[msqueri]

4. I wasn't quite as impressed by the offense but there were glimmers. The offense did a tick worse than Mississippi State (solid offense) and UTEP (bad offense) on a yard per play basis, which is not good but better than we might have feared. The thing I'm noticing is that all four games this year have been in a narrow (about half a yard per play) window in the mid 5s in terms of yards per play. I don't want to read too much in to it just yet, especially as we haven't started playing elite defenses, but it seems like we might be getting a picture coming into some focus when it comes to Taylor's offense in a few respects. First, it's consistent. It's been pretty bad, which is no surprise given the talent and inexperience, but it kind of does the same thing each game so far. Second, the floor for Taylor's offense may be higher than the floor for Shawfense. All four games this year have had a better yards per play than the 2021 or 2022 Shawfense averages. That may change as competition goes up (we've only played the #60 schedule and eventually will be top ten in all likelihood) but so far we haven't had a game of complete offensive futility like the 14 games the last two years in which we had five or fewer yards per play. When you consider that those offenses were led by Tanner McKee, Drake Nugent, Mike Wilson, Ben Yurosek, and Elijah Higgins and now the offense is led by Ashton Daniels, Justin Lamson, Yurosek, Connor McLaughlin, and Elic Ayomanor, I think we may already be seeing evidence of improved offensive coaching. It's not going to show up in terms of actually good offensive output until a lot changes with our personnel and experience levels but there are signs. The actual output....not good. Only Northern Arizona has passed worse against Arizona. We did a bit better in yards per pass and passer rating than our average but that's likely because Arizona struggles on pass defense. If we don't improve the passing game will be a struggle all year. We don't play anyone the rest of the way with a worse yards per pass allowed than Arizona so it could get ugly, though Colorado, Oregon State, and Cal could be vulnerable in that phase if we improve. We can chalk up another data point that we're better on the ground than through the air. It was our least successful run game of the season (swapping Pale for Berzins is significant) but our yards per carry, even with all the sacks, was better than Arizona's average allowed and Arizona is the stoutest run defense we've faced (and in fact the lowest yards per carry allowed on our schedule outside UCLA and Oregon State). We're building something that doesn't suck in the run game.

[msqueri]

4. I wasn't quite as impressed by the offense but there were glimmers. The offense did a tick worse than Mississippi State (solid offense) and UTEP (bad offense) on a yard per play basis, which is not good but better than we might have feared. The thing I'm noticing is that all four games this year have been in a narrow (about half a yard per play) window in the mid 5s in terms of yards per play. I don't want to read too much in to it just yet, especially as we haven't started playing elite defenses, but it seems like we might be getting a picture coming into some focus when it comes to Taylor's offense in a few respects. First, it's consistent. It's been pretty bad, which is no surprise given the talent and inexperience, but it kind of does the same thing each game so far. Second, the floor for Taylor's offense may be higher than the floor for Shawfense. All four games this year have had a better yards per play than the 2021 or 2022 Shawfense averages. That may change as competition goes up (we've only played the #60 schedule and eventually will be top ten in all likelihood) but so far we haven't had a game of complete offensive futility like the 14 games the last two years in which we had five or fewer yards per play. When you consider that those offenses were led by Tanner McKee, Drake Nugent, Mike Wilson, Ben Yurosek, and Elijah Higgins and now the offense is led by Ashton Daniels, Justin Lamson, Yurosek, Connor McLaughlin, and Elic Ayomanor, I think we may already be seeing evidence of improved offensive coaching. It's not going to show up in terms of actually good offensive output until a lot changes with our personnel and experience levels but there are signs. The actual output....not good. Only Northern Arizona has passed worse against Arizona. We did a bit better in yards per pass and passer rating than our average but that's likely because Arizona struggles on pass defense. If we don't improve the passing game will be a struggle all year. We don't play anyone the rest of the way with a worse yards per pass allowed than Arizona so it could get ugly, though Colorado, Oregon State, and Cal could be vulnerable in that phase if we improve. We can chalk up another data point that we're better on the ground than through the air. It was our least successful run game of the season (swapping Pale for Berzins is significant) but our yards per carry, even with all the sacks, was better than Arizona's average allowed and Arizona is the stoutest run defense we've faced (and in fact the lowest yards per carry allowed on our schedule outside UCLA and Oregon State). We're building something that doesn't suck in the run game.