College Football Live: MSU more balanced than NU; will win.

[bshirt]

Of course, I thought we'd beat Wisconsin too.

 

[General Blackshirt]

Yards are not a comparable stat to evaluate how balanced a team is. Total yard are a worthless stat. Looking at rushing attempts and passing attempts, Michigan state has rushed 258 times and thrown it 226 times. Nebraska has rushed 332 times and thrown it 155 times. Now look at that and figure out who is more balanced.

Exactly right. MSU is the much more balanced team.

[zoogs]

I don't get this analysis.

 

MSU (yards/tds): 1756/12 pass, 966/10 rush, 2722 total

NU (yds/tds): 1202/7 pass, 1827/23 rush, 3029 total

 

So about 2/3 of MSU's (65%) offense comes from passing, about 2/3 (60%) of ours comes from rushing, but they're more balanced?

 

Passing obviously averages more yards per play than rushing, so can you pull up the # of plays to put next to those stats?

 

I suspect it will show why Michigan State is more "balanced" offensively.

[Hercules]

I think yards gained is a more accurate way of assessing balance than attempts passing/rushing. Michigan State's playcalling might be more balanced, but Nebraska's actual offensive output is more balanced.

[bhamHusker]

Yards are not a comparable stat to evaluate how balanced a team is. Total yard are a worthless stat. Looking at rushing attempts and passing attempts, Michigan state has rushed 258 times and thrown it 226 times. Nebraska has rushed 332 times and thrown it 155 times. Now look at that and figure out who is more balanced.

True, attempts should be factored in, and I briefly thought about including those numbers in the original post. I stuck with just production for the sake of brevity because that's what matters most, ultimately. For NU, the number of attempts still break down along roughly the same line. MSU has a more even distribution between passing and rushing, but this is far from the symmetry vs. one dimensional description I referred to. As an aside, NU and MSU have had about the same number of offensive snaps (487 and 485 respectively), and NU has more yards, TDs and FGs to show for their efforts.

[Guy Chamberlin]

We can talk about our offensive playcalling all we want, but the simple fact is this Nebraska defense has had trouble stopping both mediocre runners and unheralded passers.

 

They don't have to be lockdown, but we really need to see an inspired Nebraska defense, getting a turnover or four.

[Hercules]

I don't get this analysis. MSU (yards/tds): 1756/12 pass, 966/10 rush, 2722 total NU (yds/tds): 1202/7 pass, 1827/23 rush, 3029 total So about 2/3 of MSU's (65%) offense comes from passing, about 2/3 (60%) of ours comes from rushing, but they're more balanced?

Passing obviously averages more yards per play than rushing, so can you pull up the # of plays to put next to those stats? I suspect it will show why Michigan State is more "balanced" offensively.

 

MSU: 7.8 yards per pass, 3.8 yards per rush

NEB: 7.8 yards per pass, 5.5 yards per rush

[bshirt]

We can talk about our offensive playcalling all we want, but the simple fact is this Nebraska defense has had trouble stopping both mediocre runners and unheralded passers.

 

They don't have to be lockdown, but we really need to see an inspired Nebraska defense, getting a turnover or four.

 

Ouch!!

 

It's hard to believe but Bo's defense this year is a disaster. "Now" is the time for your magic wand, Bo. If not that, six or eight turnovers would work.

 

GBR!!

[zoogs]

I don't get this analysis. MSU (yards/tds): 1756/12 pass, 966/10 rush, 2722 total NU (yds/tds): 1202/7 pass, 1827/23 rush, 3029 total So about 2/3 of MSU's (65%) offense comes from passing, about 2/3 (60%) of ours comes from rushing, but they're more balanced?

Passing obviously averages more yards per play than rushing, so can you pull up the # of plays to put next to those stats? I suspect it will show why Michigan State is more "balanced" offensively.

 

MSU: 7.8 yards per pass, 3.8 yards per rush

NEB: 7.8 yards per pass, 5.5 yards per rush

 

So rough estimates put it this way:

 

MSU: 225 pass plays, 254 runs

NU: 154 pass plays, 332 runs

 

Now the "balance" phrase makes sense, doesn't it?

[Hercules]

I don't get this analysis. MSU (yards/tds): 1756/12 pass, 966/10 rush, 2722 total NU (yds/tds): 1202/7 pass, 1827/23 rush, 3029 total So about 2/3 of MSU's (65%) offense comes from passing, about 2/3 (60%) of ours comes from rushing, but they're more balanced?

Passing obviously averages more yards per play than rushing, so can you pull up the # of plays to put next to those stats? I suspect it will show why Michigan State is more "balanced" offensively.

 

MSU: 7.8 yards per pass, 3.8 yards per rush

NEB: 7.8 yards per pass, 5.5 yards per rush

 

So rough estimates put it this way:

 

MSU: 225 pass plays, 254 runs

NU: 154 pass plays, 332 runs

 

Now the "balance" phrase makes sense, doesn't it?

 

Like I said - MSU's playcalling is more balanced, but their offensive output is not. Playcalling is only worth the actual offensive output it gets you - lending more weight to it than to the actual offensive output is backwards.

 

The only reasonable way to argue that MSU is more balanced than Nebraska is to argue that with Martinez at the helm, Nebraska is more prone to make mistakes in the passing game than Cousins is at MSU. Aside from that, Nebraska is just as efficient as MSU in the passing game, and is much more efficient in the running game.

[zoogs]

I am confused. Passing ALWAYS has more ypa than rushing (unless it's a small sample size). So if you are looking for a even yardage split as metric for "balanced" then the only "balanced" teams are those that run a lot more than they throw. But those teams are run heavy, plain and simple. They run a lot more than they throw.

[bshirt]

I don't get this analysis. MSU (yards/tds): 1756/12 pass, 966/10 rush, 2722 total NU (yds/tds): 1202/7 pass, 1827/23 rush, 3029 total So about 2/3 of MSU's (65%) offense comes from passing, about 2/3 (60%) of ours comes from rushing, but they're more balanced?

Passing obviously averages more yards per play than rushing, so can you pull up the # of plays to put next to those stats? I suspect it will show why Michigan State is more "balanced" offensively.

 

MSU: 7.8 yards per pass, 3.8 yards per rush

NEB: 7.8 yards per pass, 5.5 yards per rush

 

So rough estimates put it this way:

 

MSU: 225 pass plays, 254 runs

NU: 154 pass plays, 332 runs

 

Now the "balance" phrase makes sense, doesn't it?

 

Like I said - MSU's playcalling is more balanced, but their offensive output is not. Playcalling is only worth the actual offensive output it gets you - lending more weight to it than to the actual offensive output is backwards.

 

The only reasonable way to argue that MSU is more balanced than Nebraska is to argue that with Martinez at the helm, Nebraska is more prone to make mistakes in the passing game than Cousins is at MSU. Aside from that, Nebraska is just as efficient as MSU in the passing game, and is much more efficient in the running game.

 

Yep.

 

Output/results is what matters. Not play-calling.

[Saunders]

I don't get this analysis. MSU (yards/tds): 1756/12 pass, 966/10 rush, 2722 total NU (yds/tds): 1202/7 pass, 1827/23 rush, 3029 total So about 2/3 of MSU's (65%) offense comes from passing, about 2/3 (60%) of ours comes from rushing, but they're more balanced?

Passing obviously averages more yards per play than rushing, so can you pull up the # of plays to put next to those stats? I suspect it will show why Michigan State is more "balanced" offensively.

 

MSU: 7.8 yards per pass, 3.8 yards per rush

NEB: 7.8 yards per pass, 5.5 yards per rush

 

So rough estimates put it this way:

 

MSU: 225 pass plays, 254 runs

NU: 154 pass plays, 332 runs

 

Now the "balance" phrase makes sense, doesn't it?

 

Like I said - MSU's playcalling is more balanced, but their offensive output is not. Playcalling is only worth the actual offensive output it gets you - lending more weight to it than to the actual offensive output is backwards.

 

The only reasonable way to argue that MSU is more balanced than Nebraska is to argue that with Martinez at the helm, Nebraska is more prone to make mistakes in the passing game than Cousins is at MSU. Aside from that, Nebraska is just as efficient as MSU in the passing game, and is much more efficient in the running game.

Agreed. Attempts is not a good way to judge "balance." Wisconsin has rushed 304 times, and thrown 162 times. Are they 1 dimensional?

 

Think of it this way. MSU has to pass more, because they can't run as well. We don't, because we can run. We average almost 2 YPR more.

[Ratt Mhule]

They also talked about how MSU defense is pumped up due to Martinez comments.

[Hercules]

I am confused. Passing ALWAYS has more ypa than rushing (unless it's a small sample size). So if you are looking for a even yardage split as metric for "balanced" then the only "balanced" teams are those that run a lot more than they throw. But those teams are run heavy, plain and simple. They run a lot more than they throw.

 

I was looking at total yards and at the percentage of the offense created by running/passing to determine balance, you asked for yards per attempt so that's why I replied. Like the OP says, 60% of Nebraska's offense comes from running, while 65% of Michigan State's offense comes from passing. Just because Michigan State PLAYCALLS a balanced offense doesn't mean that's exactly what they're getting. They're relying more on the pass for their offensive output than Nebraska is on the run.

 

We've had this argument in other threads from the offseason, but there are lots of ways of creating balance. Right now, statistically, Nebraska's achieving better offensive balance than Michigan State (turnovers aside... it might change if you bring that into the argument).