Incredible O, Abominable D

[Screamin_Eagle174]

The Big Sky conference this year looks to put up some big numbers in the score columns. There seems to be a slew of high-powered offenses, and lackluster defenses in the conference, making these BSC match-ups into high-scoring, barn-burning affairs. Here's a list of the BSC games played so far:

EWU 45-31 ISU
NAU 25-22 UNC
SSU 41-31 PSU
WSU 32-27 SSU
______________
Avg. Score: 35.75-27.75, or over 63 pts per contest. xeekx

Here's the top offenses in FCS:
Rank Team G Pl Yds Avg TD Ydspg
1. Northern Ariz. 4 341 1902 5.58 15 475.50
2. McNeese St. 3 209 1401 6.70 20 467.00
3. Cal Poly 3 196 1374 7.01 14 458.00
4. Appalachian St. 4 282 1827 6.48 19 456.75
5. VMI 4 255 1826 7.16 23 456.50
6. Wofford 4 270 1820 6.74 16 455.00
7. Harvard 2 143 905 6.33 6 452.50
8. New Hampshire 4 267 1769 6.63 20 442.25
9. North Dakota St. 4 253 1764 6.97 16 441.00
10. Tenn.-Martin 5 312 2189 7.02 34 437.80
11. Western Ill. 4 299 1744 5.83 19 436.00
12. Eastern Wash. 4 287 1727 6.02 19 431.75
13. Liberty 4 255 1685 6.61 19 421.25
14. Jacksonville St. 4 270 1681 6.23 15 420.25
15. Weber St. 5 328 2090 6.37 24 418.00
16. Howard 4 303 1668 5.50 14 417.00
17. Montana 4 270 1665 6.17 19 416.25
18. Sacramento St. 5 358 2080 5.81 20 416.00
19. Elon 5 377 2079 5.51 17 415.80
20. Citadel 4 258 1660 6.43 18 415.00

That's 5 Big Sky teams in the top 20 in the nation in total offense, with all but one team (Montana State) in the top 50.

Now for total defense. Out of 118 teams, you have:
Rank Team G Pl Yds Avg TD Ydspg
115. Eastern Wash. 4 313 1898 6.06 19 474.50
116. Portland St. 4 319 1928 6.04 19 482.00
117. Idaho St. 4 260 1986 7.64 24 496.50

Unfortunately, there's only one team that makes it near opposite ends: EWU. We gave up almost 400 yds of total offense against ISU (ranked 47th in FCS), and over 500 yds to D-II Western. But,

...Baldwin insisted he was never discouraged about his defense’s performance.

“That’s the thing about our guys, they’re just going to work and work and work,” he said. “We take pride in that if it’s tight in the fourth quarter, we’re going to win the fourth quarter. We take pride in just being relentless.

Winning the 4th quarter is nice and all, but having D play only 1 quarter of good football is going to get you a loss (or two, or three, probably 4 or 5 in this conference) real quick. xnonono2x

[appfan2008]

EWU sure gives up quite a few yards to be ranked so highly but I guess that comes with playing a couple of good fbs teams

[Screamin_Eagle174]

EWU sure gives up quite a few yards to be ranked so highly but I guess that comes with playing a couple of good fbs teams

Total yards given up by EWU D:
1. Texas Tech, 639yds
2. Western Washington (D-II), 515yds
3. Idaho State, 393yds
4. Colorado 351yds

Sort of the case, sort of not. We held Colorado to the least amount of yards of all the teams we've played.

[th0m]

I always say yardage schmardage.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

I always say yardage schmardage.

I do too, but yardage schmardage usually turns into scoreage porridge, which is a nasty dish to taste. :pumpuke:

[EmeryZach]

Atleast it isn't UMass's defense. Gave up 42 to Holy Cross, 52 to JMU, and 56 to Texas Tech. Can't be much worse than that.

[patssle]

Those numbers are still a little skewed being early in the season. Lots of D2/NAIA/FBS to distort the numbers. #2 McNeese has NAIA and D2 to factor in its numbers. SHSU currently averages 411 YPG yet its starting QB has sat out 4 quarters over 3 games.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Atleast it isn't UMass's defense. Gave up 42 to Holy Cross, 52 to JMU, and 56 to Texas Tech. Can't be much worse than that.

I agree, but UMass is 100th out of 118 in total D, whereas EWU is 115th. We allowed more yards, but Umass allowed more points. For scoring D, UMass is 115th, EWU 109th. Both are pretty terrible.

[Lionsrking]

I do too, but yardage schmardage usually turns into scoreage porridge, which is a nasty dish to taste. :pumpuke:

I think on average it does, but yardage totals can be highly overrated...a lot of it depends on turnovers, numbers of possessions, how quickly one team scores vs another, and how far they have to go for drives...often times you'll see a losing team out-gain the winner by a wide margin and still get dominated.

[msupokes1]

Those numbers are still a little skewed being early in the season. Lots of D2/NAIA/FBS to distort the numbers. #2 McNeese has NAIA and D2 to factor in its numbers. SHSU currently averages 411 YPG yet its starting QB has sat out 4 quarters over 3 games.

McNeese also has FBS North Carolina in there. McNeese had more total offense and more points on North Carolina then any of the other teams they have played(Rutgers, VT, and Miami). Those numbers are also off because McNeese had its 3rd string in during the second quarter last week and ran dive plays the entire second half. McNeese was 12 of 12 passing and did not attempt a pass in the second half. I have read 3 post from you today that have all basically said the same thing about McNeese but in all reality your schedule doesn't look much different. Our D2 win is probably more impressive then your win over GW.

[th0m]

I do too, but yardage schmardage usually turns into scoreage porridge, which is a nasty dish to taste. :pumpuke:

The keyword being usually ;) But I think we've all been at the short end of a football game by our respective teams yet having outgained our victorious opponents significantly. Turnovers, bad field position, failure to convert etc etc. Of course its nice to know that your offense is able to move the ball.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

The keyword being usually ;) But I think we've all been at the short end of a football game by our respective teams yet having outgained our victorious opponents significantly. Turnovers, bad field position, failure to convert etc etc. Of course its nice to know that your offense is able to move the ball.

It's very nice. I know that we can move the ball against any team in the country (i.e. Texas Tech & Colorado), but that offense needs to rely on the D to get some stops. Allowing D-II WWU to gain 500+ yards and 31 points is going to get us a L against teams like Montana, Weber, NAU and MSU.

[Reign of Terrier]

Wofford's offense- the best(my opinion)
wofford's defense- good against the run but not against the pass.