Michigan And Ohio State - Statistical Snapshots Of Two Defenses

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

I decided that it might be useful to take a slightly closer look at how the Michigan and Ohio State defenses have been doing from a production standpoint this year, so in a similar fashion to yesterday’s diary, I have done a game-by-game graph for each team with solo and assisted tackles, tackles for loss and yardages, and also sacks and sack yardage.

There were a few that I didn’t think would be graph-worthy as well, but they might provide some insight into the opportunistic streak of both defenses as well as who they have played, so indeed, take the numbers for what you will. For example, Ohio State has 14 recorded QB Hurries, whereas Michigan has only 3 of these. Ohio State has 13 total interceptions for 163 yards, but Michigan has 7 interceptions for 127 yards.  Michigan has 21 pass breakups, and Ohio State has 71 pass breakups.  As these teams have faced diverse offenses, I would think we can’t read too much into this last one. That, and I had to get the stat from the Buckeyes’ official site.

Here is the table with the season average and standard deviation for the graphed data:

 

AVERAGE

MICHIGAN

OHIO STATE

Solo Tackles

40.1

40.5

Assisted Tackles

28.9

32.0

Total Tackles

69.0

72.5

TFL

6.0

5.2

TFL Yards

21.9

28.5

Sacks

1.4

2.4

Sack Yards

11.5

20.9

STANDARD DEV.

MICHIGAN

OHIO STATE

Solo Tackles

9.6

8.1

Assisted Tackles

10.5

10.1

Total Tackles

13.2

10.1

TFL

2.4

2.8

TFL Yards

9.7

16.3

Sacks

0.9

1.8

Sack Yards

8.1

15.8

 

It is interesting to note that these teams are fairly comparable in terms of their productivity in making tackles, and that they are also close in average TFL per game as well. The sacks and sack yardage, I would think, have much to do with the relative quality of the offensive lines that Ohio State has faced to date more than anything else. You will also note that in most measures, Ohio State performs with more variability than Michigan, so perhaps that is useful to know on some level.

 

Michigan - Tackles By Game - 2012:

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Ohio State - Tackles By Game - 2012:

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Michigan - TFL & TFL Yards By Game - 2012:

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Ohio State - TFL & TFL Yards By Game - 2012:

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Michigan - Sacks & Sack Yards By Game - 2012:

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Ohio State - Sacks & Sack Yards By Game - 2012:

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Comments

MikeCohodes

November 20th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^

why are we having so few this year?  I can think of a few possible avenues for further exploration:

Is Mattison calling less blitzes?

Less of the Okie compared to last year? 

Our opponents throwing less?

Our opponents releasing the ball faster, i.e. shorter drop backs by the QB?

 

Other than that, great work!