NIU defense may not be amazing after all

They gave up an easy 26 to Akron tonight.

Akron had over 300 yards passing. Lots of long passes over the top. Only a few yards rushing.

dsmith1212 wrote:

Akron had over 300 yards passing. Lots of long passes over the top. Only a few yards rushing.

Ever since Hall left BYU, BYU hasn't played a QB who has gone downfield nearly enough. We don't take enough long shots.



I take that back, Christian Stewart in 2014 and Tanner Mangum in 2015 went downfield a bunch. Consequently, they led the two highest scoring offenses since Hall left at 37.1 and 33.7 points per game respectively.



Sometimes you have to take chances to make chances. BYU's QBs and offensive coordinators have been reluctant to take chances downfield.



The OC's need to open it up and the QBs need to throw the ball further downfield more often.

Akron dropped 26 and 300 yards passing on NIU and all the Cougs could muster was 6? That's embarrassing. Now, having said that, watch them go out and beat Boise State tomorrow night - that's how this season has been - Jekyll and Hyde.

Spiff, you're a stats guy. Do you have anything on the career efficiency of the receivers that Hall and Mangum were throwing to those years?



It just seems like a long time since we've had a reliable receiving corps that could get downfield and make a catch. There have been plenty of tosses by both Mangum and Wilson that bounced off of guys' hands. That starts happening enough and an OC isn't going to give up a down by throwing a long incompletion.

I only have efficiency stats to receivers going back to 2010.

It'd be interesting to see the receiver efficiency for the starting receivers for the 2015 versus 2017 and 2018 seasons when Tanner was the QB throwing the ball (so not the Nebraska game) or the Hawaii/BSU games for 2018.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Akron had over 300 yards passing. Lots of long passes over the top. Only a few yards rushing.

Ever since Hall left BYU, BYU hasn't played a QB who has gone downfield nearly enough. We don't take enough long shots.



I take that back, Christian Stewart in 2014 and Tanner Mangum in 2015 went downfield a bunch. Consequently, they led the two highest scoring offenses since Hall left at 37.1 and 33.7 points per game respectively.



Sometimes you have to take chances to make chances. BYU's QBs and offensive coordinators have been reluctant to take chances downfield.



The OC's need to open it up and the QBs need to throw the ball further downfield more often.

You also need the receivers to make it work.

FWIW, Akron beat Northwestern, who is in the driver's seat to win the Big Ten West division.



Akron gave up 36 points and almost 500 yards to NIU's offense - that really only had one good drive against BYU. It can turn into a different style of game on both sides of the ball when there is lots of scoring.