined Season Stats
Rush: 20 rushes for 86 yards, 1 TD (converted 13 of 20)
Pass: 13-19, 69 yards, 3 TD, 4 sacks allowed (converted 11 of 23)

Analysis: Here is the one situation where the offensive breakdown can celebrate because the Cats were very good, and haven’t been very good much of the season. The only mess-up was in the 1st quarter when they were stuffed on 3rd and 1 and one sack given up. Otherwise, they did what they needed to in order to keep drives alive. It was only a lack of big plays and far too many negative plays on 1st and 2nd down that kept the Cats out of this situation more. Hopefully, they will not face 9 of these a game moving forward, but it was nice to see the improvement against the best defense in the country.