The ppg isn’t a big deal when it’s due to both units shortening the game, but points/punt or points/possession are lower than you’d hope for. Still better than anything under Herman/Mess/Mangino iirc, and improving.
DP Show's Seton gushes about ISU
- Thread starter ruxCYtable
- Start date
No doubt, and I'm not concerned about the offense at ISU. It's clearly trending in the right direction, and I don't mind the conservative approach as it makes sense given the strength of the defense. But I don't think it's a stretch to say the offense hasn't been all that good, and that the only things the offense has done consistently well are not fumbling (DM) and forcing a record setting level of missed tackles (DM).
I think this is somewhat overblown. On the season as a whole ISU underscored a grand total of 3.2 points below the aggregate sum of what all of their opponents allowed on average. That's 3.2 points total, not per game. So they scored about one field goal total less than the average against these teams. Not stellar, but not horrible either. CORRECTION: Memphis actually gave up 32.5 ppg so the total difference on the season was 1.7 points, less than a safety on the season.
And KU gave up defensive and special teams scores all season as well as giving the other teams short fields. If you discount success on those in ISU's game you have to do the same for the rest of their opponents. The yards per play weren't great, but playing in a driving rainstorm while shutting your opponent out may result in less than your best work.
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That’s some nice lipstick.
Not many efficiency numbers were what you’d want last year, even with Lazard and DM being able to make plays. A view it as a response of limited OL and QB play resulting in an overly restrictive offense. Repeatedly running predictable body-blow type plays and hoping that DM and Lazard or our defense make a play when needed.
So if you aren't winging it around continuously like Taco Tech it isn't a real offense?
Again, I'm not trying to make the case that ISUs offense is terrible, or was terrible against KU. Nor do I have any concerns about ISUs offense under MC moving forward. I think it's going to keep getting better, and has been good considering ISUs talent and strong defense. However, I disagree with some of the (mostly national) people mentioning MC while referencing the "McVay factor," as in NFL teams taking a risk on a young guy that's an offensive innovator. I think MC is a great coach and I hope he's here forever, but his strength has been more as the CEO rather than as a technical offensive guru to this point.
As for your point on the ISU scoring vs. what's given up, I don't think an aggregate is a very good way to look at it, and I think including FCS and maybe even G5 is a little misleading. Either way, any metric you use shows that ISU has been largely carried by defense, and the offense has not been all that great despite a historic level of breaking tackles and ball security. Not that coaches have no impact on those two factors, but I think Chuck Bruce deserves most of the credit there.
You have very valid points but I don't think what you originally posted was very valid way to show it. By the way, I wasn't the first one to use a G5 team since you mentioned Memphis when you laid this whole thing out.
ISU is definitely carried by the defense every since the Texas game last year. When you have a top tier in the nation defense a somewhere around average offense paired with it is going to stick out like a sore thumb.
I don't think you can disentangle the "overly restrictive offense" from the record numbers of missed tackles and fumbles given away.
Had we played more aggressively on offense, it is possible that the net result would have been giving the ball away more / losing yards.
You have to play to your strengths. If you have an elite defense, you don't want your offense to lose the game for you by asking it to do things it can't do.
True, I included Memphis, mainly because I didn't scroll down far enough to see that the Big12 stats had conference game only stats!
If you take conference games only into consideration last year ISU scored fewer points than the average allowed in 7 out of 9 games. By my count ISU averaged 26 ppg in conference play, and those opponents averaged giving up 31 ppg. Again, not terrible by any means, especially when you consider style of play and the approach of leaning on the defense.
I think it also shows the progress the team is making offensively. With the type of QB Campbell wants - who can run and utilize the RPO game, we're seeing that this offense can be very good. We can be a little disappointed with the OL, but it probably takes longer to develop that position group than any other. When you have five starters in positions that typically take most guys a couple years in a program to physically be ready to play it takes years to get to the point that you are churning out consistently good OLs.
