Stat It Up: How Does WKU Compare?

facebooktwitterreddit

Well well. The Ragin Cajuns not only love playing on Tuesday night on the national spotlight, but they love winning Sun Belt titles (which they all but wrapped up last night by trouncing Arkansas State).

If for no other reason, WKU fans should have loved last night’s affair reason to see what happened to the Tops happen to the Red Wolves with little to zero rooting interest left (unless you just can’t stand ULL or AState. Than I can’t help you there. MTSU is the team to never pull for). The Cajuns started against the Wolves right where they left off against the Tops, and routed ASU 23-7, and jumped out to a 17-0 lead (but man, what an awful second half of football).

During the game, I kept comparing that performance by both WKU and ASU against the Cajuns. I thought surely WKU had the better game and put up the better fight. And then, because I get bored during my Sports Management class, I crunched the numbers, and here is the tale of the tape:

First Downs: WKU – 24                                              Arkansas St. – 10
Third Down Conversions: WKU – 2/10             Arkansas St. – 5/12
Total Yards (Pass/Rush):    WKU – 471 (338/133)      Arkansas St. – 168 (89/79)
Yards allowed to ULL (Pass/Rush): WKU – 344 (90/254)  Arkansas St. – 470 (205/265)
Time of Possession: WKU – 30:04                                    Arkansas St. – 17:42

So that’s that. The main team stats of the game (offensively), side to side. And, for the most part, WKU looks like they had the better game versus ULL (the only real advantage Ark St. had was on 3rd down conversions, which is odd, because that has been one of WKU’s strong suits all season).

But, with all of that said, how did each defensive squad do against ULL’s top offensive weapons? WKU held the Cajuns to less yards than the Wolves did, but what about the actual breakdown?

VS. WKU:
Terrence Broadway: 5/12, 90 yds, TD. 13 car, 40 yds, TD
Alonzo Harris: 22 car, 115 yds, 2 TD
Elijah McGuire: 9 car, 71 yds
Jamal Robinson: 3 rec, 57 yds

VS. ASU:
Broadway: 18/28, 205 yds, TD, 10 car, 28 yds
Harris: 29 car, 105 yds, 2 TD
McGuire: 10 car, 110 yds
Robinson: 7 rec, 104 yds

Again, overall, WKU did a better job of holding the Cajun offense attack in check, however, a majority of Harris’ attack against the Tops came in the second half (and almost half of the carries in the opening drive of the 3rd quarter), while Harris had a good overall game against the Wolves.

So, WKU fans, don’t feel alone. The lovely folks in Jonesboro feel your pain of dropping a big game on a big stage in a big way. But it’s okay. Soon we will say peace out to the SBC and be the blacksheep in CUSA.

Stand up and cheers.