Tuesday Takeaways: App State by the numbers
Troy did at lot of things right on Saturday.
It did one thing wrong, but if you want to see that… YouTube is over there.
Troy can absolutely hold its head high after the way it performed. It picked up the tempo, picked up first downs, and picked up the slack without Carlton Martial.
Saturday’s Trojans looked like an entirely different team, especially on offense.
Here’s why.
The Good
2 – Troy’s wins against the spread
Good teams win, great teams cover. Troy showed up in games it didn’t belong, holding the No. 22 offense in the country to four touchdowns and playing to the last second when Lee Corso and Luke Combs said it had no chance.
The one loss was against Alabama A&M thanks to garbage time touchdowns that Troy shouldn’t have surrendered.
Honestly, a win is a win, against the spread or on the field.
8 – Troy’s national rank in yards per game
Did I really just erase Gunnar Watson and write Troy? Yes, I did. Because it’s true.
Last week I said “this passing game should have defensive coordinators sweating over their gameplans.”
Now this passing game DOES have defensive coordinators sweating.
Eight different receivers caught 23 passes for 302 yards. Jabre Barber, Tez Johnson and Deshon Stoudemire combined for 16 of those catches, and 181 yards.
No one scored for Troy through the air, but does that really matter? Watson had a 62.1% completion percentage. With the exception of the interception (we’ll get to that) and one broken-up pass, Troy mostly avoided the bad throws.
51 – The number of yards App State gave up through penalties.
I didn’t know which number to pick for this section, but that was the biggest. App State was penalized 6 times for 51 yards and 4 first downs.
Troy committed two penalties all game, giving up a total of 15 yards. One of those penalties was questionable, too. (How do you call false start on a quarterback for moving out from under center?)
Not only did Troy play a clean game, it took full advantage of App State’s mistakes, keeping drives alive.
3:48 – The average time consumed by a Troy drive*
*with the exception of the first (0:07) and last (0:53) drives
Troy literally did what it wanted with the clock, and it showed. The same defense that held a top-ten SEC team to two touchdowns the week before was chiseled up by an offense that ranked No. 109 in total offense last year.
The Trojans had two different drives of 75 yards, with two differences. One drive took 12 plays, the other 13. The other difference was time.
Seven minutes versus 90 seconds. One is a workout routine, the other is the time it takes to cook rice. Insert Louisiana joke here.
Like I said last week, this was the other key to converting third downs, keeping drives alive and the defense off the field.
How did that work out?
54.54 – Troy’s third down conversion percentage
Last week we talked about how Troy was 10-for-28 on third downs. They went 6-of-11 on Saturday. That’s a drastic improvement.
The trick is now keeping up these numbers against teams who are prepared for a passing attack.
The Bad
1 – Gunnar Watson’s number of interceptions by App State
Yes, it’s misleading. Gunnar started the game with a costly interception. Thankfully, it didn’t set the tone.
Also, as much as we will argue about the decisions in Troy’s last drive of the game, we have to consider the huge mistake on its first play.
If Gunnar doesn’t throw a pick, we’d likely see Troy drive down the field and strike first.
1 – Field goal attempts by Troy
I admit I’m really stretching to find bad things about this game. Brooks Buce’s missed field goal had as much impact on the outcome as Gunnar’s interception.
Would it have made a difference? Probably, but not a significant one.
1 – Sacks against FBS opponents this season
Granted, Troy has four QB hurries, two forced fumbles and an interception, but this defense that’s supposed to be one of the best in the country. The Trojans are currently 102nd in total defense.
Sure, it’s only three games into a relatively front-loaded season, but the Marshall offense we see this week might be one of the strongest yet. We’re legitimately looking at a ten-win season, but the defense has to step up if that’s going to happen.
Again, I’m stretching here. A ten-win season is a lofty goal.
But I’ve found faith in these Trojans.
The Incredible
8 – The number of red zone plays on App State’s second-to-last drive that failed to score
Yes I’m going to hype up this defense after roasting them. The “bend but don’t break” attitude is what kept Troy in the game.
I mean, if the miracle hadn’t happened, we would be talking about this drive all week. What a way to step up in the biggest moment (up to that point).
It’s so insane I’m just now realizing Troy misspelled “fourth” in its tweet.
I’m not even mad about the ending to the game. App State fans rushed the field against Troy.
They understand what just happened, and Troy fans need to realize what this team accomplished.
Legendary games have to have a loser, but that means even the loser put in a legendary performance.