International Centre for Special Teams Research, Tulsa Edition

Another summer has passed.  The photo at right captures the monks of the International Centre for Special Teams research on their way into their secret chambers where they will spend the year discerning the performance of the BG special teams.

In case you are new, the deal here is that I came up with a system to evaluate special teams that is zero-based.  The idea is that you don't really care if you get the ball after a kickoff on the 24 or 27...you want to know about plays with significant field position, possession, or scoring impact.  Positive impact plays get positive points and negative plays get negative points.  They don't necessarily balance out... 50 yard fair caught punt is +1 for the punting team and 0 for the receiving team.

You can go back and read here to see the scoring system I use.

So, we have a game against Tulsa in which BG had a very big special teams performance.  In fact, the only question is whether it is the best day of the Clawson era.

The answer is, at +15.  The previous best was +14 against OU last year.  It is just the 5th time BG has been +10 during the Clawson Era.

Here is how it shook out:

BG Positive Plays: (+18)
BG Punt to Tulsa 16 (+1)
BG KO Touchback (+1)
BG punt to Tulsa 9 (+2)
BG Punt to Tulsa 7 (+2)
BG Stops Fake Punt (+3)
BG Recovers fumbled punt (+3)
Burbrink TD (+6)

BG Negative plays (-3)
BG 21 yard net punt (-1)
BG 23 yard net punt (-1)
Tulsa KO return to 50 (-1)
(Note, even without 15 yard penalty that would be the 35 and 1 point).

Tulsa Positive Plays (+4)
BG 23 yard net punt (+1)

Tulsa KO touchback (+1)

Tulsa punt to BG 14 (+1)

Tulsa KO return to 50 (+1) 

Tulsa Negative Plays (-14)

Tulsa missed 37 yard FG (-1)

Tulsa missed 34 yard FG (-1)

Tulsa failed fake punt (-3)

Tulsa fumbles punt (-3)

Burbrink TD (-6)