Let’s Talk About Points Per Drive and Where Oklahoma State Actually Ranks

Glenn Spencer is very, very serious about the points per drive statistic as OSU’s defensive coordinator. I mean, VERY serious. So where exactly does Oklahoma State rank nationally as a defense?

In non-garbage time drives, Oklahoma State allows 1.68 points per drive to its opponents. This ranks No. 32 in the country. Good, not great. It is better than Baylor, better than Stanford, better than LSU and better than Notre Dame.

That is, if Oklahoma State and LSU both had to defend, say, OU for 20 possessions, Oklahoma State would give up fewer points according to the statistics we have. Now, OSU and LSU have obviously played different opponents, but this is the best we can do.

And other than the Texas and Kansas State games, OSU has succeeded in holding opponents below their offensive points per drive average in every game.

The OSU defense is holding opponents well below their points/drive average: pic.twitter.com/03GENd0ShY

— Oklahoma State Stats (@OSUStats) November 8, 2015

Mike Gundy thinks this #Math is confusing.

Mike Gundy on interpreting defensive statistics: "It's all getting too confusing for me."

— David Ubben (@davidubben) November 9, 2015

But #Math might be what helps his team get into the College Football Playoff. Look at this stunning stat.

Blown minds #CFBPlayoff #TCUvsOKST had 38 Poss. 78 points (2.05pts/poss.)#BamavsLSU had 22 poss. 46 points (2.09pts/poss.)

Same game.

— Austin Chadwick (@AustinChadwick) November 8, 2015

So when Jeff Long and the College Football Playoff committee get on their little call tonight with ESPN, watch carefully what he says. Because you can talk all you want about how many points teams score per game, but that’s flat out silliness.

“Some teams will play 55 snaps today,” Spencer said. “I think we defended 17 possessions, 110 (snaps), so we just played two ball games compared to what some people do. That’s why the yardage thing is so irrelevant. People of influence have got to figure this out how to evaluate defense.”

“People of influence” won’t matter much if OSU wins three more.