Kansas Football: Beyond the Box Score 2007
You know how this works by now. I walk you through the EqPts scores of last year's games to see if they won or lost any games they shouldn't. Then I attack you with thousands of S&P- and Line Yards-related stats. Then we look at '+' numbers. Well...I'm going to abbreviate part of that with Kansas because...well...we all know that they didn't play the toughest of schedules in 2007, and the '+' numbers should be of particular interest. '+' numbers, after all, are the measures that compare what they did to what other opponents' opponents did. That way, even if they played a super-weak schedule, they're evaluated by how they played those crappy teams as compared to everybody else who played said crappy teams. That's the meat of any Kansas analysis here. But first...just so you don't get too terribly disoriented...I'll still hit you with some EqPts and a mini-stat onslaught.
And as always, for The Beef and others, I'll boldface the important stuff.
EqPts Scores
Kansas 42.6, Central Michigan 8.9 (real score: 52-7)
Kansas 40.6, SE Louisiana 14.1 (62-0)
Kansas 35.7, Toledo 7.9 (45-13)
Kansas 38.5, Florida International 0.6 (55.3)
Kansas 28.5, Kansas State 17.2 (30-24)
Kansas 29.0, Baylor 2.9 (58-10)
Kansas 14.8, Colorado 18.9 (19-14)
Kansas 18.0, Texas A&M 13.9 (19-11)
Kansas 65.7, Nebraska 31.1 (76-39)
Kansas 37.6, Oklahoma State 28.2 (43-28)
Kansas 41.8, Iowa State 7.8 (45-7)
Kansas 33.6, Missouri 34.8 (28-36)
Kansas 17.6, Virginia Tech 12.3 (24-21)
That game in Boulder was a dogfight, and the offense did next to nothing against the Buffs.
Stat Onslaught
We'll give you the bare bones stat onslaught here...bearing in mind that the upcoming '+' numbers are far more telling.
OFFENSE (Success Rate / PPP / S&P)
Rushing: 51.0% / 0.45 / 0.960
Passing: 45.9% / 0.45 / 0.909
TOTAL: 48.4% / 0.45 / 0.934
Rushing (close games): 48.2% / 0.38 / 0.862
Passing (close games): 46.0% / 0.44 / 0.902
TOTAL: 47.0% / 0.41 / 0.884
Passing Downs: 30.9% / 0.20 / 0.507
Non-Passing Downs: 54.8% / 0.54 / 1.088
They never really took major chances on passing downs. They succeeded by a) staying OUT of passing downs and b) having no problem falling back on their defense and playing it safe.
DEFENSE (Success Rate / PPP / S&P)
Rushing: 37.3% / 0.23 / 0.599
Passing: 33.0% / 0.21 / 0.536
TOTAL: 34.8% / 0.21 / 0.562
Rushing (close games): 36.8% / 0.18 / 0.548
Passing (close games): 35.9% / 0.27 / 0.626
TOTAL (close games): 36.3% / 0.23 / 0.595
Passing Downs: 24.5% / 0.10 / 0.350
Non-Passing Downs: 40.9% / 0.28 / 0.688
Alright, on with the meat of the show.
'+' Numbers
Instead of numbers you may or may not care about, I'll just give you KU's national rank in each category. That most directly tells you what you need to know.
OFFENSE
EqPts+: #9 in the country
S&P+: #9
Rushing S&P+: #8
Passing S&P+: #14
S&P+ (close games): #10
Rushing S&P+ (close games): #18
Passing S&P+ (close games): #25
Non-Passing Downs S&P+: #13
Passing Downs S&P+: #59
Redzone S&P+: #70
Q1 S&P+: #90
Q2 S&P+: #8
Q3 S&P+: #12
Q4 S&P+: #22
1st Downs S&P+: #24
2nd Downs S&P+: #22
3rd Downs S&P+: #35
Line Yards+: #9
Line Yards+ (close games): #6
- First things first, this was obviously a good offense. Yeah, they torched some bad defenses, but they really torched them.
- KU's offense was a bit of a slow starter overall, less than mediocre in Q1 (though as you'll see, they still jumped out to big leads because of their defense). But by Q2, they hit their stride.
- Line play was quite strong as well. KU was average-at-best on passing downs, but as I said above...they didn't face many.
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