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Offensive Stats vs. Kansas: Bryce Petty spreads the love

I don't often do stats posts for individual games, but I wanted to highlight an underrated portion of Baylor's offensive performance Saturday night.

John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter BAY KS
BAY TD 9:17 Tevin Reese 62 yard pass from Bryce Petty (Aaron Jones kick) 7 0
BAY TD 7:15 Lache Seastrunk 29 yard run (Aaron Jones kick) 14 0
BAY TD 3:57 Glasco Martin 14 yard run (Aaron Jones kick) 21 0
2nd Quarter BAY KS
BAY TD 12:49 Bryce Petty 5 yard run (Aaron Jones kick) 28 0
BAY FG 4:34 Aaron Jones 30 yard field goal 31 0
BAY TD 2:00 Tevin Reese 25 yard pass from Bryce Petty (Aaron Jones kick) 38 0
3rd Quarter BAY KS
BAY TD 11:18 Corey Coleman 49 yard pass from Bryce Petty (Aaron Jones kick) 45 0
KS TD 4:51 Brandon Bourbon 22 yard run (Matthew Wyman kick) 45 7
BAY TD 1:00 Rashodrick Linwood 4 yard run (Kyle Peterson kick) 52 7
4th Quarter BAY KS
KS TD 11:14 Rodriguez Coleman 30 yard pass from Jake Heaps (Matthew Wyman kick) 52 14
BAY TD 6:03 Rashodrick Linwood 68 yard run (Kyle Peterson kick) 59 14

THE QUARTERBACKS:

Passing
Player School Cmp Att Pct Yds Y/A AY/A TD Int Rate
Bryce Petty Baylor 20 32 62.5 430 13.4 15.3 3 0 206.3
Seth Russell Baylor 1 6 16.7 7 1.2 1.2 0 0 26.5

I counted 5, possibly 6 passes in the first half that probably should have been caught, and another that fell incomplete where I thought the defender interfered with our receiver.  Despite overthrowing 2 deep balls early, Petty was on last night.

RUNNING BACKS:

Rushing Receiving Scrimmage
Player School Att Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD Plays Yds Avg TD
Lache Seastrunk Baylor 13 109 8.4 13 109 8.4 0
Glasco Martin Baylor 11 55 5.0 11 55 5.0 0
Rashodrick Linwood Baylor 9 106 11.8 9 106 11.8 0
Bryce Petty Baylor 4 22 5.5 4 22 5.5 0
Seth Russell Baylor 3 15 5.0 3 15 5.0 0
Devin Chafin Baylor 3 -1 -0.3 3 -1 -0.3 0

WIDE RECEIVERS:

Rushing Receiving Scrimmage
Player School Att Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD Plays Yds Avg TD
Clay Fuller Baylor 6 44 7.3 0 6 44 7.3 0
Tevin Reese Baylor 4 110 27.5 2 4 110 27.5 2
Levi Norwood Baylor 4 66 16.5 0 4 66 16.5 0
Corey Coleman Baylor 2 66 33.0 1 2 66 33.0 1
Jay Lee Baylor 2 56 28.0 0 2 56 28.0 0
Antwan Goodley Baylor 2 43 21.5 0 2 43 21.5 0
Robbie Rhodes Baylor 1 52 52.0 0 1 52 52.0 0

This chart was the real reason I wanted to write this post to begin with: to show how evenly Baylor managed to distribute the ball among our wide receivers yesterday.  One criticism that could be leveled at our passing offense so far this season is that it was extremely top-heavy.  If something happened to Tevin Reese or Antwan Goodley, being concerned about our passing production would have been totally reasonable based on results before yesterday.  Those two have carried the lion's share of the load so far, almost the exclusion of everyone else.

Then something happened yesterday that might actually not be all that bad in retrospect: Goodley left the game for precautionary reasons.  Without him as the obvious go-to target opposite Reese, Petty had to go to lesser-used options like Jay Lee and Corey Coleman.  Shoot, even Robbie Rhodes caught a long pass that I don't think he knew was coming until it landed in his arms.  Were he available, that pass probably goes to Goodley.  Clay Fuller, recipient of 9 passes in the 6 preceding games, led the team in receptions with 6.  In all, Petty hit 7 different receivers on just 20 completions.  Sans-Goodley, he was challenged to spread the ball around a little and rose to that challenge to great effect.

Highlights vs. Kansas

I said last night that I thought this was Petty's best performance to date, and after watching the game again this evening instead of Sunday Night Football, I feel even more strongly than ever.  Instead of "just" lofting the ball up for receivers who already beat their DBs, we saw Petty make throw after throw in traffic, on a line, right to the hands of a waiting receiver.  Don't get me wrong, I love the bombs.  But I find it even more impressive when the QB makes the correct read on a shorter, potentially more dangerous throw, and delivers the ball exactly where it needs to be.  The TD pass to Tevin Reese at 2:02 in the video at right is a good example of what I'm talking about.  If that pass sails, it might be an interception.  If it's too low, the same.  Everybody loves seeing the ball aired out for 60 yards, but we already knew Petty could do that.  As the DBs get better, this kind of intermediate throw will be more and more important.  That's why I was so excited to see it.

Resident GifMaestro Nick_Pants caught the play I'm talking about from the TV angle, which is better.  Here is it, reproduced with his permission.

It looks like an easy pitch and catch because they make it look that way.  I was very impressed by this throw, as well as the several others that looked exactly like it against KU's defense.

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