beorach

I don't really have anything figured out. Mostly I wonder at how interdependent the stats for passing and running categories are. E.g., we just played a team with the 4th-best offensive passing numbers in our conference but our "pass d" figures mostly went up, and by a considerable margin, because of the success they had running the ball. The stats aren't who we are. It's who we've been in the arena. I want to believe that we can be better and that it's largely about consistency (because we've shown flashes). If we can just make the Buckeyes earn all they get this weekend, that'd be something, right?

I've shared details on what I'm posting here and, from this point on, the only difference is games against lower division opponents will no longer be counted. There have been enough games played between FBS teams now. Eventually, I might share stats from games played only between P5 teams as well. I'm using cfbstats.com and footballperspective.com now for data and SOS rankings, respectively. The Congrove SOS numbers I had used were based on the whole season before the games had been played (so that was a mistake). Nebraska Cornhuskers by percentile (relative to national averages across the listed categories from games played to date) Pass D: 55.0 (was 47.0 before Wisconsin game) Pass O: 43.1 (was 44.1) Rush D: 61.4 (was 81.1) Rush O: 39.2 (was 45.6) Scoring D: 57.7 (was 66.2) Scoring O: 48.3 (was 57.7) Total D: 72.0 (was 77.0) Total O: 43.0 (was 46.1) Turnover Margin: 37.0 (was 40.4) OVERALL Percentile Average: 50.7 (was 56.1) DEFENSIVE Percentile Average: 61.5 (was 67.8) OFFENSIVE Percentile Average: 43.4 (was 48.4) Here are the B1G rankings for all these categories and SOS (strength of schedule with national rank given) for information only and no ranking adjustment was made per SOS: PD 1 Michigan 2 Michigan State 3 Penn State 4 Ohio State 5 Minnesota 6 Purdue 7 Iowa 8 Nebraska 9 Northwestern 10 Wisconsin 11 Rutgers 12 Indiana 13 Maryland 14 Illinois PO 1 Ohio State 2 Penn State 3 Purdue 4 Wisconsin 5 Iowa 6 Northwestern 7 Indiana 8 Michigan State 9 Nebraska 10 Michigan 11 Minnesota 12 Maryland 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers RD 1 Michigan 2 Wisconsin 3 Michigan State 4 Penn State 5 Ohio State 6 Minnesota 7 Iowa 8 Indiana 9 Northwestern 10 Purdue 11 Nebraska 12 Rutgers 13 Illinois 14 Maryland RO 1 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 3 Penn State 4 Minnesota 5 Michigan State 6 Maryland 7 Nebraska 8 Michigan 9 Purdue 10 Indiana 11 Illinois 12 Northwestern 13 Iowa 14 Rutgers SD 1 Penn State 2 Michigan 3 Wisconsin 4 Michigan State 5 Ohio State 6 Minnesota 7 Iowa 8 Purdue 9 Northwestern 10 Nebraska 11 Illinois 12 Rutgers 13 Indiana 14 Maryland SO 1 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 3 Penn State 4 Indiana 5 Purdue 6 Iowa 7 Nebraska 8 Minnesota 9 Maryland 10 Northwestern 11 Michigan 12 Michigan State 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers TD 1 Michigan 2 Michigan State 3 Wisconsin 4 Ohio State 5 Penn State 6 Minnesota 7 Nebraska 8 Purdue 9 Iowa 10 Northwestern 11 Rutgers 12 Indiana 13 Illinois 14 Maryland TO 1 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 3 Penn State 4 Indiana 5 Michigan State 6 Purdue 7 Michigan 8 Northwestern 9 Nebraska 10 Minnesota 11 Iowa 12 Illinois 13 Maryland 14 Rutgers Turnovers 1 Penn State 2 Ohio State 3 Minnesota 4 Purdue 5 Wisconsin 6 Maryland 7 Michigan State 8 Iowa 9 Illinois 10 Nebraska 11 Northwestern 12 Indiana 13 Michigan 14 Rutgers SOS 85 Illinois 64 Wisconsin 61 Minnesota 46 Nebraska 43 Rutgers 38 Penn State 33 Purdue 21 Iowa 20 Michigan 18 Ohio State 17 Indiana 11 Northwestern 5 Michigan State 2 Maryland **NOTE - SOS got pasted in wrong (reverse order). Maryland has played the 2nd-strongest schedule in the nation per footballperspective.com. Here are the Cornhusker percentiles (relative to national averages for FBS teams) for all the stats I'm tracking in the categories shared above: Rushing Defense Percentiles Yards per carry: 51.5 (was 80.4) Yards per game: 65.2 (was 84.7) Touchdowns per game: 67.1 (was 77.6) Passing Offense Percentiles Completions per game: 47.0 (was 47.0) Percentage: 27.2 (was 31.1) Yards per attempt: 39.4 (was 35.5) Touchdowns per game: 61.3 (was 69.3) Rating: 33.3 (was 34.2) Yards per game: 52.0 (was 48.1) Passing Defense Percentiles Completions per game: 39.2 (was 21.4) Percentage: 18.7 (was 16.9) Yards per attempt: 68.3 (was 66.9) Touchdowns per game: 74.3 (was 70.7) Rating: 61.0 (was 58.0) Yards per game: 69.6 (was 54.6) Rushing Offense Percentiles Yards per carry: 45.1 (was 46.8) Touchdowns per game: 34.8 (was 46.0) Yards per game: 37.9 (was 43.8) Scoring Defense Percentiles Touchdowns per game: 57.8 (was 66.3) Points per game: 57.6 (was 66.1) Scoring Offense Percentiles Touchdowns per game: 48.4 (was 57.7) Points per game: 48.3 (was 57.6) Total Defense Percentiles Yards per play: 60.8 (was 71.8) Yards per game: 73.1 (was 79.5) Plays per game: 80.4 (was 79.3) Total Offense Percentiles Plays per game: 45.2 (was 55.6) Yards per play: 42.6 (was 39.6) Yards per game: 41.3 (was 43.2) Turnover Margin Percentiles: Fumbles gained per game: 19.6 (was 25.6) Interceptions gained per game: 72.0 (was 73.2) Total gained per game: 46.1 (was 51.7) Fumbles lost per game: 78.6 (was 85.1) Interceptions lost per game: 5.8 (was 4.1) Total lost per game: 24.8 (was 26.5) Margin per game: 30.8 (was 35.4) Here are the national rankings, with average category percentile ratings, without any adjustment having been made for SOS: Rank Team overall 1 Ohio State 88.13 2 Alabama 87.53 3 UCF 86.89 4 South Florida 85.26 5 Penn State 84.09 6 Clemson 80.40 7 Washington 80.30 8 Auburn 79.44 9 Wisconsin 78.86 10 Oklahoma 76.98 11 Virginia Tech 76.00 12 Georgia 75.29 13 Washington State 74.39 14 Notre Dame 73.45 15 UTSA 72.66 16 Oklahoma State 72.48 17 Oregon 70.83 18 USC 69.33 19 Miami (Florida) 68.70 20 Georgia Tech 68.19 21 TCU 68.15 22 Texas 67.46 23 Michigan State 66.26 24 Utah 66.18 25 Virginia 65.90 26 San Diego State 65.52 27 North Carolina State 65.21 28 Arizona 63.83 29 Kansas State 63.27 30 Michigan 62.79 31 West Virginia 62.35 32 Houston 62.10 33 Minnesota 61.98 34 Wake Forest 61.88 35 Texas Tech 61.56 36 Colorado State 61.43 37 Duke 61.19 38 Stanford 60.31 39 Louisville 60.28 40 Purdue 60.14 41 Navy 59.54 42 Texas A&M 58.91 43 SMU 57.99 44 LSU 57.05 45 Marshall 56.85 46 Boise State 55.57 47 Northern Illinois 55.47 48 Southern Mississippi 54.46 49 Iowa 54.41 50 Troy 53.74 51 Syracuse 53.50 52 Army 53.43 53 New Mexico 53.10 54 Eastern Michigan 53.06 55 Louisiana-Monroe 52.65 56 Memphis 52.48 57 Iowa State 52.40 58 Colorado 52.32 59 Appalachian State 52.15 60 South Carolina 52.02 61 New Mexico State 52.00 62 Mississippi State 51.39 63 Florida 51.33 64 Western Kentucky 50.96 65 Kentucky 50.81 66 Nebraska 50.74 67 Western Michigan 50.47 68 Coastal Carolina 49.97 69 Toledo 49.70 70 Florida Atlantic 49.46 71 UAB 48.92 72 North Texas 48.57 73 UCLA 48.39 74 Tulane 48.35 75 Northwestern 48.16 76 Miami (Ohio) 47.26 77 Ohio 46.74 78 Middle Tennessee 46.39 79 UNLV 46.31 80 Fresno State 45.94 81 Buffalo 45.18 82 Arkansas 44.86 83 Indiana 44.51 84 Florida State 44.45 85 Louisiana Tech 44.25 86 Massachusetts 43.22 87 Central Michigan 42.90 88 Arizona State 41.82 89 Idaho 41.39 90 Utah State 41.07 91 Hawai'i 39.70 92 Wyoming 39.40 93 Tulsa 39.35 94 Air Force 38.91 95 Georgia State 38.75 96 Louisiana-Lafayette 38.14 97 Arkansas State 38.06 98 Pittsburgh 37.90 99 North Carolina 37.33 100 Ball State 36.22 101 Boston College 34.48 102 Tennessee 34.12 103 Connecticut 33.80 104 Baylor 32.89 105 California 32.60 106 Temple 32.15 107 Maryland 31.11 108 Mississippi 30.77 109 Nevada 30.37 110 Akron 30.09 111 Kansas 29.98 112 Illinois 29.90 113 Vanderbilt 29.40 114 Cincinnati 27.94 115 Florida International 27.76 116 Bowling Green 27.15 117 Rutgers 26.01 118 Charlotte 26.00 119 South Alabama 25.29 120 Georgia Southern 24.89 121 Texas State 24.75 122 BYU 23.81 123 Missouri 23.28 124 East Carolina 22.06 125 Rice 20.42 126 Kent State 20.15 127 Old Dominion 19.26 128 Oregon State 16.56 129 UTEP 15.02 130 San Jose State 10.26

I got NU - 3 for the second half. It was more interesting than it seemed like it would be at the end of the first half...

Maryland was going with a 3rd-string QB after the first quarter at UCF, was it? p.s. - I thought they were dinged up after (and during) Texas also. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/terrapins-insider/wp/2017/09/29/marylands-qb-carousel-might-be-the-most-dangerous-ride-in-college-football/?utm_term=.e13ade5ffedc

Just to clarify what I've shared (and I think Soup is looking at the same), here's the Congrove link: http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/rankings/ All he's doing is taking the average power ranking of all a team's opponents. I used to do the same with my percentiles but I don't have a quick way set up so that gets painful looking up and adding another team for up to 130 each week.

I like to develop spreads from stats and I'd call UCF an 8.5-point favorite on a neutral field right now after an SOS adjustment. Their SOS rank is 82 and ours is 23 to date. My system's not very complicated and I'm always trying to figure out the SOS thing. All I do is figure a theoretical team with all the best stats would beat a theoretical team with all the worst ones by 59.5 at home. I figure the team that has played the toughest schedule in the nation should lay 21 points against the team that has played the weakest (trying to be conservative).

Per my 'p.s.' note above, here's a different SOS ranking list from Congrove (# is the national rank out of 130 teams): 3 Michigan State 15 Maryland 20 Ohio State 23 Nebraska 26 Michigan 28 Iowa 29 Illinois 32 Rutgers 33 Purdue 34 Penn State 39 Northwestern 65 Indiana 66 Minnesota 68 Wisconsin

The Golden Knights have posted some great numbers so far. Their worst category is passing defense and even then it (their average for all those pass D stats shared above for NU) is still above the 66th percentile.

I've shared details on what I'm posting here and, from this point on, the only difference is games against lower division opponents will no longer be counted. There have been enough games played between FBS teams now. Eventually, I might share stats from games played only between P5 teams as well. I'm using cfbstats.com and teamrankings.com. p.s. - I'm not sure I like the SOS ranking methodology at teamrankings.com because I just don't see that our schedule and Wisconsin's have been roughly the same to date. If that was the case, I'd have less reason for hope as well. Nebraska Cornhuskers by percentile (relative to national averages across the listed categories from 4 games played) Pass D: 47.0 (was 42.7 before Illinois game) Pass O: 44.1 (was 26.6) Rush D: 81.1 (was 73.3) Rush O: 45.6 (was 46.8) Scoring D: 66.2 (was 46.3) Scoring O: 57.7 (was 57.6) Total D: 77.0 (was 62.2) Total O: 46.1 (was 45.2) Turnover Margin: 40.4 (was 38.4) OVERALL Percentile Average: 56.1 (was 48.8) DEFENSIVE Percentile Average: 67.8 (was 56.1) OFFENSIVE Percentile Average: 48.4 (was 44.1) Here are the B1G rankings for all these categories and SOS (strength of schedule) for information only and no ranking adjustment was made per SOS: PD 1 Michigan 2 Michigan State 3 Penn State 4 Minnesota 5 Ohio State 6 Northwestern 7 Purdue 8 Wisconsin 9 Iowa 10 Nebraska 11 Maryland 12 Rutgers 13 Indiana 14 Illinois PO 1 Ohio State 2 Penn State 3 Wisconsin 4 Northwestern 5 Purdue 6 Michigan State 7 Iowa 8 Maryland 9 Indiana 10 Michigan 11 Nebraska 12 Minnesota 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers RD 1 Michigan 2 Wisconsin 3 Michigan State 4 Penn State 5 Nebraska 6 Ohio State 7 Minnesota 8 Iowa 9 Purdue 10 Indiana 11 Northwestern 12 Maryland 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers RO 1 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 3 Penn State 4 Minnesota 5 Maryland 6 Michigan 7 Michigan State 8 Nebraska 9 Northwestern 10 Purdue 11 Indiana 12 Iowa 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers SD 1 Penn State 2 Wisconsin 3 Michigan 4 Minnesota 5 Ohio State 6 Michigan State 7 Iowa 8 Purdue 9 Nebraska 10 Northwestern 11 Illinois 12 Rutgers 13 Indiana 14 Maryland SO 1 Ohio State 2 Penn State 3 Wisconsin 4 Maryland 5 Indiana 6 Northwestern 7 Minnesota 8 Nebraska 9 Purdue 10 Michigan 11 Iowa 12 Michigan State 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers TD 1 Michigan 2 Michigan State 3 Wisconsin 4 Minnesota 5 Penn State 6 Nebraska 7 Ohio State 8 Iowa 9 Purdue 10 Northwestern 11 Maryland 12 Rutgers 13 Indiana 14 Illinois TO 1 Ohio State 2 Penn State 3 Wisconsin 4 Michigan State 5 Northwestern 6 Indiana 7 Michigan 8 Purdue 9 Nebraska 10 Minnesota 11 Maryland 12 Iowa 13 Rutgers 14 Illinois Turnovers 1 Penn State 2 Ohio State 3 Purdue 4 Minnesota 5 Maryland 6 Wisconsin 7 Illinois 8 Michigan 9 Northwestern 10 Nebraska 11 Iowa 12 Indiana 13 Michigan State 14 Rutgers SOS 1 Illinois 2 Indiana 3 Iowa 4 Maryland 5 Michigan 6 Michigan State 7 Minnesota 8 Nebraska 9 Northwestern 10 Ohio State 11 Penn State 12 Purdue 13 Rutgers 14 Wisconsin Here are the Cornhusker percentiles (relative to national averages for FBS teams) for all the stats I'm tracking in the categories shared above: Rushing Defense Percentiles Yards per carry: 80.4 (was 70.2) Yards per game: 84.7 (was 81.3) Touchdowns per game: 77.6 (was 67.2) Passing Offense Percentiles Completions per game: 47.0 (was 49.1) Percentage: 31.1 (was 25.1) Yards per attempt: 35.5 (was 27.2) Touchdowns per game: 69.3 (was 57.4) Rating: 34.2 (was 23.2) Yards per game: 48.1 (was 45.8) Passing Defense Percentiles Completions per game: 21.4 (was 9.6) Percentage: 16.9 (was 19.3) Yards per attempt: 66.9 (was 63.7) Touchdowns per game: 70.7 (was 54.7) Rating: 58.0 (was 54.0) Yards per game: 54.6 (was 36.1) Rushing Offense Percentiles Yards per carry: 46.8 (was 45.6) Touchdowns per game: 46.0 (was 52.1) Yards per game: 43.8 (was 42.7) Scoring Defense Percentiles Touchdowns per game: 66.3 (was 45.1) Points per game: 66.1 (was 47.6) Scoring Offense Percentiles Touchdowns per game: 57.7 (was 56.1) Points per game: 57.6 (was 59.1) Total Defense Percentiles Yards per play: 71.8 (was 61.0) Yards per game: 79.5 (was 65.4) Plays per game: 79.3 (was 63.4) Total Offense Percentiles Plays per game: 55.6 (was 65.8) Yards per play: 39.6 (was 31.5) Yards per game: 43.2 (was 40.8) Turnover Margin Percentiles: Fumbles gained per game: 25.6 (was 34.0) Interceptions gained per game: 73.2 (was 74.5) Total gained per game: 51.7 (was 58.8) Fumbles lost per game: 85.1 (was 89.4) Interceptions lost per game: 4.1 (was 0.8) Total lost per game: 26.5 (was 18.1) Margin per game: 35.4 (was 33.0) Here's the ranking list for all FBS teams, based on the highest overall average of all these category averages averaged together (w/o any SOS adjustment): Team overall Alabama 89.08 UCF 87.51 South Florida 84.03 Penn State 83.76 Ohio State 82.49 Clemson 81.20 Oklahoma 80.91 Washington 78.62 Auburn 78.41 UTSA 78.34 Wisconsin 78.28 Virginia Tech 77.72 Oregon 76.38 Miami (Florida) 75.60 Washington State 72.28 Oklahoma State 71.65 Utah 71.43 Georgia 70.80 Michigan 70.58 TCU 70.52 Notre Dame 70.15 Kansas State 69.03 Arizona 68.04 Wake Forest 67.73 Georgia Tech 67.38 Texas 66.76 Minnesota 66.64 Michigan State 66.26 West Virginia 66.02 Navy 65.45 Duke 65.12 Louisville 64.94 USC 64.89 North Carolina State 64.84 Virginia 64.71 Houston 63.14 Texas A&M 61.84 SMU 60.40 Stanford 59.17 San Diego State 59.10 Purdue 58.46 LSU 57.81 UNLV 57.09 Eastern Michigan 56.62 Northwestern 56.23 Nebraska 56.12 Colorado State 54.98 New Mexico State 54.97 Southern Mississippi 54.48 Iowa State 53.84 Colorado 53.58 Troy 53.54 New Mexico 52.91 Marshall 52.21 Boise State 51.54 Florida 51.50 Kentucky 51.32 Mississippi State 51.28 Arkansas 51.12 Texas Tech 50.95 Syracuse 50.74 Iowa 50.67 Western Kentucky 50.58 Western Michigan 50.02 Northern Illinois 49.55 Appalachian State 49.06 Maryland 48.97 Coastal Carolina 48.81 UCLA 48.63 North Texas 48.51 Ohio 48.33 UAB 48.16 Utah State 47.71 Louisiana-Monroe 47.53 South Carolina 47.44 Miami (Ohio) 47.30 Toledo 47.27 Buffalo 46.73 Indiana 44.79 Army 44.04 Louisiana Tech 43.84 Massachusetts 43.73 North Carolina 43.12 Arizona State 42.30 Idaho 42.26 Hawai'i 41.89 Tulsa 41.78 Florida State 41.51 Middle Tennessee 41.42 Memphis 41.09 Florida Atlantic 40.16 Wyoming 39.76 California 39.70 Ball State 39.46 Central Michigan 39.37 Pittsburgh 39.04 Louisiana-Lafayette 38.78 Tulane 36.71 Kansas 36.32 Connecticut 35.47 Georgia State 35.21 Arkansas State 35.08 Tennessee 35.05 Fresno State 34.79 Boston College 34.55 Baylor 33.82 Vanderbilt 33.46 Cincinnati 33.25 Illinois 32.48 Mississippi 32.11 Air Force 31.70 Florida International 31.55 Texas State 27.72 Rutgers 26.84 South Alabama 26.44 East Carolina 25.68 Charlotte 25.58 Rice 25.01 Bowling Green 23.81 Nevada 23.59 Temple 23.05 BYU 21.51 Akron 21.21 Old Dominion 21.17 Kent State 18.73 Missouri 18.13 Oregon State 18.08 Georgia Southern 17.47 UTEP 12.22 San Jose State 10.37

Hoppes played some nice "D" to save his QB another INT, too.

I think that's it. We just want to be a tough game for people. We want the team to play to a level greater than the sum of its parts (sort of goes along with that "in the deed the glory" as it takes every players commitment to doing his job well). I would like for us to be more than what Wisconsin has been but I would be satisfied with that, too.

Comments are definitely fair. I'm glad to get feedback that reinforces my feeling I'm among like-minded fans Nebraskans, too.

I'm up for recommendations. I think I can edit to add another description.

Yeah, I tried to figure out how I might combine some of those but wasn't sure how many combinations I should account for... I suppose I should have worded the question more like, "Which sounds most like you as a Cornhusker fan?"

Purely based on the numbers, I think that's a little high given we're playing at their stadium. I don't like to bet on teams with turnover margins like ours, though. It's absolutely fair to point out that their offensive stats make ours look pretty healthy. We're pushing the average overall and they're not quite halfway there by my math. There's also the matter of talent.

With such a high percentage of topics that assume there will be more blood, so to speak, I wondered if that's really who we are? GBR!

It's a shame you have to wonder about Cutcliffe's health. He was almost ND's offensive coordinator not that long ago but for a heart condition. Miami seems more than susceptible to the pass but Duke hasn't posted great numbers through the air... U$C and Wazzu have played much different schedules and the Trojans seem to be able to defend the pass so I don't see that one. SOS difference is stark with respect to Clemson and Va. Tech as well. Florida State has QB issues, right? Their running game has disappeared altogether as well, it seems (though it almost certainly has something to do with the QB issues). Wake has played a much easier schedule again, though. Alabama hasn't covered that spread against anyone but Vandy and they played Colorado State. Nebraska didn't cover against Rutgers last week so maybe brophog and I are agreeing now that Illinois < Rutgers? p.s. - I'm a little confused that Michigan State's a favorite against Iowa with their turnover issues. UCF's spread seems small but I guess they have a history with Memphis. UCLA might be in trouble even with Colorado having had trouble running the ball so far... I wonder if the Gamecocks can make a living through the air against the Aggies in College Station. Oregon should be able to handle Cal but I thought they could deal with ASU, too.

I acknowledged that it looks like a loss now so I'm not sure what the argument is. I'm just saying we shouldn't put the Boilermakers on a pedestal. That fans can't even hope for improvement from our guys is another matter. If we don't see much, I've shared that I'll be thrilled with five wins. I.e., my rose-colored glasses aren't as thick as you're implying. p.s. - Purdue sacked the QB five times this season in total with four of those coming in their last game. Their numbers against the pass have been average so far but they've played a tougher schedule than our guys have.

I don't get all the fawning over the team with the big drum. Louisville has only held Kent State below 4 touchdowns. Missouri is in shambles. Ohio only has decent stats against the run so far (and, like with us, that likely has something to do with how easy it has been for teams to pass on the Bobcats). Michigan did what you expected them to at Ross-Ade or whatever that place is called now. Lucas Oil? All I know is Michigan only allowed them ten yards of offense in the second half there last Saturday. I'm not saying I look at the Purdue game as a win for us (the way we've played so far) but it's not like they're Ohio State. They've put up good passing numbers for a B1G school but not rushing ones. Their defensive stats aren't that much better than ours overall...though they've been getting (forcing?) a lot of fumbles.

Just for fun (?), I'm going to add some more figures to the Nebraska stats in our best and worst categories. Rushing Defense Percentiles Yards per carry: 70.2 Yards per game: 81.3 Touchdowns per game: 67.2 Passing Offense Percentiles Completions per game: 49.1 Percentage: 25.1 Yards per attempt: 27.2 Touchdowns per game: 57.4 Interceptions per game: 0.8 (sadly not a typo) Rating: 23.2 (and I'll freely admit I don't even really know what this is) Yards per game: 45.8 I guess it's easy enough to share it all. Passing Defense Percentiles Completions per game: 9.6 Percentage: 19.3 Yards per attempt: 63.7 Touchdowns per game: 54.7 Interceptions per game: 74.5 Rating: 54.0 Yards per game: 36.1 Rushing Offense Percentiles Yards per carry: 45.6 Touchdowns per game: 52.1 Yards per game: 42.7 Scoring Defense Percentiles Touchdowns per game: 45.1 Points per game: 47.6 Scoring Offense Percentiles Touchdowns per game: 56.1 Points per game: 59.1 Total Defense Percentiles Yards per play: 61.0 Yards per game: 65.4 Plays per game: 63.4 Total Offense Percentiles Plays per game: 65.8 Yards per play: 31.5 Yards per game: 40.8 Turnover Margin Percentiles: Fumbles gained per game: 34.0 Interceptions gained per game: 74.5 Total gained per game: 58.8 Fumbles lost per game: 89.4 Interceptions lost per game: 0.8 (sort of double-counting here) Total lost per game: 18.1 Margin per game: 33.0 p.s. - If I take interceptions out of the passing categories, it changes the average percentile rankings somewhat drastically. PD and PO would both be 37.2 then. Each category lists interceptions, of course. I just don't want to be counting things twice as it skews the presentation.

The only sports psychology story I've heard about NU is that the kids had to watch some blooper real of theirs (from one or more games against Texas) ahead of playing the Longhorns. I guess it was supposed to show how they just needed to clean up their act to win? It didn't work, of course.

I was half joking with a friend over our having to get to 72nd and Dodge if we get to 5 wins this season. I'm behind them but it obviously looks about that bleak right now.

Amen, gentlemen. I was not at the game last weekend but, at one point when they were showing the crowd looking like I felt, all I could think was that these are the easy days....

I've shared details on what I'm posting here and, from this point on, the only difference is games against lower division opponents will no longer be counted. There have been enough games played between FBS teams now. Eventually, I might share stats from games played only between P5 teams as well. I'm using cfbstats.com and teamrankings.com. ***UPDATE: See a response from me below (because it's tough to edit after you've pasted so much for me) if you want to see all the individual percentile rankings for stats within these categories.*** Nebraska Cornhuskers by percentile (relative to national averages across the listed categories from 4 games played) Pass D: 42.7 Pass O: 26.6 Rush D: 73.3 Rush O: 46.8 Scoring D: 46.3 Scoring O: 57.6 Total D: 62.2 Total O: 45.2 Turnover Margin: 38.4 OVERALL Percentile Average: 48.8 DEFENSIVE Percentile Average: 56.1 OFFENSIVE Percentile Average: 44.1 Here are the B1G rankings for all these categories and SOS (strength of schedule) for information only and no ranking adjustment was made per SOS: PD 1 Michigan 2 Michigan State 3 Penn State 4 Minnesota 5 Rutgers 6 Iowa 7 Northwestern 8 Ohio State 9 Wisconsin 10 Purdue 11 Illinois 12 Indiana 13 Nebraska 14 Maryland PO 1 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 3 Penn State 4 Iowa 5 Northwestern 6 Purdue 7 Michigan State 8 Indiana 9 Minnesota 10 Maryland 11 Michigan 12 Nebraska 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers RD 1 Michigan 2 Minnesota 3 Wisconsin 4 Penn State 5 Rutgers 6 Michigan State 7 Nebraska 8 Ohio State 9 Purdue 10 Iowa 11 Northwestern 12 Illinois 13 Indiana 14 Maryland RO 1 Wisconsin 2 Penn State 3 Ohio State 4 Minnesota 5 Michigan State 6 Northwestern 7 Michigan 8 Nebraska 9 Maryland 10 Iowa 11 Purdue 12 Indiana 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers SD 1 Penn State 2 Minnesota 3 Purdue 4 Ohio State 5 Wisconsin 6 Michigan 7 Illinois 8 Iowa 9 Indiana 10 Maryland 11 Nebraska 12 Northwestern 13 Rutgers 14 Michigan State SO 1 Wisconsin 2 Penn State 3 Ohio State 4 Indiana 5 Northwestern 6 Minnesota 7 Maryland 8 Iowa 9 Nebraska 10 Purdue 11 Michigan 12 Michigan State 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers TD 1 Michigan 2 Minnesota 3 Wisconsin 4 Michigan State 5 Penn State 6 Rutgers 7 Nebraska 8 Ohio State 9 Purdue 10 Iowa 11 Northwestern 12 Indiana 13 Illinois 14 Maryland TO 1 Ohio State 2 Wisconsin 3 Penn State 4 Michigan State 5 Northwestern 6 Indiana 7 Michigan 8 Minnesota 9 Purdue 10 Nebraska 11 Iowa 12 Maryland 13 Illinois 14 Rutgers Turnovers 1 Penn State 2 Minnesota 3 Purdue 4 Ohio State 5 Wisconsin 6 Michigan 7 Illinois 8 Iowa 9 Indiana 10 Maryland 11 Nebraska 12 Northwestern 13 Rutgers 14 Michigan State SOS 1 Ohio State 2 Indiana 3 Purdue 4 Michigan 5 Maryland 6 Iowa 7 Penn State 8 Michigan State 9 Nebraska 10 Northwestern 11 Illinois 12 Rutgers 13 Wisconsin 14 Minnesota Here are the national rankings, without any consideration having been given to SOS: Rank Team Overall % 1 South Florida 86.17 2 UCF 86.13 3 Alabama 85.28 4 Penn State 83.93 5 Virginia Tech 83.46 6 Wisconsin 81.24 7 Clemson 80.73 8 Oklahoma 78.74 9 UTSA 77.29 10 Minnesota 75.04 11 Duke 74.45 12 Ohio State 73.29 13 Washington 72.70 14 Auburn 72.69 15 Oregon 72.29 16 Kansas State 72.09 17 Washington State 71.42 18 Utah 71.22 19 Wake Forest 70.93 20 Oklahoma State 70.89 21 Michigan 69.85 22 Miami (Florida) 69.72 23 TCU 69.32 24 USC 68.54 25 Notre Dame 68.43 26 Michigan State 65.80 27 Arizona 65.72 28 West Virginia 65.27 29 Navy 65.00 30 Georgia 64.44 31 Louisville 63.80 32 Mississippi State 63.79 33 Texas 63.68 34 Virginia 63.56 35 North Carolina State 63.49 36 San Diego State 62.89 37 New Mexico State 62.52 38 Iowa State 62.49 39 Georgia Tech 62.01 40 LSU 60.13 41 Houston 59.73 42 Stanford 59.62 43 Miami (Ohio) 59.45 44 Texas A&M 59.11 45 Southern Mississippi 58.90 46 Texas Tech 58.89 47 Eastern Michigan 58.22 48 Northwestern 58.21 49 Purdue 57.22 50 Iowa 55.70 51 Troy 55.16 52 Syracuse 55.06 53 Colorado 54.56 54 SMU 54.48 55 Mississippi 54.37 56 Memphis 53.16 57 Ball State 52.56 58 Kentucky 52.33 59 Boise State 52.25 60 South Carolina 51.59 61 Western Kentucky 50.75 62 Northern Illinois 50.61 63 Appalachian State 50.38 64 Coastal Carolina 49.90 65 Indiana 49.78 66 UAB 49.27 67 North Carolina 48.91 68 Nebraska 48.79 69 California 48.22 70 Colorado State 47.64 71 UCLA 47.34 72 Marshall 47.18 73 Toledo 46.60 74 Hawai'i 46.57 75 Louisiana-Monroe 46.51 76 Ohio 45.82 77 New Mexico 45.81 78 Arizona State 45.61 79 North Texas 45.49 80 Florida 45.29 81 UNLV 45.27 82 Tennessee 45.17 83 Massachusetts 44.79 84 Buffalo 44.42 85 Middle Tennessee 44.18 86 Tulsa 44.07 87 Idaho 42.43 88 Rutgers 41.57 89 Central Michigan 41.40 90 Connecticut 40.94 91 Arkansas 40.57 92 Florida State 39.99 93 Utah State 39.67 94 Tulane 38.89 95 Air Force 38.15 96 Maryland 38.10 97 Illinois 37.82 98 Vanderbilt 37.61 99 Louisiana-Lafayette 37.44 100 Army 36.79 101 Western Michigan 36.74 102 Georgia State 35.80 103 Kansas 35.70 104 Cincinnati 34.05 105 Louisiana Tech 33.70 106 Arkansas State 33.38 107 Wyoming 33.24 108 Florida Atlantic 33.03 109 Baylor 30.82 110 Florida International 30.63 111 Rice 30.43 112 South Alabama 30.07 113 Boston College 28.95 114 Texas State 28.42 115 East Carolina 26.79 116 Oregon State 25.01 117 Old Dominion 24.96 118 Pittsburgh 24.82 119 Nevada 24.69 120 Bowling Green 23.16 121 Temple 22.40 122 Fresno State 21.45 123 Charlotte 20.65 124 Missouri 20.07 125 BYU 19.75 126 Georgia Southern 19.54 127 Kent State 16.71 128 Akron 15.41 129 UTEP 11.40 130 San Jose State 10.55

That's fair. I'm just not interested enough in Rutgers to watch them. There's also the matter of any game only showing how one team measures up to another. I know some of the folks posting here enjoy the blood in the water after yesterday but I hope it's not fair to judge our kids based on that Northern Illinois game alone.