Ground and Pound Big Sky

[kalm]

Some interesting points by Craig Haley.

You could see this trend starting to develop the last few years. Montana and Sac State were in a shootout last week except they combined for over 600 yards...on the ground. EWU goes for 441 rushing against Poly.

Strange times.

http://www.fcs.football/cfb/story.asp?i=20180928102011037515804

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

11 teams in the Big Sky are giving up over 400 yards/game on defense....including North Dakota this year...so make it 10/13 teams.

Best scoring defense is Weber at 24/game ranking a tie for #31.

[kalm]

Well the article was about offense but yes, the Big Sky hasn’t had the best defensive numbers.

That said...

1). They tend to play some of the most difficult OOC schedules in FCS including games against some elite teams or at least solid offenses from the MWC, PAC 12, and MVFC. This season the BSC has played games against Arizona, UW, Stanford, Utah, OSU, Oregon, WSU, Utah, USU, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, Cal, Stanford, SDSU, NDSU, UNI, and WIU. That skews your stats a little.

2). When Big Sky offenses face teams from more defensive minded conferences they can still put up points. That doesn’t mean that a lack of D hasnt hurt and can cause you to lose games. We’ve seen that. But low total defense numbers are hard to come by in a conference full of elite offenses.

[Redbird 4th & short]

Might be my "MVFC bias" kicking in again ... but I feel like MVFC dominance over Big Sky from about 2013 to 2016 might have had something to do with this new trend. During this time we had teams near bottom of MVFC regularly beating or competing with teams near top of Big Sky. MVFC has always been known for its run/pass balance and defense, while Big Sky was predominantly a passing conference typically with 8+ teams in bottom 20 total defense every year .. yet the passing offenses wasnt translating to playoff wins (other than EWU typically) until recently as they shifted away from pass happy offenses.

Clearly, the gap has certainly closed the last 2 years, certainly last year anyway, and looks to continue this year. I also believe MVFC has tried to become a stronger passing conference (better balanced run/pass), other than NDSU ... cough nervously ... because of the MVFC/Big Sky conference challenge with so many games, and gap now closing.

Feel free to rip into my MVFC bias .. but as a guy who has closely watched MVFC emerge since 2011, this is what it looks like from my armchair ... and computer screen.\

And 100% agree with kalm ... Big Sky has not avoided tough OOC games. They regularly have some of the toughest OOC schedules. Not just playing MVFC but usually looking for good FBS gaames .. not this nonsense NC A&T pulls claiming "big" FBS wins over teams that would be lucky to finish 5th in MVFC. I think this is also why Big Sky has closed gap on MVFC and trended away from pass happy days.

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

Well the article was about offense but yes, the Big Sky hasn’t had the best defensive numbers.

That said...

1). They tend to play some of the most difficult OOC schedules in FCS including games against some elite teams or at least solid offenses from the MWC, PAC 12, and MVFC. This season the BSC has played games against Arizona, UW, Stanford, Utah, OSU, Oregon, WSU, Utah, USU, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, Cal, Stanford, SDSU, NDSU, UNI, and WIU. That skews your stats a little.

2). When Big Sky offenses face teams from more defensive minded conferences they can still put up points. That doesn’t mean that a lack of D hasnt hurt and can cause you to lose games. We’ve seen that. But low total defense numbers are hard to come by in a conference full of elite offenses.


So, those numbers might trend downward but the Big Sky has consistently produced teams with poor defenses.

Elite offenses? What is an elite offense? Yes, EWU has had some very good ones but I wouldn't say that the BSC is "full of elite offenses". For many years the BSC has had 7-8 teams in the bottom 20% of total defense and scoring defense. Are those "elite offenses" a product of a conference full of bad defenses? xeyebrowx

Go back and listen to your coach and the post game presser after the Bison crushed EWU last year. I like this guy. He gets it.

[kalm]

Might be my "MVFC bias" kicking in again ... but I feel like MVFC dominance over Big Sky from about 2013 to 2016 might have had something to do with this new trend. During this time we had teams near bottom of MVFC regularly beating or competing with teams near top of Big Sky. MVFC has always been known for its run/pass balance and defense, while Big Sky was predominantly a passing conference typically with 8+ teams in bottom 20 total defense every year .. yet the passing offenses wasnt translating to playoff wins (other than EWU typically) until recently as they shifted away from pass happy offenses.

Clearly, the gap has certainly closed the last 2 years, certainly last year anyway, and looks to continue this year. I also believe MVFC has tried to become a stronger passing conference (better balanced run/pass), other than NDSU ... cough nervously ... because of the MVFC/Big Sky conference challenge with so many games, and gap now closing.

Feel free to rip into my MVFC bias .. but as a guy who has closely watched MVFC emerge since 2011, this is what it looks like from my armchair ... and computer screen.\

And 100% agree with kalm ... Big Sky has not avoided tough OOC games. They regularly have some of the toughest OOC schedules. Not just playing MVFC but usually looking for good FBS gaames .. not this nonsense NC A&T pulls claiming "big" FBS wins over teams that would be lucky to finish 5th in MVFC. I think this is also why Big Sky has closed gap on MVFC and trended away from pass happy days.

I agree with all of this except perhaps the statement that teams near the bottom of the MVFC regularly beat or compete with teams near the top of the Big Sky. I could be wrong but other than Missouria State-NAU this year and USD beating EWU in 2011, I can't think of that many games between lower tier MVFC and upper tier BSC. I predominantly remember games with the opposite (Poly-NDSU, UNC-UNI) and also where top tier MVFC beat top tier BSC with a select few going the other way. But that might be selective memory too. :D

[Redbird 4th & short]

I agree with all of this except perhaps the statement that teams near the bottom of the MVFC regularly beat or compete with teams near the top of the Big Sky. I could be wrong but other than Missouria State-NAU this year and USD beating EWU in 2011, I can't think of that many games between lower tier MVFC and upper tier BSC. I predominantly remember games with the opposite (Poly-NDSU, UNC-UNI) and also where top tier MVFC beat top tier BSC with a select few going the other way. But that might be selective memory too. :D

well there weren't as many games then as there is now ... but USD routinely finished near bottom and always gave Big Sky fits. In 2014, USD went 0-8 losing by average of 21 ppg in MVFC play. But OOC they beat 7-5 NAU (at USD) by 7 and lost to 7-4 Montana by 8 on road. In 2013, a 3-5 USD team lost by just 6 points to an 8-1 NAU team. In same year, SDSU (5-3) beat NAU (8-1) in playoffs at NAU by score of 26-7 ... not a lower MVFC team, but still speaks to disparity. Back to 2014, a 1-7 MoST beat 3-5 UND by score of 38-0 .. speaks to disparity anyway at that time.

Again, I'm pointing to MVFC high point as a conference, and acknowledging gap is again closing. These things go in cycles as teams try to adapt and compete, and playing 2/3rds of you games in conf forces teams to figure out how to keep up. Colonial dominated from 2004 to 2010, then MVFC took over. Now Colonial is back near top with MVFC .. put aside JMU emergence, their conf depth seems to be back.

Ive said coming into this season .. after NDSU and JMU, the top 20 is wide open and playing field has leveled considerably the last 2 years.

[Vandal03]

Well the article was about offense but yes, the Big Sky hasn’t had the best defensive numbers.

That said...

1). They tend to play some of the most difficult OOC schedules in FCS including games against some elite teams or at least solid offenses from the MWC, PAC 12, and MVFC. This season the BSC has played games against Arizona, UW, Stanford, Utah, OSU, Oregon, WSU, Utah, USU, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, Cal, Stanford, SDSU, NDSU, UNI, and WIU. That skews your stats a little.

2). When Big Sky offenses face teams from more defensive minded conferences they can still put up points. That doesn’t mean that a lack of D hasnt hurt and can cause you to lose games. We’ve seen that. But low total defense numbers are hard to come by in a conference full of elite offenses.

As a new Big Sky fan I’ve been impressed with how good the conference is on offense. It is a step or two up from the Sun Belt.

[JALMOND]

Well the article was about offense but yes, the Big Sky hasn’t had the best defensive numbers.

That said...

1). They tend to play some of the most difficult OOC schedules in FCS including games against some elite teams or at least solid offenses from the MWC, PAC 12, and MVFC. This season the BSC has played games against Arizona, UW, Stanford, Utah, OSU, Oregon, WSU, Utah, USU, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, Cal, Stanford, SDSU, NDSU, UNI, and WIU. That skews your stats a little.

2). When Big Sky offenses face teams from more defensive minded conferences they can still put up points. That doesn’t mean that a lack of D hasnt hurt and can cause you to lose games. We’ve seen that. But low total defense numbers are hard to come by in a conference full of elite offenses.



When you look at it across the board, really none of the DI football schools located primarily west of the Rockies (Big Sky in FCS, Pac-12 and Mountain West in the FBS) are known for their defense. Most make their mark on the offensive side and just expect their defense to hold on. That is great when you do play each other but when you do go up against a stout defense from other parts of the country that can shut down your potent offense, you could be in trouble. The Pac-12, for instance last year, had a pretty good season placing 8 teams in bowls, yet could only muster a 1-8 record in those bowl games.