The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn defense hoping to earn a passing grade
STORRS — During its current two-game winning streak, the UConn football team has been fortunate enough to run into inexperienced quarterbacks who didn’t seem to have earned the complete confidence of their coaching staffs. That is certainly not the case with Missouri coming to town.
No Southeastern Conference quarterback attempted more passes last season than the 434 thrown in 12 games by Missouri’s Drew Lock. Lock doesn’t lack for quality receiving options. Coming into this week’s games, Missouri joins Oklahoma State, UCLA and West Virginia as the only Football Bowl Subdivision teams to have three players with more than 400 receiving yards. It makes today’s nonconference showdown (6:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network) one in which UConn’s nation-worst pass defense has a rather daunting task.
“They have some good athletes, some really good receivers, a really good O-line,” UConn senior linebacker Junior Joseph said.
More than five years had elapsed since UConn had a game with at least 10 tackles for loss and six quarterback sacks, something the Huskies accomplished in last week’s win over Tulsa.
However, Lock has been sacked just six times this season, and Missouri is second among FBS teams, allowing just 3.1 tackles for loss per game.
“He throws the ball quick, he’s decisive with where he wants to go with the game and he’s a very talented quarterback,” Joseph said.
In the last couple of games, UConn has been able to get more pressure on the quarterback, resulting in some timely forced incompletions. However, UConn still ranks last nationally, giving up 373.4
passing yards per game while allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 67 percent of their passes.
It might be unrealistic to expect another six-sack performance, but making Lock uncomfortable should be pretty high on the Huskies’ defensive to-do list, especially with a pair of true freshmen and a redshirt freshman slated to start in UConn’s secondary.
“A lot of times with these spread offenses, the ball comes out so quick that you can’t get there,” coach Randy Edsall said. “They’ve only given us six sacks this year, so the ball comes out fast.”
If there is a positive aspect of facing Lock, it may be that in his last 11 games he has a total of 2 rushing yards. The Huskies can afford to be more aggressive in their pursuit of the quarterback without worrying too much about Lock scrambling.
Lock’s greatest attribute might be his ability and willingness to spread the ball around. Five different Tigers have at least one 50-yard reception. Lock leads all FBS quarterbacks with 12 passing plays of at least 50 yards and has 21 such throws in the last two seasons. Now he faces the only FBS defense to allow more than 100 passing plays of at least 10 yards.
The Huskies have faced teams with dynamic No. 1 receivers this season, but not one on which more receivers get involved in the offense. Seven different receivers have been targeted at least 14 times, but none more than 49. Three others have averaged at least one target per game.
J’Mon Moore, Missouri’s most-targeted receiver, is coming off an 11-catch game. Emanuel Hall leads all FBS receivers, averaging 28.4 yards per reception, the highest mark since Stephen Hill averaged 29.3 for Georgia Tech in 2011. Johnathon Johnson has 27 receptions, while tight ends Albert Okwuegbunam, Jason Reese and Kendall Blanton have combined for 403 yards on 20 receptions and eight touchdowns.
Edsall joked that he would like to petition the NCAA to let him play with 12 defensive players this week.
“Athletic at all positions,” senior cornerback Jamar Summers said of Missouri. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge and I’m looking forward to it.”