WKU Football: Tops Let Late Lead Slide in 23–22 Loss to Louisiana Tech
WKU could’t find any rhythm offensively and the defense seemed to just run out of gas as Louisiana Tech erased a 22–13 deficit to beat the Tops, snapping WKU’s 15-game home winning streak, with a 23–22 victory on Saturday.
Compared to last week against Illinois, everything offensively looked better for the Tops in the early going. Mike White had 1.) more time to make decisions and 2.) when he continued to opt for the short passes, his receivers made more out of them. When it was all said and done, White completed 25 of his 35 pass attempts for 226 yards and added a first quarter rushing touchdown — the first of the game, and it gave the Tops an 8–0 lead after a funky two-point conversion.
Xavier Lane and Deon Yelder alternated being White’s go-to target in the first half, with a little bit of the run game sprinkled in, but outside of a handful of drops, the receiving corps stepped up when called upon. No deep shots were really taken, as the Tops used scoring drives of 11, 10 and eight plays to score their touchdown drives.
Lane and Yelder both finished the day with 54 receiving yards — Lane on five receptions and Yelder on six.
The defense looked very good for most of the game, as well, holding Tech to 13 points through three quarters and putting pressure on Tech quarterback J’Mar Smith.
The final piece of the puzzle, the rushing game, stood tall as well, as Quinton Baker finished with 79 yards on 14 carries and Marquez Trigg added 48 yards on 14 touches. In total, the Tops rushed for 151 yards.
Unfortunately for WKU, things started to fall apart offensively in the fourth quarter. Baker went down with an injury (twice, actually — he came back onto the field and was reinjured on his first play back from scrimmage) and when the Tops had the chance to take time off the clock and put points on the board, they failed to do so, including a missed field goal in the third quarter from Ryan Nuss.
It looked like the game might have been iced following a Joe Brown interception in the fourth quarter, but the Tops offense stalled and gave the ball right back to Tech.
The Bulldogs sealed the deal with a chip-shot field goal in the closing seconds of the game.
Overall, there was a lot to like — the protection for White, overall, was better, the rushing game was more effective and the offense looked competent more often than not.
This is, admittedly, the first time I actually watched a WKU game this year (I didn’t pay $20 to watch the Flo stream for EKU and I had half an eye on Illinois last week) and it’s amazing the difference in feeling between last year’s team to this year’s team. I know a lot of offensive weapons were lost, and yes it’s a whole new coaching staff. I get all that. But not even the Taggart to Petrino transition looked this different.
WKU, right now, looks like a brand new football team from what we’ve been watching over the last half decade. And, even worse than that, WKU looks like a team that doesn’t know what they’re supposed to be doing. They look lost and directionless. In years past, we could point to one thing (mostly, “the offense”) and say that is WKU football.
As of right now, there isn’t any of that.
Let it be 100% clear — losing to Louisiana Tech isn’t bad. It’s the way in which WKU seemingly allowed Tech to get back into the game that is bad, and even worse, worrisome about what the rest of the year will spell for the Tops.
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