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Offensive improvment through 10 games

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ColumbusCatFan1

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Jun 18, 2005
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Most of these aren't advanced statistics, so take them how you will, but I thought it was interesting to compare the 2016 Cats to their immediate predecessor. With Minnesota, Illinois and possible bowl on the horizon, there's a decent chance the 2016 statistics will look even better.

Note that 128 universities participate in the FBS.

Points Per Game
2015: 17.2 (116th)
2016: 27.3 (t65th)

Total Offense
2015: 313 (115th)
2016: 411.1 (59th)

3rd Down %
2015: 39.44 (63rd)
2016: 42.07 (48th)

Plays Per Game
2015: 74.6 (54th)
2016: 77.7 (t30th)

Yards Per Play
2015: 4.2 (120th)
2016: 5.3 (t70th)
 
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ColumbusCatFan1 said:
These aren't advanced statistics, so take them how you will, but I thought it was interesting to compare the 2016 Cats to their immediate predecessor. With Minnesota, Illinois and possible bowl on the horizon, there's a decent chance the 2016 statistics will look even better.

Note that 128 universities participate in the FBS.

Points Per Game
2015: 17.2 (116th)
2016: 27.3 (t65th)

Total Offense
2015: 313 (115th)
2016: 411.1 (59th)

Yards Per Play
2015: 4.2 (120th)
2016: 5.3 (t70th)

Plays Per Game
2015: 74.6 (54th)
2016: 77.7 (t30th)
Click to expand...

Stats are one thing. The eye test tells me NU's offense is good. The improvement over last season is absolutely remarkable.
 
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Fitzphile said:
Stats are one thing. The eye test tells me NU's offense is good. The improvement over last season is absolutely remarkable.
Click to expand...

Definitely.

I thought it was interesting to see how it played out in more traditional statistics. You can see how the style hasn't changed (plays per game), but the efficiency has really gone up. Only a 2.5% improvement on 3rd down (converting on 3rd is something Fitz harped on for obvious reasons) has been huge too. The Cats are roughly in the top third of the FBS in that category this year (thanks Austin!).
 
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The improvement shown above is despite the NU offense being crap for the first four games. I think those were pretty much an extension of the 2015 offensive shitfest. Starting with Iowa things have looked very different.
 
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julescat said:
The improvement shown above is despite the NU offense being crap for the first four games. I think those were pretty much an extension of the 2015 offensive shitfest. Starting with Iowa things have looked very different.
Click to expand...

I think that's related to the confidence of Thorson/Carr (and thus McCall) combined with somewhat servicable line play. We saw signs against WMU (the Broncos O held the ball forever) and Duke, but yeah, Iowa was the turning point.

The other thing to consider is that NU (according to the "team rankings" site) has done this against the 28th toughest schedule in 2016 (up 20 spots from 2015).
 
julescat said:
The improvement shown above is despite the NU offense being crap for the first four games. I think those were pretty much an extension of the 2015 offensive shitfest. Starting with Iowa things have looked very different.
Click to expand...

To that end, I wonder what the numbers would look like if we cherry-picked conference play only.
 
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ColumbusCatFan1 said:
I think that's related to the confidence of Thorson/Carr (and thus McCall) combined with somewhat servicable line play. We saw signs against WMU (the Broncos O held the ball forever) and Duke, but yeah, Iowa was the turning point.

The other thing to consider is that NU (according to the "team rankings" site) has done this against the 28th toughest schedule in 2016 (up 20 spots from 2015).
Click to expand...
18th most difficult schedule according to Sagarin.
 
A 10 point improvement in points per game for the offensive is impressive.
 
Sure, trolling. That offense looked fabulous today before MN went into prevent D. Remove the garbage time stats and that was impressive. And last week in the first half, or WI. I would say they are pretty impressive against crappy teams except...there is that whole ISU thing...

CT looked great, the WRs didn't cause any coverage sacks, the OL held their ground. Even JJ was able to make something out of nothing for another 100 yard game. Arrow is definitely pointed up...
 
xyzbobxyz said:
Sure, trolling. That offense looked fabulous today before MN went into prevent D. Remove the garbage time stats and that was impressive. And last week in the first half, or WI. I would say they are pretty impressive against crappy teams except...there is that whole ISU thing...

CT looked great, the WRs didn't cause any coverage sacks, the OL held their ground. Even JJ was able to make something out of nothing for another 100 yard game. Arrow is definitely pointed up...
Click to expand...

Man, that's a really poor post.

You failed to adequately to respond to "if you can't see how the offense has improved (even with a lackluster showing this afternoon)" and instead wrote snark about the acknowledged lackluster performance from NU's offense on Saturday and doubled down by trying to qualify said snark with an outlier (Wisconsin - a top 10 defense) during a great stretch of play.

Additionally, your assessment of the Purdue game is incorrect. The offense wasn't terrible during the first half in West Lafayette. Thorson and Co, while a bit sloppy at times, still scored 14 points and moved the ball consistently outside of the opening drive. Furthermore, your commentary would imply that Iowa is a "crappy team". That's just ridiculous.

Your contributions to this thread serve absolutely no purpose.
 
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There is 100% no question our offense is light years better than our offense last year, but that's not saying much. I look forward to Thorson's next two years but he's not there yet (and I can live with that).

The funny thing about this year is how uneven our schedule has been. I get that the SOS shakes out to 18th...it includes Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Neb - all Top 10 teams to whom we lost. Oh, and WMU, who only shows up as a strong team because we were the only team that had a snowball's chance in hell of beating them (and of course, we didn't).

Now look at the rest...we can be proud of taking down Duke, Sparty, Iowa, and IU...but let's agree these teams are having down years. As I stated weeks ago, the most telling game of the season would be Minnesota, and they mopped the floor with us.
 
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ColumbusCatFan1 said:
Man, that's a really poor post.

You failed to adequately to respond to "if you can't see how the offense has improved (even with a lackluster showing this afternoon)" and instead wrote snark about the acknowledged lackluster performance from NU's offense on Saturday and doubled down by trying to qualify said snark with an outlier (Wisconsin - a top 10 defense) during a great stretch of play.

Additionally, your assessment of the Purdue game is incorrect. The offense wasn't terrible during the first half in West Lafayette. Thorson and Co, while a bit sloppy at times, still scored 14 points and moved the ball consistently outside of the opening drive. Furthermore, your commentary would imply that Iowa is a "crappy team". That's just ridiculous.

Your contributions to this thread serve absolutely no purpose.
Click to expand...

Sure - and your contributions are unrealistic. Outliers, strong winds, cold temperatures, crappy fans - anything but the truth. The truth is the O has not improved. CT has improved over last year, but over the course of this season. The OL has not improved this season - they had a couple good games against crappy Ds. The WR have not improved this season - they still cannot get separation,drop passes, apparently get cold hands... The SBs have many largely invisible. JJTBC was amazing before the season began, probably still is amazing, if only he could get just a little help from the rest of the O. So, to directly respond to your quote, I respectfully disagree with your opinion - I do not see how the O has improved this season.
 
Sheffielder said:
There is 100% no question or offense is light years better than our offense last year, but that's not saying much. I look forward to Thorson's next two years but he's not there yet (and I can live with that).

The funny thing about this year is how uneven our schedule has been. I get that the SOS shakes out to 18th...it includes Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Neb - all Top 10 teams to whom we lost. Oh, and WMU, who only shows up as a strong team because we were the only team that had a snowball's chance in hell of beating them (and of course, we didn't).

Now look at the rest...we can be proud of taking down Duke, Sparty, Iowa, and IU...but let's agree these teams are having down years. As I stated weeks ago, the most telling game of the season would be Minnesota, and they mopped the floor with us.
Click to expand...

Hey CCF - this is an example of a rational realistic view without the purples shades.
 
xyzbobxyz said:
Sure - and your contributions are unrealistic. Outliers, strong winds, cold temperatures, crappy fans - anything but the truth. The truth is the O has not improved. CT has improved over last year, but over the course of this season. The OL has not improved this season - they had a couple good games against crappy Ds. The WR have not improved this season - they still cannot get separation,drop passes, apparently get cold hands... The SBs have many largely invisible. JJTBC was amazing before the season began, probably still is amazing, if only he could get just a little help from the rest of the O. So, to directly respond to your quote, I respectfully disagree with your opinion - I do not see how the O has improved this season.
Click to expand...

My contribution was to actually look up the numbers and provide them for the board to enjoy, not to yell into the wind.

The offense has gone from one of the worst performing groups in all of the FBS to the middle of the pack. That may not appease you, which is fine. The significant improvement we've seen, however, isn't debatable.

Nice attempts at a straw man (strong winds, crappy fans, etc) by the way.
 
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xyzbobxyz said:
So, to directly respond to your quote, I respectfully disagree with your opinion - I do not see how the O has improved this season.
Click to expand...

I think you can count on the thumbs of both hands the number of people who would agree with you that the offense has not improved against the absolute train wreck of an offense NU fielded in 2015.
 
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Another interesting stat; through 11 games, we have outscored our opponents by a total of 21 points. In all 13 games of last season, we outscored our opponents by a total of 12 points
 
mikewebb68 said:
Another interesting stat; through 11 games, we have outscored our opponents by a total of 21 points. In all 13 games of last season, we outscored our opponents by a total of 12 points
Click to expand...

If you are trying to support the case that the NU offense is better this season, you are not helping your cause. Thru 11 games last year, NU outscored their opponents by 41 points......
 
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Fitzphile said:
If you are trying to support the case that the NU offense is better this season, you are not helping your cause. Thru 11 games last year, NU outscored their opponents by 41 points......
Click to expand...

No, I just thought it was an interesting stat. The case for a better offense has already been well established in this thread.
 
IGNORE2 said:
Sure - and your contributions are unrealistic. Outliers, strong winds, cold temperatures, crappy fans - anything but the truth. The truth is the O has not improved. CT has improved over last year, but over the course of this season. The OL has not improved this season - they had a couple good games against crappy Ds. The WR have not improved this season - they still cannot get separation,drop passes, apparently get cold hands... The SBs have many largely invisible. JJTBC was amazing before the season began, probably still is amazing, if only he could get just a little help from the rest of the O. So, to directly respond to your quote, I respectfully disagree with your opinion - I do not see how the O has improved this season.
Click to expand...
More positive. Care to rebut @CoralSpringsCat ?
 
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