Big10 Average Scoring Drive Starting Position
Via NittanyWhiteOut.com, for your discussion:
Denard's run against ND, and a few drives vs UCONN definitely pull it out a bit. Interesting discussion on field position and punt/kick returns might also be in the mix.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:15 PM ^
I mean, I see what they were going for, but what a horrible way to present that information.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
I thought a football field was numbered up to the 50 yard line and then started decreasing from there. I've never seen a field with a 70-yard-line!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:28 PM ^
It's Pennsylvania rules football.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^
we haven't faired well in field position (ala our defense and special teams), so we've had to move the ball further than everyone else. IMO, special teams needs to step it up before we get into B10 play.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^
It makes sense that our offense, with its propensity to generate big plays, would be the highest on this list.
However, I wonder if this says more about our starting field position, since we haven't returned any punts and haven't gotten much out of kick returns either. Probably a little of each: we have generally poor starting field position but it doesn't matter because we move the ball so well.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
This chart isn't all that useful. As the author even mentions, tOSU has the shortest drives but also says that tOSU has the best starting position. So the chart doesn't really prove if tOSU can sustain long drives or not since so far they haven't had to.
As for teams with longer average drives it would be more useful to see points per game tied in with that. If say your average scoring drive is 70 yards, but you only average 10 points a game, it's not really impressive offensively.
A more useful study would be average starting position vs average starting position of a TD scoring drive and a FG scoring drive. So if you tend to start at your 20 but your TD drives tend to start at your 40 then it suggests trouble sustaining drives / you tend to score when you get luck off a bad punt, etc. Whereas if your starting position and scoring positions are closer then it means your offense is closer to be an unstoppable machine.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^
I'm no mathmagician, but it seems these numbers would mean a great deal more if they were weighted with points-produced. Even moreso if they were additionally weighted with the source of those points as CRex points out (TDs vs FGs).
I'll hang up now and wait for the Mathlete to post his diary on the topic later today or tomorrow...
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:25 PM ^
This includes both TDs and FGs. Field goal drives, obviously, tend to be shorter. You all know how many field goal drives we've had this year.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:29 PM ^
Excellent point - I hadn't thought of that.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:28 PM ^
While I appreciate the information and the credibility it gives our offense, this infographic leaves a lot to be desired and looks a little bit like what I imagine a vegetarian rainbow's puke to look like
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:40 PM ^
Steele mentions this stat in his previews and it is a decent indicator. In our case we're pretty good as we put up points (lower than we should have) and rack up yards.
I wish it were higher. The perfect drive for me consumes 5 minutes and ends in a touchdown. I think our average drive right now is almost 3 minutes long, which is OK. Need to keep the defense off the field, that's a big issue from last weekend that is being overlooked. we only held the ball 22 minutes includeing 2 minutes at the end when we were just killing the clock.
I'm not big on time of possession, but if we're at 28 minutes or better, the offense is doing a good job of protecting the D.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^
Time of possession is NOT a big issue from this past Saturday....
Our TOP for the first three games is 37 min, 34 min, and 22 min respectively. The biggest factor in tha one week decrease is playing a UMass defense that gave up huge plays. What would you have the offense do....take a knee or slide down once you've got the first down? It's not our teams fault that bubble screens or inside zone plays bust for big yardage...
Take points however you can get them. The REAL problem (and biggest contributing factor to the 22 min T.O.P.) from the UMass game was our DEFENSES lack of ability to GOTF. They didn't give up big plays...they just missed tackles and played poorly so UMass sustained drives that ate up time. We would've scored 70+ if our defense could've got the ball back.
September 22nd, 2010 at 8:12 PM ^
You'll get no argument against criticising the defense from me, but the exact same argument of "zomg! we let an FCS team go up and down the field on us" can be used to argue "zomg! an FCS team made an elite offense go 3 and out."
At that point in the game (5:15 remaining in 4th qtr) the offense knew they needed to score or run clock because the defense was struggling. Instead they went three and out by failing to convert on 3rd and 2; against an FCS team. UMass needed a stop, Michigan needed a score and UMass won that fight; how's that the fault of the Michigan defense? That was THE critical possession of the game and our offense whiffed. They also played poorly in the first quarter. Go ahead and give them a pass if you want.
Everyone knows the Michigan Defense is a liability. Berating them because they fail at getting the ball back is like berating cat for not being a dog. I question the validity of going into a hurry-up offense when A) you're ahead by 18 points, B) your opponent can't stop you, and C) your defense is struggling.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:53 PM ^
The farther we start from the endzone the more yards we rack up and more time we take off the clock!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:11 PM ^
Well done Duval!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:43 PM ^
O-state is good at playing field position? Like, whoa.
/s
September 22nd, 2010 at 4:06 PM ^
Yeah this doesn't surprise me. Good job by the offense dealing with bad field positions by the defense and special teams.
September 22nd, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
Then you have Michigan who tops the Big Ten in the worst starting field position on successful scoring drives. The fact that the Wolverines sits 3rd in the conference for number of points scored (100) and points per game (33.3) among teams that have played 3 opponents is a testament to the efficiency and ability to march down the length of the field by the Michigan offense.
To put that in perspective, while Ohio State have scored 41.3 point a game (124 total points) thanks in large part to great field position (opponent’s 43), Michigan’s offense has, on average started on their own 27 yard line during successful scoring drives and still scored almost as many points (save 3 touchdowns) as the Buckeyes despite starting 30 yards further than the Buckeyes.
That's pretty sweet. While a part of me is a little concerned with the defense as we close on Big Ten play, a bigger part of me is looking forward to some Denarding.