We'll get this out of the way pretty quickly so that we can move along to the game that really matters....the visit from the Tiger/Plainsmen/Eagles/A-holes from Opelika.Troy Thoughts....
Offense:
-- I am developing a massive non-gay man crush on Knowshon Moreno. The kid's anatomy consists of one oversized heart, 100 pounds of guts, ridiculous legs, 1 arm to hold the football and a head for his helmet to rest upon. There are no other body parts. Total badass. (Image: Hipple)
-- Turnovers. Despite the Dawgs giving up two quick fumbles and an interception, we are STILL ranked #1 in the country for fewest offensive turnovers (9). This season has seen the Dawgs protect the ball remarkably well. Stafford is also tied with Wilson (Bama) for second in the SEC with the fewest INTs behind Tebow. He's throwing 1 int per 42.5 pass attempts. That's pretty damn good.
-- When Stafford wasn't getting creamed at the release of the ball, he looked pretty solid. I only thought he threw one exceptionally bad non-pressured pass, and that was the INT in the end zone. He and the WRs worked the seams nicely all day for good yardage.
-- Sean Bailey is a warrior. The kid is playing on a torn meniscus (sp?). He's basically holding his knee together with bubble gum and duct tape, yet he makes sweet plays in traffic to move the chains and score points.
-- The offensive line didn't give up a sack, and I don't remember and offsides. They did give up a holding penalty on a long throw to Massaquoi, but otherwise they played pretty well. In the first half, Troy seemed to sellout and send more blitzers. They made a lot of contact and rushed a lot of Stafford throws, but no sacks. I don't remember either QB being under much duress in the second half.
Defense:
-- I've seen lots of hand wringing over the defense giving up 400+ yards. It's not ideal obviously, but they scored a comparable number of points against Arkansas and Florida. Plus, we were coming off a massive win, and some sort of hangover was natural.
-- Defending the bubble screen. If you missed the game, I can give you the highlights pretty quickly. Remember the 2003 game against the Gators where the Chris Leak threw about 25 of those WR screens horizontally across the field, and Van Gorder never figured out a way to stop it? Well, there you go. It was like that. They mostly nickel and dimed us on that play with two big play exceptions. The good news is that Auburn's QB doesn't have the arm to consistently execute that play as well as Troy did. The bad news...UK's QB does have the arm for that.
-- Turnovers: Unfortunately, we rank 104th in the nation in creating turnovers, and that is after we landed two interceptions and two fumbles vs the Pride of Nowhere Alabama. We have intercepted four passes on the season. As a point of comparison Vandy, Arkansas and Bama have picked off 15 passes so far.
On to Auburn.
See Also
-- An open letter to Knowshon - Bulldawg Blawg
-- Not all that cheesed off - HeyJennySlater
-- Recap - DawgSports.com
PWD
