Perspective/Retrospective .... Takin' Care of Business

[fourthandshort]

Last year ...

.. we beat a 4-7 Pioneer team Valpo 28-21 in week 2. They had 19 1st downs to our 16. We outgained them 325 to 256.
.. we beat 0-11 WIU 20-13 in week 11 in OT at home. They outgained us 262 to 223 in total yards.. We needed a pick 6 in Q1 and TD in OT to get 14 of our 20 pts - granted, Annexstad was out.

This year ...

-- we beat an 8-3 Pioneer team Dayton 41-0 in week 2. We outgained them 473 to 203
- we beat WIU 34-18 in week 2 on road. We outgained then 461 to 200.

Given how weak our offense was a year ago and how much we lost on defense from a year ago ... I view this as a very good start by comparison given all the legitimate questions on both sides of the ball and special teams.

So I'd say, we are most definitely Takin' Care of Business so far ...

 

[fourthandshort]

Here are some stat rankings as of 2 games ... fully acknowledging we have played a very weak SOS to this point. And that most other teams have played a 1 tough game and 1 easy game, or even 2 relatively tough games. So this is just to point out, that while we have some things to clean up on special teams especially, defense (getting off the field), and then some fine tuning still on offense ... that we are nonetheless, takin' care of business against these weak teams.

Here are some Team Stats with FCS Rank and Stat:

Total Yards:
.. Defense .. #1 at 2.72/play, #2 at 199 ypg
.. Offense .. #9 at 7.30/play, #9 at 467 ypg

Rush Yards:
.. Defense .. #1 at 1.23/play, #1 at 46 ypg
.. Offense .. #4 at 7.22/play, #12 at 235 ypg

Pass Yards: added QBR stat
.. Defense .. #4 at 4.30/play, #19 at 153 ypg, #10 at 95.7 QBR
.. Offense .. #21 at 7.38/play, #33 at 233 ypg, #23 at 147.1 QBR

Sacks & TFLs: # per gm
.. Defense .. #1 at 5/gm, #2 at 11.0/gm
.. Offense .. #17-T at 1/gm, #4 at 2.5/gm

Scoring:
.. Defense .. #3 at 9.0 ppg
.. Offense .. #15 at 37.5 ppg

Last point, we also rank 77th for TO margin (-1/gm), and certainly aren't getting help from our special teams to this point .. first game was solid, 2nd game was bad. So we are getting no help in these areas to this point. In WIU game, it is main reason we weren't able to pull away until Q4.

All of which speaks to the point I'm trying to make .. from the line of scrimmage, we are off to a good start against these weak teams - very unlike a year ago. Do we need tighten things up still .. absolutely on special teams, and certainly we expect to and need to get better on defense - including causing TOs. And then continue to fine tune our offense for when the schedule gets very tough in games 5 against SDSU (home) and 6 against a tough YSU (road).

So again ... assuming first 5 games go as expected and we are 4-1, this YSU game is looming even larger as our first game who's outcome is uncertain. And we must be ready to prove we are a playoff team. I think the offense and defense are both on right tracks, especially from line of scrimmage .. and special teams is work in progress.

edited: Defense TFLs to #2 at 11/gm