Louisiana Tech's performance on Saturday against NC State was marked by several struggles. The running game never gained traction, the defense struggled late in the game with depth, and QB Jack Turner struggled mightily under defensive pressure.

Even beyond Turner’s struggles in a collapsing pocket, the entirety of the passing game was inconsistent. Tech’s offense relied on big passing plays - every scoring drive included a pass of at least 30 yards and every drive without one ended without a score. The lone exception was the field goal just before halftime, which was set up by an interception in Wolfpack territory.

This Bulldog offense seems to live or die off of the big play. Fortunately for Tech, Tulsa’s defense has been susceptible to big passing plays this season:

Explosiveness, an advanced metric, measures just how successful a team’s successful plays were. A "successful" pass is defined as one that results in a score, achieves at least half of the yardage to gain on first down, 70% on second down, or results in a first down on third or fourth down. So a 5-yard gain on 1st & 10 is successful, while a 5-yard gain on 2nd & 10 is not.

Tech’s passing success rate this season stands at just 34%, ranking as the 21st worst in the country. But luckily, Tulsa’s defense has struggled just as much as Tech’s offense has with passing success:

Facing a defense this week that struggles against the pass, the hope for this Bulldog offense is that they can finally find some sustained success. The explosiveness should still result in big exciting plays. But if this offense can find a consistent rhythm, they can become truly dangerous.

But what could unravel the whole thing is pressure on the quarterback.

This Bulldog offense has looked its worst when Jack Turner is under pressure in the pocket. Fortunately, Tulsa’s defense has had difficulty pressuring the quarterback:

Sacks don’t cover the whole picture, but even if we expand the scope to include QB hurries, the Golden Hurricane has only achieved three sacks and three additional QB hurries in three games. For comparison, the Tech defense registered 6 sacks and 7 additional QB hurries in two games.

This Tech offense may still need to rely on downfield passing to find any success against Tulsa, and the pass blocking should allow those plays to develop. But if there is any time to get into a true passing game groove, it would be against the Golden Hurricane - a team that allows a successful passing play nearly half the time.

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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.