I'm already ready for conference season, when I only have six box scores to produce instead of 12...this took forever to throw together.  That said, hopefully it's worth the wait.  And if you hate numbers, just skip down to the words.  We start with the most surprising outcome of Week One...

Again, a refresher...

• Field Position % = the percentage of plays you ran in the other team's field position.  The higher, the better.
• Leverage % = the percentage of plays you ran that were Standard Downs instead of Passing Downs.  The lower the %, the more tough situations you were in.
• SD Sack Rate and PD Sack Rate = Standard Downs Sack Rate and Passing Downs Sack Rate.  PD Sack Rate will usually be higher.  I average the two together for an "Adjusted Sack Rate" figure you see from time to time.
• Projected Pt. Margin = Adding together EqPts and Turnover Pts Margin, you can get an idea for how the game should have unfolded.  For instance, in this game Mizzou outgained Illinois by 12.3 EqPts and held an 8.7-point Turnover Points Margin, leading to a projected +21.0 pt. margin.

Thoughts and more games after the jump.

• OU's defensive line put up very strong stats, but their secondary had some pretty untimely letdowns.  Can't really complain about a defense that only gave up 14 points to BYU, however...this one's on the offense.
• OU faced fewer Passing Downs (despite the deluge of offensive line penalties), ran more plays in opposing field position, and benefitted by 10 points on turnovers...but BYU still outgained and outplayed them because OU was consistently shooting itself in the foot with a deluge of offensive line penalties (Cory Brandon alone had, I believe, SIX penalties...SIX).
• The BYU front seven showed more than I thought they would--they deserve a TON of credit for, if nothing else, holding the Sam Bradford-led OU offense to just 10 points in the first half.  They clamped down on the Landry Jones-led offense in the second, but that was less impressive to me.  Between the OL struggles that we knew could be a factor (then again, I didn't think they'd be this much of a factor) and the lack of any sort of standout play from the receivers, Bradford was having to do more than he should have, and when he got hurt, OU had no leadership whatsoever on the field.  They abandoned the run, which hadn't been amazingly impressive, but still would have been a nice complement for a young QB, and nobody else stepped up.
  
• My boy Trent Ratterree had a catch!  He almost had a huge catch on the third down play at the end, but for whatever reason, he and Brandon Caleb were way too close together on a couple of patterns late, and Caleb dove in front of Ratterree like he was taking a bullet for him...and the ball ended up going by both of them.
• Bradford or no, OU still really, really should have won this game.

• Like Mizzou-Illinois, we'll see what this game truly means later on, when we find out how good Georgia's offense really is.  As it stands, Oklahoma State dominated this game statistically and, considering they also won the battle in the return game, were pretty unlucky to not win this one by three touchdowns.
• OSU's offense did next to nothing until the second half, while Georgia completely fizzled after the first quarter.  Both teams were pretty much hapless on Passing Downs, but Georgia also wasn't very good on Standard Downs.  Again, we'll see how much of this was due to OSU's defense or Georgia's offense (or the flu that Joe Cox had last week) down the line, but perceptions are everything, and OSU's defense earned quite a bit of respect Saturday.  We knew that new defensive coordinator Bill Young is really good at his job, but you just never know how long it will take a defense to click with a new D.C.  That said, if OSU shuts down Houston this coming week, look out...Houston can score on anybody, and if OSU slows them down a lot, they are a legitimate Big 12 (and therefore national title) contender.
• Both teams were terrible on first downs.  Not sure what to make of that.
• The OSU offensive line certainly lived up to its billing, not allowing a sack while posting a pretty good line yardage figure against a solid Georgia defensive line.  Zac Robinson certainly didn't look amazing, but he lost a lot of practice time due to his bad hammy in the last month, and if the O-line continues to perform well, he'll get things together pretty quickly.

• What a great win for Baylor.  Not only does bowl eligibility now squarely fit into the equation for 2009, but so does pure respectability.  Never mind how bad the ACC looked in week one--this was still huge for them.  And since Rock M Nation basically serves as a blog for not only Mizzou but also anything Robert Griffin-related, I wanted to mention that.
• This was another game where the Big 12 team actually should have won by a lot more than it did, and in the end I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  Wake Forest's biggest strength is simply hanging around and winning the battle of intangibles, but Baylor really should have won by more.  Oh well.  A win is a win is a win.
• I cannot stress this enough: play-calling will make or break Baylor this season.  I realize you could say that for anybody, but for Baylor in particular, success on first downs will dictate whether Baylor will be bowling this year.  The play-calling worked for the most part, but while we all love Hot Tub Griffin III to death, his is not an offense that will thrive facing passing downs.  That does not suit his strengths.  But if Baylor is getting yards on first down and therefore opening up a ton of options on second and third down, they will be pretty unstoppable against just about anybody.  This being the case, don't be surprised if they get completely shut down a couple of games while looking completely unstoppable on others.
• That said, the Baylor defense looked pretty consistently great against an admittedly conservative-by-nature Wake Forest offense.  Wake thrives by not making mistakes, and Baylor forced quite a few (see: four turnovers), and their pass defense was especially outstanding.

• You know, I've spent half my offseason saying Colorado was probably overrated, and I still didn't think they'd lose to Colorado State.  But there they were, literally getting doubled-up in terms of Passing S&P, allowing the Rams' new starting quarterback to light them ablaze, while their own embattled QB, Cody Hawkins, stunk on ice yet again.  A 0.519 Passing S&P?  Really?  0.224 on Passing Downs?  Are you kidding me?  There's bad, there's terrible, and there's Cody Hawkins.
• At halftime, Colorado State's S&P was 0.883.  Colorado's?  0.360.
• I've started looking at Passing Downs as almost the Quarterback down.  First down is the Playcalling down, second down is the "reacting to first down" down, and third down is the "QB needs to make a play" down.  I realize that logic has plenty of holes in it, but it works for me.  And it works here, as CU and their supposedly offensive-minded coach put up a respectable 0.854 S&P on first downs.  Third downs?  0.329.
• And did I mention that Darrell Scott barely played?
• And that I just don't think that Nick Nolte Dan Hawkins is a very good head coach?
• Seriously, I think Taylor Tyler Hansen just asked for a redshirt so he'd have three years remaining with the next head coach.
• The only encouraging aspect I can find here for Colorado is that their run defense was pretty solid.  We'll see if that's a strength, or if CSU just doesn't rush the ball very well.

Now we get to the games that didn't tell us nearly as much...the "cupcakes and 1-AA" games.  NU could have shown us something by not dominating Florida Atlantic, but they took care of business.  Meanwhile, K-State likely showed us something, but in a different way.

• NU dominated this one through field position and rushing.  Actually, they won this one just by being a lot better than the Fightin' Schnellenburgers.  As you would expect when your head coach is a former defensive coordinator, the Huskers pounced on FAU's offense on passing downs and were just faster and more athletic than the Owls on offense.
• As I said, there would be more to say here if NU actually struggled, but after a slow offensive start in Q1, they rolled.  They circled the wagons in the third quarter on the way to an easy win.

• This is another "We'll see" game.  This is either a sign that ATM could put together a nice run for a bowl bid in Mike Sherman's second year...or a sign that New Mexico might in fact be gawd-awful.  Or, technically, both.
• All-world freshman Christine Michael (now THERE's a girl's name for you, Orson...) did well in his debut, leading ATM to a very nice Rushing S&P, which anchored their overall performance.  Honestly, the passing game didn't click along quite at the level that I expected, but when you're running the ball well and embarrassing your opponent on the defensive end, your passing game gets some leeway.
• And embarrass the Lobos, ATM did.

• it's always a big "eff you" to the underdog when the highly-ranked, favored home team not only beats you on offense and defense, but special teams as well.  With a surprising 75-yard touchdown pass, UL-Monroe had cut the Texas lead to 21-10 when freshman speed demon D.J. Monroe returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown.  It's just inconsiderate to dash the underdog's hopes that quickly.
• It's probably not smart to read too much into a game in which Texas led by 28 at halftime, but thanks in part to the aforementioned 75-yard touchdown, ULM managed to post pretty decent passing stats.  Of course, take that play away and ULM's QB goes 13-for-29 for 122 yards.  Not as good.  So we'll chalk this one up to small sample sizes.
• Even with Brandon Collins facing eligibility issues, Colt McCoy had no trouble finding receivers, completing 72% of his passes and two touchdowns.  Nineteenth-year senior Jordan Shipley was the primary target, nabbing eight for a whopping 180 yards.
• Reason for slight concern: the offensive line gave up a couple of sacks and only managed 2.19 line yards per carry...against UL-Monroe.  Those numbers MUST improve, or Texas will be vulnerable to a slip-up along the way.

• Thanks to turnovers and special teams, K-State almost managed to give away a game against UMass.  Ouch.  That's really all there is to it.  The Minutemen offense did next to nothing, but the K-State offense was only okay, and thanks to a blocked punt and two fumbles lost, UMass cut the lead to four with 14:01 left but couldn't get any closer.  As you see, the KSU defense clamped down with the game on the line.
• Big reason for concern: aside from a burst in the second quarter, KSU was almost nonexistent on offense.  Sure, Daniel Thomas and Keithen Valentine combined for 193 yards on 34 carries, but when KSU needed to move the ball, they very much could not.
• Another reason for concern: UMass averaged 3.46 line yards per carry and allowed only one sack.  Their starting RB had 107 yards on 19 carries.

• Yawn.
• This was a pretty good "We don't need you as much as you think" message to Dez Briscoe, I would say.  Even without Briscoe, KU managed an easy 1.239 Passing S&P and 1.147 Passing Downs S&P.  Yes, it was against Directional Mountain State University, but still.

• Positive: The ISU offensive line looked good, averaging 3.71 line yards per carry and allowing just one sack.
• Positive: A 0.954 Passing S&P is nothing to scoff at.
• Positive: When the game got a little too close for comfort, ISU stepped it up and won the game.
• Negative: North Dakota State's first-half S&P was better than ISU's.
• Negative: The projected point margin was a lot closer than the actual margin, suggesting this game was a lot closer than the final score indicated.
• Negative: NDSU averaged over three line yards per carry.
• Negative: NDSU outperformed ISU on passing downs.
• Negative: Now's a good time to remind you that North Dakota State is an FCS team.

• Taylor Potts threw THREE second-quarter interceptions, and Tech's margin of victory was higher than the projected point margin, meaning this too was a closer game than the final score indicated.
• Luckily for Tech, the defense wasn't messing around, and UND never actually had a chance to threaten because of it.
• Tech fell into WAY too many passing downs for this caliber of opponent.  Potts' three interceptions came on 3rd-and-15, 2nd-and-13, and 3rd-and-15.  Granted, he should really learn what passes he should and shouldn't make, but...a 29.4% rushing success rate?  Against North Dakota?  That MUST improve, and immediately.  Tech is obviously not tremendously likely to beat Texas or OSU on the road, and they'll certainly be underdogs against OU at home, but with poor line play and no threat of a run, suddenly trips to Houston and Nebraska become dicey (especially against NU's defensive line), as do home games against Kansas and Baylor.  You have to figure Tech will go 8-4 like they almost always seem to do, but if they can't even pretend to be capable of running the ball, then they're in trouble.
• Of course, they didn't have Baron Batch, so we'll see what happens when...oh wait, they did have Baron Batch?  Nine rushes for 30 yards?  Huh.
• A quick look at the per-down S&P figures tells the story.  Tech was still quite good on 2nd and 3rd downs, but they got nowhere on first downs, and something has to improve there.  They shouldn't struggle much with Rice, but the back-to-back trips to Austin and Houston could be dicey if they don't get it together on the handoffs.