The slide continues for WKU as the Tops come up short in the second edition of the Willie Taggart Bowl. The former WKU All-American player and later Hilltopper coach took down his alma mater by a 10-6 margin, avenging a loss as South Florida's coach in the Miami Beach Bowl in 2015. Let's see what 5 things we can glean from yet another WKU loss.
No Offense... Big Problem
2 field goals.... 6 points.... that's it... that's all. WKU is still struggling offensively and it only seems to get uglier week after week. This week, WKU quarterback Tyrell Pigrome and company managed to gain 257 yards, with 94 coming from the ground and the rest coming from the passing game. While these numbers are somewhat better than in previous weeks, its hard to give this team a gold star in the offensive department.
I hate to sound like a song stuck on repeat but there is no consistency for the Tops. 7 of 17 on third downs. Piggy T has slowed down his running prowess, partially due to mandate from Coach Tyson Helton and partially due to a bout of turf toe. That means more handoffs to running backs like Gaej Walker and more pocket passes. Walker came up with 163 yards on 19 for 39 passes. Still not great, but better.
I'm still calling for an increase in the running game. Using a two back system coupling Walker and Jakari Moses running at the same clip can help make a defense unsettled about what you are going to throw at them. This may work or it may not, but there needs to be more opportunities for these players to put numbers up and get some reps at the running position.
More Penalties
Much props to the Hilltoppers for cleaning up some of the stupid mistakes which plagued the team over the past few weeks. No fumbles, no interceptions. After weeks of multiple forced and unforced fumbles and sloppy interceptions, it's good to see a stronger effort to hold the ball and keep it out of the hands of FAU.
On the flip side, WKU once again racked up the penalties and the penalty yardage. 6 penalties for 50 yards. While the amount of yards it cost them was minimal, its more the principle of giving up any yards. When you are a sputtering offense and a defense that is hot and cold, you can ill afford to give your opponent any advantage over you. So while the Tops are working on every other aspect of their game, special time needs to be spent on dropping the amount of penalties per game. Otherwise, those penalties could keep WKU from winning another game this season.
Time Is On Our Side
I give the Tops credit for winning the Time of Possession approximately 34 minutes to 26 on FAU's side. However, the key is what do you do with that time. When WKU had the ball, the end result was 5 punts, 1 turnover on downs and 2 Field Goals. Generally, a time disparity such as this leans in the favor of the team of holding the ball longest. However, again WKU couldn't make much head way with the ball. 3 and outs won't get you anywhere.
The Rundown
WKU came into Saturday averaging 115 yards on the ground. This week, the Tops only got 94 yards. Gaej Walker picked up 78 of those yards as he continues to become more and more valuable to the cause as he is getting more comfortable in the offense. Coach Helton has mentioned in the previously he wants to make the running game more of a focus in-game and that a bulk of runs need to come from the running backs instead of the quarterback. Well that's great in theory, but are you properly utilizing the personnel who may not be skilled enough to have a 250 yard game day this season but can give you 50-100 a contest? That's the question WKU will have to answer moving forward.
A Strong Defense
The WKU defense looked a lot better than it has in previous weeks. The Owls were held to only 10 points and 273. The Hilltoppers snagged an interception and DeAngelo Malone took down FAU's quarterback, Nick Conti for a 7-yard sack. Several knocked down balls and put pressure on Conti kept Taggart's quarterback to keep him largely at bay and made him a fairly non-factor in the game.
Although WKU went down in this game, the defense kept the Tops in the game until the fourth quarter. That's big for this team, which had been getting blown out pretty early in contests. Now provided, FAU is only on their third game of the season and is still trying to figure out how each other on the field. The Tops can put out a strong defensive product, then that will keep them competitive in each of the remaining games and take some pressure off of the offense.
That might make the defense in another Topper loss versus another Topper win.
