Sitting Inside In Conference Play: Big Ten Review
Per my note last week, I have switched this over to focus more on the in-conference play now, so if the numbers seem wildly different, it is because everyone only has one or two conference games under their belt at this point, so at least for now, the meaningful analysis might be somewhat limited. All the same, this is your Monday opportunity to see how everyone in the conference is doing right now.
It should be noted that the divide here is not perfect – last week, a few teams already had one conference game in the books, so this is rather a reset because I think there might be more interest in this part of the schedule.
SCORING OFFENSE AND DEFENSE:
We’ll just shoot right to the bottom here – Minnesota and Purdue share the dubious honor of the worst scoring performances to date. They are also a comfortable 8thand 11threspectively in scoring defense as well, which goes a long way towards their "0-fer" starts in the Big Ten part of the schedule. The differential chart is sort of self-explanatory in that a few of the negatives are in fact the losers from this past weekend.
TOTAL OFFENSE AND DEFENSE:
Here again, you see the rocky start of Minnesota and Purdue, but the top of the offensive yardage chart probably is not a shock to anyone. Nebraska, Indiana and Wisconsin have not had much trouble moving the ball all years, with the difference being Wisconsin is much better at not giving those yards right back, if you will. The differential chart clearly denotes the in-conference progress of Boilerquest.
RUSHING OFFENSE AND DEFENSE:
There’s not a whole lot to glean from these stats until we’re deeper into the conference schedule. One thing that is at least consistent here is the top rushing teams on offense are more or less the same from the non-conference schedule. Also, Boilerquest.
PASSING OFFENSE AND DEFENSE:
Perhaps thankfully, here’s something Purdue can be proud of – they do not have the worst passing defense in the conference. They also don’t throw it a lot, at least not with any consistent success, so there is also that. Indiana and Penn State threw it a lot over the weekend, but then by at least Penn State standards (but in line with Indiana standards), they gave up a lot of yards in the air too.
THIRD DOWNS:
As we’ve discussed in other diaries, if you lose this battle, you’ll have enormous trouble winning the game, and you can see that here. The team with the worst performance in conference play overall, as you can see on the differential chart, is questing to be a terrible Boiler.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
These may not mean much until later on either. Still, here is what it looks like.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Turnovers will appear next week as well, and probably first down differentials.
October 7th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
Funny, I just got done reading a Nebraska blog that said they weren't impressed by our defense.
October 7th, 2013 at 7:12 PM ^
Why would you be impressed? Pleased is more appropriate.
October 7th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 11:10 AM ^
Apparently, when I wrote down my list of who played one game and who has two games under their belts, I effed it up. Fixed though - good find.
October 7th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^
They will force us to throw and bring pressure up the middle against our young interior OL. We will have to have a big day from Gallon and Funchess. I don't see a big day from our tailbacks.
October 7th, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
If Devin can stay calm and the OL gives him enough time to throw I think we have the firepower to beat them with passing. With Funchess and Chesson starting to emerge as legit downfield threats, and Gallon and Dileo working underneith we have enough to beat them. The first two points are iffy though, and if there's another trash tornado our chances go down significantly.
October 7th, 2013 at 11:29 AM ^
I know I'm off topic here and I apologize. Quick question. Does anybody have an idea of what time our game with little brother is going to be? It's still listed as TBD. I have a wedding shower that day but there's no chance in hell I'm missing that game. I'm just trying to prepare in advance for how much shit I'm going to hear from my fiancee if it's a 2:30 game and I'll be late for my own shower. Again, I'm sorry for getting off topic. Go Blue!
October 7th, 2013 at 7:15 PM ^
This is a prime example of why critical thinking needs to be incorporated into schools much more than it is.
October 7th, 2013 at 8:38 PM ^
Do you and your football-oriented friends really want to go to a wedding shower? If so, great, reschedule now.
If not, here are a couple of protips:
Explain to your lovely fiancee that you would be an annoying presence, win or lose, at this wonderful event, and that you worry that coming in late would be unforgiveably uncouth. Tell her you value your and her friends' relationship too much to spoil this important day for her. And take her somewhere really nice on Sunday.
Also, don't get her a vacuum cleaner for the shower.
She may not be incredibly pleased with this plan, but believe me, she will be way less pleased if you show up late smelling of beer and pissed off, which you are likely to be, because it's going to be a rough game.
October 8th, 2013 at 11:13 AM ^
Of the last five games in East Lansing, four have been at 12 Eastern. Only one was at 3:30, the first of the Rich Rodriguez era -- high rubber-necking interest there with 2-5 Michigan, so the time was moved.
But the usual time for games at East Lansing is 12.
7-0 Michigan vs. 7-1 MSU might get moved, but probably not. Michigan isn't going to move much in the rankings, and MSU will, at best, be in the 20s by then. So the game won't have much national interest.
If MSU loses to Indiana this week (for some weird, instinctive reason, I am optimistic) then you can book it at 12.
October 8th, 2013 at 7:36 PM ^
Dude, it's just football. Watching it the next day will not kill you.
October 8th, 2013 at 10:22 AM ^
At this point in the season (and until 4-5 conference games have been played), this conference-stats-only perspective is really far less useful. The way you've compiled this likely overrates Michigan, since Michigan has only played Minnesota. I have really been appreciating your season-long stats and would be really pleased if you could compile graphs for the 12-game and 8-game regular seasons. At this point, the data through 6 weeks is way more useful than the conference data through 1-2, which would be best served as a cute, incomplete novelty copied/pasted somewhere after the full season's run down.
October 8th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
The more I thought about after I posted it, the more I sort of came to rethink doing it this way right now. The end-of-season version of this will have the full OOC / In-Conference breakdown regardless, but I may include the cumulative and in-conference stuff for the next few weeks as a transition.
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