Some interesting stats from the Baylor game

After pouring over the stats, some interesting things I noticed:

1. Auburn only had one negative play.
This was a 14-yard loss when JA was sacked and fumbled… we thankfully recovered the ball.

To only have one play that resulted in negative yardage is very impressive. Contrast that with Baylor who had five such plays.

2. Auburn had very few plays for no gain.
Part of this is a result of not throwing the ball much. You can’t have many incomplete passes for 0 yards if you don’t throw often.

But in total, Auburn had just 12 plays for 0 or negative yards compared to Baylor having THIRTY such plays.

3. Our Median yards per play was dominant.
The above stats feed into this. But I think one of the best, most under-utilized statistics is MEDIAN yards per play.

Average yards per play can be skewed by one or two very big plays. But more often than not, if a team can have a median yards per play value that is +1 or more than the opponent, they will win the game. Auburn was +1.5. Very dominant.

Auburn’s median yards per play was 4.00 compared to Baylor’s 2.50… the Bears no doubt dragged down by all of those no gains and negative plays.

4. Defense needs to tighten up and not allow so many big plays
This is the one negative I have.

Auburn’s defense gave up 21 plays of 10 yards or more. That’s way too many. This is the only reason the game was even close. Auburn had 12 plays of 10+ yards or more.

Baylor had 15 plays go for 15 yards or more… and they had seven plays go for 20 yards or more.

Had Auburn not given up some of these big plays, I think we would have won in a route… like a 4 TD margin win. Baylor’s explosive plays are the only thing that made this game close.

I think if JA can work on his passing game a bit and if our defense can tighten up and not allow so many explosive plays, this team could be really good.