After Parker McNeil’s four-interception game against South Alabama, could anybody see these last two performances out of the bye week coming? In the games against UTEP and North Texas, McNeil has thrown six total touchdowns and no interceptions.
This means Tech is no longer the worst intercepting team in Conference USA. That honor belongs to the Rice Owls and quarterback TJ Mcmahon:
Last week, Rice was down three points to FAU with just over four minutes left. Mcmahon threw a deep bomb for Luke McCaffrey that the defender was able to catch over his shoulder like a receiver it was intended for.
It was Mcmahon’s third INT of the day.
With Parker McNeil, the hope is that the interceptions are behind him. Regression is always possible, but McNeil now passes the eye test in ways he didn’t before entering conference play.
But over his seven-game career, Mcmahon has a 12 touchdown to 11 interception ratio. The first was by Bee Jay Williamson in the 2021 season finale against Tech.
And with how the Tech pass defense has played this year, Williamson might add another:
But as good as the Bulldog secondary has been this season, it can’t make up for a non-existent pass rush. Mcmahon’s struggles are in large part due to how little time he has to throw. Throwing hurried passes to avoid sacks rarely goes well.
And it’s not like he’s able to avoid those sacks either:
The downside here is that Tech’s defensive line has struggled. We saw what North Texas did against this front seven on the ground. But on passing plays, the Bulldogs' pass rush is the second worst in FBS football:
For the Rice passing game, that’s where the questions start.
Will Tech’s defensive line improve to be able to put any kind of pressure on Mcmahon? If they aren’t able to get to the QB, will Mcmahon still force passes into coverage that could end up as picks? Does this even matter if Bulldog run defense continues to give up 6.9 yards per carry?
Louisiana Tech has its work cut out for them on homecoming. Several areas on both offense and defense need to improve for Tech to end the Rice winning streak over the Bulldogs at just one game.
But if Bee Jay Williamson and the rest of the Tech secondary can provide an interception or two at a crucial point, the Bulldogs may go 1-0 on the day celebrating the 12-0 1972 Lousiana Tech team.
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Nathan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.
