Offensive Efficiency, Week Three

OK, so this is week 3 of my attempt to use offensive efficiency to evaluate how team's do with the ball. The explaining post is here.

The basic idea is that on first down, for a play to be successful, you need 40% of the total yards to go. Second down is 60% and only a first down can be a success on third down. Additional points are awarded for bigger plays, and big losses and turnovers are punished.

Boise State had a very productive game, only slightly below Minnesota, which is the best offense we have faced this year. They won 57% of their plays, and ended up averaging one point for each play. Their running plays were 1.07 points per play and their passing plays were .92. (Minnesota was 58% and 1.06 points per play).

Of course, their offense is OUR defense, and I think it goes to show you how our defense's poor period have really impacted overall numbers. For example, for the first half, Boise averaged 1.39 points per play, while in the second half, they averaged only .39 yards per play.

On our offense, we won 45% of our plays for a .5 point average. (In this game, you can see how the situational stats really tell the story differently then the traditional stats do). The winning percentage is almost the same as we had against Minnesota, but the points per play is more like Pitt, which is simply because of the effect turnovers have on the overall total.

On the bye week, I'm going to start to analyze the data by down.

Season long data can be viewed here for no charge.