Five Things Learned: Akron Zips vs. Troy Trojans

Five things learned after watching Troy defeat Akron 35-7:

1. Akron’s pass defense was noticeably improved:

Troy is a very good passing team, ranked 13th in the FBS with 334 yards per game. Akron held Troy to 215 yards passing. Also, Akron had given up 13 passing plays of 20 yards or more in its first three games but allowed zero passes of 20 yards or more against Troy. To get an idea of how good of a job that was by Akron, Troy had 500 yards of passing last week against Conference USA contender Southern Mississippi, including four passes of 35 yards or more.

Akron’s Shawn Featherstone returned a interception for 40 yards.

2. Alvin Davis had his best game of the year

Our ninth-ranked MAC player of 2019 had his best game of the young season against the Trojans. Davis was all over the field, finishing with 17 tackles and three tackles for loss.

3. Special teams keeps improving

After some tough weeks the first few games of the season, Akron’s special teams play has improved significantly. Punter Jonah Wieland continues to improve and probably had his best game of the season with a 46.0 yard average against Troy and a 59-yard punt that pinned Troy back at its own four yard line.

4. Akron’s running game had its best week of the year

Akron struggled early in the year to run the football, with running backs rushing for a combined 1.71 yards per carry. Akron’s running backs Brandon Lee and Deltron Sands averaged over 6 yards per carry against Troy on a combined nine carries. Granted, it suffers from a small sample size, but it's very encouraging.

5. Akron’s offense significantly improved in the area of negative plays against.

Akron's offense came into its game against Troy averaging 12.6 tackles for loss against per contest including 6 sacks allowed per game. Akron finished the game against Troy with only four tackles for loss including only two sacks allowed.