What's the difference between being 2-4 and 5-1? It could be little more than scoring. I know it is elementary but a closer look at the stats for both our team and Rutgers really drives home the point. Look at these offensive stats through six games:

                           UL       Rutgers

First downs          106         123

Rushing yds         109          92

Pass comp %      62%      54.8%

Pass yds/att          4.8         4.4

Passing yds          222         241

Total Yds/game      331        333

3rd Down Conv       41%      41%

Defensively both teams are mirror images allowing 304 and 306 yds per game and 17.1 vs 16 points per game. So what's the difference between the two? Scoring and turnovers.

                             UL        Rutgers

Scoring/game       16.3        30.3   

Turnovers                - 4        + 13

With basically the same offensive numbers, Rutgers averages 30 points per game to our 16. In fact, we have only scored more than 20 points twice all season and won both times. So with about the same offensive production Rutgers has scored about twice as many points resulting in 5 times the number of wins.

The other glaring number is turnovers. While our defense is playing very solidly, it sure would help if we could get something approaching that +13 turnover figure to give the offense some short fields and hopefully help them put some more points on the board.

I know we have all lamented about how ineffective the offense has been but a Rutgers team, with amazingly similar overall offensive stats (and worse rushing numbers) is 5-1. This team simply has to learn to capitalize on it's opportunities and score points. As hapless as they have looked at times, the fact is they are good enough to win these remaining games. They have got to believe.