Did you hear when Stan said basically "West Virginia played stupid on D, the Cats are the 1st team with a brain Baylor has faced."
This team is a lot of things, but it ain't smart.
The implication is being sound in our schemes, and I think that is potentially true. Hayes has been a solid DC and only once has an opponent scored more than their season PPG average against us. Of course, that was last year's Baylor team. On average teams score nearly 12 points less than their average PPG against Hayes led defenses at K-State.
How many snaps are they getting compared to their average? Not to say Hayes hasn't done a good job, but ball control has to be affecting that as much as the defense, no?
Yes, they go together well and part of the reason is the pace of the game. Hayes' defenses have been above average, but not great. Points per play this year is at .336, last year was .326. Yards per play this year is 5.0, last year was 5.2.
Our time of possession percentage for this season 53.8% and 53.4% last year.
Also, currently Baylor is running 84 plays per game on average and last year was the same. They ran 81 plays against us last year.
The Cats are running 67.5 plays per game, 65.5 last year. Last year against Baylor we ran 82.
Also of note, last year against Baylor we only had 76 yards rushing and only 2.5 yards per carry. Besides turnovers, how well K-State can run the ball will play a big factor in this game.