International Centre for Special Teams Research

Welcome back to the latest edition of the International Centre for Special Teams Research.  If you want to see how all this started, you can read the originating post here, but here is the basic idea: it isn't the small yardage differences that you are really worried about.

If you typically have 35 net yards on a punt, you don't really care if it is 31 or 39. What matters is when it is 20 or 50, or when a game changing  (or influencing) play (touchdown, turnover, block) occurs. I established a broad range of typical results.  These are worth no points because they are what you expect a MAC team to do.  Positive plays are worth points (from 1 to 6) and negative plays are worth negative points (-1 to -6).

For the second straight game, BG gave up no major special teams plays.  Against a team like CMU, that is a pretty good accomplishment.  On the other hand, we also failed to make any big plays, which has been an ongoing issue all year.  Still, for this program, NOT LOSING games on special teams could be considered progress.

BG was -3 for the day, which is more or less always where we end up.  BG had one good punt and one good kickoff return, and CMU had three nice kickoff returns.  On top of that, BG missed an easy FG and started on its own 10 after a penalty on a kickoff return.

The Falcons had only two positive plays which is their lowest since Marshall.

Bowling Green Positive (+2)

BG Punt to CMU 10 (+1)

CMU Kickoff returned to BG 45 (+1)

Bowling Green Negative (-5)

BG misses 26 yd FG (-1)

BG Kickoff returned to CMU 35 (-1)

BG kickoff returned to CMU 41 (-1)

BG Kickoff returned to CMU 35 (-1)

CMU Kickoff to BG 10 with penalty (-1)

Bowling Green Neutral

CMU Kickoff returned to BG 30

CMU punt returned 2 yards for 39 yard net

BG xp

BG 40 yard FG

BG punt 44 yard net.

BG Punt 32 yard net

BG Punt 32 yard net

CMU Positive (+7)

CMU kickoff touchback (+1)

BG Kickoff returned to CMU 35 (+1)

BG kickoff returned to CMU 41 (+1)

BG Kickoff returned to CMU 35 (+1)

CMU Kickoff to BG 10 with penalty (+1)

CMU punt to BG 17 (+1)

CMU Punt to BG 11 (+1)

CMU Negative (-1)

CMU Kickoff returned to BG 45 (-1)

CMU neutral

CMU Kickoff returned to BG 30

CMU punt 39 yard net

CMU xp

CMU punt 43 yard net

CMU 38 yard FG

CMU kickoff returned to BG 29

CMU xp

CMU Kickoff returned to BG 20 (10 with penalty)

CMU recovers own fumble on BG punt

CMU punt 30 yard net

For the season, you can see that BG has consistently underperformed on special teams.

Positive	Negative	Net
Troy	+3	-5	-2
Missouri	+10	-5	+5
Marshall	+2	-6	-4
Boise	0	-4	-4
OU	+8	-12	-4
Kent	+7	-11	-4
BSU	+6	-9	-3
CMU	+2	-5	-3
Total	+38	-57	-19

When looking at opponent's plays, we can see that only Boise has scored in the negative range, but that the opposition has made seven positive plays in all games except Boise.  CMU's one negative play is the best performance of any team this season.

	Positive	Negative	Net
Troy	+7	-2	+5
Missouri	+8	-8	0
Marshall	+7	-3	+4
Boise	+5	-7	-2
Ohio U	+13	-9	+4
Kent	+13	-3	+10
BSU	+7	-3	+4
CMU	+7	-1	+6
Total	+67	-36	+31

The bottom line is that we are 41 points behind our opponents, which is almost six points per game.