Not to mention poor special teams play and a deficit in the turnover margin. Field position has been an issue in the losses. Also in the losses (i.e., EWU and Montana) very slow starts. I seem to remember in 2018 a lot of first drive scores and a fast-paced offense. Those attributes seem to have faded.
. I don't think stats comparing teams which play vastly different schedules are meaningful. At this point of the season they have played enough big sky games that the conference only stats is much more meaningful.
Davis is
2nd in defense points allowed, defensive efficiency, defensive rushing yards & average per rush 2nd in points allowed
9th in points scored
5th in rushing yards and average per play yards (largely without Larison and limited Tompkins)
6th in passing and offensive efficiency.
11th in yards per pass attempt
Only two interceptions on offense and one on defense.
Everything looks to be in the top half of the BSC....except for points scored and yards per pass attempt.
I sounds like a broken record, but I don't see the ball being thrown downfield +10 yards as often as in recent seasons. There could be a stat somewhere that proves me wrong.
The offense isn't "dangerous" this year, especially without Lan.
obviously our defense is the better performing unit. I think our defensive has the potential to be even better. They are so close to being able to dominate a game but haven’t done so yet. They tend to give up yards mostly in the second half.
Our offense will look a lot better with Larison and Tompkins. It will be interesting to see what they do with Tompkins. I think part of the answer to deeper pass plays is Gbatu.
A large part of Davis' low sack count is our absolute inability or unwillingness to throw the ball deep, Hastings is getting rid of it very quickly because the offense is largely designed to not push the ball down field.
I hope Larison is truly healed up and not just "healed up enough to play." I remember Hawk saying Larison was learning to run with a brace on his knee a couple of weeks ago. It will be interesting to see just how effective he can be after missing a month rehabbing his knee. I sure hope he doesn't get injured again.
Amateur here, but on 2nd and 2, why not have Gbatu run a fly pattern, and chuck it 5 yards past him, just to keep them honest. Opposing announcers made a similiar point - stretch the field.
I happened to watch again some of the Montana game. Hastings had two 25 to 30 yard in the air completions in the third quarter against Montana. He also had two consecutive passes for losses, one to a running back and one to the tight end. I’m not sure Hasting has the arm to throw more than 30 yards effectively, so maybe they should figure out how to make the short pass plays work, or not call so many of them. There are two ways to increase the average per pass attempt and one is to not throw for losses. With Larison back they might just run in some of those situations.
On the coaching staff they have a receivers coach with a lot of experience at SFCC, Hawaii, and Washington State, a tight end coach who was the passing coordinator at San Diego, a running back coach who was passing game coordinator at Case Western, and an offensive assistant who was an offensive coordinator at Willamette, in addition to Cody and Shanbour. I don’t think the coaching staff are without ideas. Hopefully Cody is open to input from those guys.
I think the Ags are a slight underdog going into this game. Although NAU is only 2-5 on the season, they only lost to Sac on the road by a single point, 31-20, and they beat Weber by 17 in Ogden, 27-10, whereas we escaped with a one point win over the Wildcats. So NAU has shown that they can be very good and they have the home field advantage too.
On the other hand, I feel like the Aggies are still trying to figure out how to play well on both sides of the ball in a complete game. The defense has shown they can be outstanding but then they have had games where they struggled to stop teams on third and long and our special teams have been very inconsistent. Inconsistency and turnovers have hurt us on offense as well and the injuries we've had at RB have really complicated matters. Consequently, the offense has often looked one dimensional without the explosive rushing attack earlier in the season.
It will be good to have Larison back today but you have to wonder how things will go for him after the long layoff to rehab his injured knee. Hopefully, the bye week will have allowed Tompkins to heal up more as well. I keep thinking that the offense has yet to break out. Maybe today will be the day but it's going to be tough especially if the NAU team that took Sac to the limit shows up in the dome in Flagstaff.
A playoff opportunity is riding on today's game and the next two leading up to the Causeway Classic with Sac. I think today is a must win in order to keep our playoff chances alive.
Agreed, NAU is no pushover despite their current record. Not to mention this is homecoming for them I believe so they should have at least a decent crowd backing them.
Portland State ran on NAU pretty much at will 2 weeks ago - something like 375 yards. Would be nice for the Ags to have a strong run game today. Just take care of the ball and I think the Ags will be fine. They have the better defense.