The Most Efficient Big 12 Offenses and Defenses This Season

Oklahoma State faces the worst defense in the Big 12 thus far (including Kansas!) this weekend in Stillwater. If you look at points per drive — again, how often you score, how often you get stops — then ISU is slightly behind Texas Tech when it comes to getting stops. Teams are scoring over a field goal per drive on them (FBS-only games and garbage time not included).

Let’s look at defense first since we already mentioned Iowa State. As you can see, they are atrocious. That 3.46 number ranks No. 122 in the country. Oklahoma State’s 2.4 number is No. 81 in the country. OU is No. 88. These are bad defenses by teams that haven’t really played elite schedules (other than OU). Kansas State ranks No. 15 in the country.

On the offensive side, Texas Tech’s 4.26 points per drive is an absurd statistic. The second-best team nationally is Ohio State at 3.97. Oklahoma State checks in at No. 36 in the country at 2.6 points per drive which is good not great. It is certainly better than the defensive number of 81st in the country. Also, poor Kansas.

To sum it up, six Big 12 defenses are outside the top 80 in the country in points per drive given up including Oklahoma State at No. 81. Nine of the 10 offenses are inside the top 75 in points per drive scored. /whispers is Mike Yurcich a better offensive coordinator than Dana Holgorsen right now??

“We talked about how we have good quarterback play in this league,” said Mike Gundy on Monday. “We have really good players – potential NFL players who are mature and understand. They’re using offenses that use the entire width of the field. You’re getting skill players in space and quarterbacks that keep the ball and run. You can’t evaluate defenses as much on yards and points.

“I think the two areas that are important are if you’re going to give up yards, which you are, then field goals are better than touchdowns. So what you do inside the 10-yard-line is really important. Then you can just throw out the points and yards per game. It needs to be based on total number of opportunities that the defense is given to stop them because you’re averaging around 28 plays more per offense with these style of offenses than you were even eight years ago. So your numbers are going to be inflated just by total opportunities to get yards and to get points.”

This is true, Mike. But even when you normalize things with per-drive statistics, it still does not look great for the Big 12. And with the proliferation of elite QBs in this league, I can’t imagine it getting any better anytime soon.