Seawolves Fans

Ahead of our match-up against SE Missouri State, I took a look at the statistics and a couple things jump out to me. When it comes to rushing defense, they're ranked 78th in the country giving up 189 yards per game. For reference, Fordham who we rushed for 311 yards against is ranked 81st in the country giving up 192 yards per game on average. Our highest rushing total of the year was against Rhode Island and they're ranked 54th nationally giving up 163 yards per game. We ran for 354 yards against them. Running the ball on these guys won't be a problem.

One thing I did find shocking about them was that their passing defense was ranked 122nd in the country (out of 124 teams). They give up on average 304 passing yards per game which is God awful. For reference, our best passing game of the year was 270 yards against Villanova and their passing defense is ranked 22nd nationally. A balanced attack will work for this game, but Carbone should have his best passing game of the season. The worst passing defense we faced this year was Richmond who is ranked 82nd and gave up 225 yards per game on average. Their secondary is clearly weak, and we can torch them through the air if need be.

The only thing concerning about them is they're ranked 9th nationally in scoring offense, averaging 39 points a game. That's quite good. Though for reference, JMU and Towson are ranked 13th and 14th averaging ~37 points per game. We held them to 13 and 52 points respectively. If the defense from the JMU game shows up, we'll handle SEMO State just fine. If the Towson defense shows up, this could turn into a real shootout. We're ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense. So you have the 9th best scoring offense in the country against the 10th best scoring defense. That'll be the match-up to watch.

Looking at these stats makes me feel much better about the game. Keep in mind that the Ohio Valley is nowhere near the conference the CAA is, so they're giving up all these yards against weak competition. Signature Stony Brook football of running the ball and playing stout defense should really work well this game, and Carbone ought to have confidence in his ability to throw the ball downfield should this game become a shootout.