Someone mentioned this on another thread, but I wanted to see how good NU's and UM's opponents have looked overall without being tainted by the numbers in their games against NU and UM. In other words, does Minnesota have a bad offense because they just do, or is it because 20% of their schedule has been played against a team that shut them down? (correct answer: bad offense even without NU's help). Anyway, I hope this makes sense. Of course it's early in the year, and the opponents haven't necessarily played murderer's row, and EIU is in there, and blah blah blah. I'll just report on the numbers.
(numbers are against NU or UM, and against everyone else on the schedule)
First, the defenses...
Rushing:
Stanford (85, 241.0)
EIU (70, 208.3)
Duke (177, 173.0)
Ball St. (181, 193.3)
Minnesota (74, 158)
OVERALL AVERAGES (117.4, 194.0)
Utah (127, 229.7)
Oregon St. (59, 231.7)
UNLV (92, 257.3)
BYU (50, 134.8)
Maryland (29, 196.0)
OVERALL AVERAGES (71.4, 207.6)
Conclusion: As good as NU looked against Stanford and Minnesota, they were average againt Duke and BSU. Meanwhile, Michigan looks damn amazing here, and they're doing it against rushing offenses that are a little better than NU's opponents' slate.
Passing:
Stanford (155, 264.8)
EIU (68, 194.7)
Duke (150, 250.0)
Ball St. (178, 222.3)
Minnesota (99, 219.5)
OVERALL AVERAGES (130.0, 232.1)
Utah (210, 182.7)
Oregon St. (79, 173.3)
UNLV (143, 157.0)
BYU (55, 324.3)
Maryland (76, 193.3)
OVERALL AVERAGES (112.6, 209.2)
Conclusion: NU fares a little better here, but I'd probably still give the edge to Michigan. That BYU number is pretty amazing, especially when you consider that BYU got behind big early and probably wanted to pass even more than usual.
Scoring:
Stanford (6, 42.3)
EIU (0, 25.3)
Duke (10, 33.8)
Ball St. (19, 27.3)
Minnesota (0, 19.3)
OVERALL AVERAGES (7.0, 29.8)
Utah (24, 43.7) - and yes, I know that 7 of those points came off a turnover. I'm just not going to look at circumstances on every game to see what I should count or not. I'm counting this as 24.
Oregon St. (7, 28.3)
UNLV (7, 34.0)
BYU (0, 30.3)
Maryland (0, 29.5)
OVERALL AVERAGES (7.6, 32.8)
Conclusion: Week 4 once again kills NU here, as Michigan was so much better against its opponent in that one week that it washes away everything else. Still, I love looking at those Stanford numbers.
Overall, numbers wise, I give the edge to Michigan on defense. It pains me to say that. I've also seen a lot of good NU defense with my own eyes, so I know they can play at a level much higher than they did in the Ball State game (which skews things a bit with only five games overall).
Next up: offense.
(numbers are against NU or UM, and against everyone else on the schedule)
First, the defenses...
Rushing:
Stanford (85, 241.0)
EIU (70, 208.3)
Duke (177, 173.0)
Ball St. (181, 193.3)
Minnesota (74, 158)
OVERALL AVERAGES (117.4, 194.0)
Utah (127, 229.7)
Oregon St. (59, 231.7)
UNLV (92, 257.3)
BYU (50, 134.8)
Maryland (29, 196.0)
OVERALL AVERAGES (71.4, 207.6)
Conclusion: As good as NU looked against Stanford and Minnesota, they were average againt Duke and BSU. Meanwhile, Michigan looks damn amazing here, and they're doing it against rushing offenses that are a little better than NU's opponents' slate.
Passing:
Stanford (155, 264.8)
EIU (68, 194.7)
Duke (150, 250.0)
Ball St. (178, 222.3)
Minnesota (99, 219.5)
OVERALL AVERAGES (130.0, 232.1)
Utah (210, 182.7)
Oregon St. (79, 173.3)
UNLV (143, 157.0)
BYU (55, 324.3)
Maryland (76, 193.3)
OVERALL AVERAGES (112.6, 209.2)
Conclusion: NU fares a little better here, but I'd probably still give the edge to Michigan. That BYU number is pretty amazing, especially when you consider that BYU got behind big early and probably wanted to pass even more than usual.
Scoring:
Stanford (6, 42.3)
EIU (0, 25.3)
Duke (10, 33.8)
Ball St. (19, 27.3)
Minnesota (0, 19.3)
OVERALL AVERAGES (7.0, 29.8)
Utah (24, 43.7) - and yes, I know that 7 of those points came off a turnover. I'm just not going to look at circumstances on every game to see what I should count or not. I'm counting this as 24.
Oregon St. (7, 28.3)
UNLV (7, 34.0)
BYU (0, 30.3)
Maryland (0, 29.5)
OVERALL AVERAGES (7.6, 32.8)
Conclusion: Week 4 once again kills NU here, as Michigan was so much better against its opponent in that one week that it washes away everything else. Still, I love looking at those Stanford numbers.
Overall, numbers wise, I give the edge to Michigan on defense. It pains me to say that. I've also seen a lot of good NU defense with my own eyes, so I know they can play at a level much higher than they did in the Ball State game (which skews things a bit with only five games overall).
Next up: offense.