Each week, we take a look into the weekend's matchup and try to pinpoint three things Louisiana Tech needs to do to win. This week, the Bulldogs are heading down to Kiffintown for a Friday night game with the FAU Owls. What does Tech need to do to keep the Lane Train off the tracks?
1) Pressure the QB
As of writing this preview, FAU's QB Chris Robison is expected to start, although he may be out with an ankle injury. For Tech, this key to victory would apply, regardless of who is under center for the Owls on Friday night. For the sake of argument, let's look at Robison's stats. According to PFF, the Owl signal-caller is completing just 39% of his throws for 373 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions when pressured. I don't know if you've watched Tech lately, but the Dogs have an absolute DUDE who makes pressuring the quarterback easy. It won't be as easy on Friday, as FAU has only given up 7 sacks this year so far. Jaylon Ferguson has more than that by himself against UTEP and North Texas, so it'll be interesting to see which position group wins out. The Owls are also dealing with injuries to the Offensive Line, so Ferg and the Gang could double the Owls' total sacks allowed numbers down in Boca Raton. And hey, if Robison doesn't play, FAU will be inexperienced at both the Offensive Line and Quarterback positions, so I'd say that bodes well for the pass rush.
2) Bottle Up Devin Singletary
Look, it's no secret that FAU's Running Back Devin Singletary is very good. He's the best back in the C-USA, with 666 yards and 14 TDs through 7 games. But before Singletary makes his way to the NFL, he's got to make it through the Bulldogs. Last year, Singletary ran for 104 yards on 18 carries, and tacked on 3 touchdowns. While I don't expect the Dogs to stop Singletary, I think Tech can use a few key statistical advantages to help win the game. According to S&P+, FAU is currently getting stuffed on 22% of its rushing attempts (104th in FBS), while Tech's defense is stuffing 21.4% of rushing attempts (45th FBS). Tech's duo of defensive ends, Ferguson and Bradford, lead the team with 13 and 10 run stuffs, respectively. My guess is that Tech will sell out to stop the run and force Robison to beat them through the air. If Amik does Amik things and covers Javon Durante well, that shouldn't be an issue. As of now, the Owls run of 63% of "standard downs" (i.e. not obvious passing situations, which they run on 40% of the time). If that trend continues, Tech will need to slow Devin Singletary to win.
3) Get Your Roll On
It's been a few weeks since J'Mar Smith and the Louisiana Tech passing game have looked great. Last week against UTEP, the team under-performed both its own passing average and the average yards allowed by the Miners. J'Mar completed 17 throws, but 11 of them went to Teddy Veal, and only 5 other Bulldogs caught passes. Against FAU, the Dogs need to return to the mentality of spreading the ball around, having multiple receivers involved in the game, and completing the mid and long-range passes. In short, they need to get rolling. To do this, the offensive line will need to give J'Mar the time to be poised and make throws from the pocket. Luckily, FAU's sack rate is only 3.9%, which means that roughly 4 out of every 100 drop backs have resulted in sacks (114th FBS). Last week, the Dogs were a revolving door at offensive Tackle, but with some help from the injury gods, we could see some clean pockets for J'Mar to toss the pigskin from.
Evan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to follow @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter for more!
