Defensive report card

Here's a look at the defensive side of the football in VU's 31-30 overtime win at Western Kentucky.

Last year, a main reason Vanderbilt couldn't pull a winning season was its losing the turnover battle. This year, VU's having success in that area, winning that 3-1--technically it was four, but I guess the box score either omitted, or doesn't count overtime turnovers-- with Tre Herndon having an interception and a fumble recovery and Torren McGaster recovering a fumble, and Ryan White sealing the game after an interception on the game's last snap.

The turnovers couldn't have come at better times--one came at the VU 5, and another at the 11--and WKU Ryan Nuss missing a 25-yard field goal didn't hurt.

The Commodores were also able to generate some heat on WKU quarterbacks as the second half wore on, sometimes in ways and angles we hadn't seen, which helped.

While Western moved the ball well, VU held the Hilltoppers to 3-of-12 on third downs, which helped considerably.

Frankly, Vanderbilt was the beneficiary of good timing more than anything, since it gave up 501 yards and wasn't good against either the pass or the run.

One could make the argument that the defense should have scored six points on its own. Taurean Ferguson picked up what looked like a lateral and ran it back 91 yards on the game's first drive. That was overturned by replay, much to the consternation of VU fans, and certainly it was close. It was essentially a 14-point swing since the Hilltoppers scored on the next play.

The Commodores may have generated some pressure on quarterbacks Mike White and Tyler Ferguson, but managed just one sack in 40 tries.

Vanderbilt's corners played well off the ball and gave Western too much opportunity to move the chains, which it did 27 times. It was hard to figure why the 'Dores gave eight-yard cushions so often when it worked so well for the Hilltoppers.

The 'Dores also got burned badly in Ferguson's 61-yard throw to Nacarius Fant and might have been burned some more had Mike White managed more accuracy.

Running back Anthony Wales ran too well, amassing 167 yards and 6.5 per carry. That was well past his season total of 102 and easily more efficient than his 3.9 yards per attempt coming in. Wales had huge holes to run through on WKU's last drive in regulation.

Herndon had the most impactful game of his career, with those two turnovers thwarting what were likely scoring drives otherwise. He had five stops (all solo) and one of those was a stop on Wales downfield on that final drive in regulation. Perhaps Wales wouldn't have scored, but he was certainly going to gain a nice chunk of yardage beyond where Herndon tackled him if he hasn't.

That was the first career interception for the Chattanooga native.

B-minus.

This is a tricky one to give, because honestly, the defense didn't look good most of the day. And also, there's not much shame in giving up 24 points in regulation to a powerful offense, and even the 476 yards to WKU weren't the worst performance given WKU's 431-yard average coming in. What feels bad about this is is that teams continue to rack up big yardage against this defense, and that's a poor recipe for bottom-line success.

Still, football is a bottom-line game and the Commodores did enough to win on the road against a good offense, so it seems a stretch to give the unit a bad grade even with the warts.