Inside The Stats: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
By:
Marc Lawrence |
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Stats don’t lie. People who interpret them do.
As we like to say, final scores on the scoreboard do not tell the entire story. Drilling down into the stats on each game does. See our review of the 2019 football season to date from a statistical perspective below.
INSIDE-OUT STAT WINNERS
A total of 9 FBS teams won games but were outgained in the contest last week. Meanwhile, there were 5 more teams in the NFL that did the same thing. From top to bottom in total negative yardage they include:
Cincinnati -151
South Florida -151
Fresno State -41
Memphis -39
Boise State -31
Baylor – 25
Coastal Carolina -24
Virginia -22
Stanford -21
Panthers -61
Steelers -55
Broncos -49
Raiders -23
Dolphins -05
LEAKING OIL
From our MIDWEEK ALERT statistical newsletter, the following four teams on this week’s college football card are ‘leaking oil’. There are no qualifying teams in the NFL. In rotation order, these are favorites who have been outgained in each of their last three straight games or more (number in parenthesis indicates how many stat loses in a row they own.
• Arkansas (4)
• Cincinnati (4)
• Florida (3)
• Michigan State (3)
• Northwestern (4)
• Old Dominion (6)
• Temple (3)
• Texas State (3)
• Texas Tech (3)
SHOW ME THE ‘D’
It’s the time of the season where teams with better defenses step up to the forefront. Better yet, underdogs with 100-plus yards the better defense.
There are three such dogs on this week’s card that sports 100-plus yards defensive advantages against their favored opponent, namely: Kansas State, UAB and Western Kentucky.
Play accordingly.
I’m back next week with an overview of the upcoming college and pro football cards. Good luck this week.
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