Penalties are putting the team behind the chains
When an offense is not making explosive plays, it is critical that it does not fall behind the chains and face too many long down-and-distance scenarios. But in the last two games, penalties have put the offense in too many unmanageable third downs.
Against OU, the average yards Tech had to pick up every time it snapped the ball on third down was 7.6. And several times, that was because of penalties.
Five of the team’s eight penalties came on the offense. After each one, Tech was forced to punt before picking up another first down.
The most costly was Dawson Deaton’s flag for being downfield ineligibly which erased a Mannix TD reception in the third quarter. Facing Oklahoma on the road is tough enough but to take precious points off the board with a penalty is criminal.
We saw the problem begin against Arizona. On Tech’s first drive, a false state turned a makeable 3rd-and-3 into a 3rd-and-8 that was not converted.
In the second quarter, a Terence Steele holding call killed a drive that had reached the Arizona 45. Even with Alan Bowman healthy, this offense has been awful in 2019 when it comes to converting 3rd-and-longs so penalties are proving to be even more costly than they would be for an offense like Oklahoma’s, which showed us Saturday that it can produce huge plays at will.
This week, Tech will play a Power 5 game at home for the first time this year. Hopefully, being in front of the home crowd will allow the team to communicate more effectively and cut down on the penalties that are putting the offense in high-difficulty situations on 3rd-down.