Inside The Stats: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Stats don't lie. People who interpret them do.

As we like to outline each week in this report, final scores on the scoreboard do not tell the whole story.  A deeper dive into the stats on each game does.  See the review of the 2019 football season to date from a statistical perspective below. 

INSIDE OUT STAT WINNERS

A total of 14 FBS teams won games but were outgained in the contest last week.  In addition, there were 5 more teams in the NFL that did the same thing. From top to bottom in total negative yardage they include:

Virginia Tech -226

Middle Tennessee State -177

Ball State -120

Cincinnati -80

SMU -60

Liberty -59

Oregon State -44

Memphis -40

Texas -28

Arizona -09

Packers -228

Panthers -62

Seahawks -48

LEAKING OIL 

From our Midweek Alert statistical newsletter the following teams on this week's card are 'leaking oil'. In rotation order, these are favorites who have been outgained in each of their last three straight games.

• Kentucky
• Ohio University (again)
• Vanderbilt
• No NFL teams

BODs

From our statistical sister publication, the MIDWEEK ALERT, we can chart the statistical progress of each team on a game-by-game weekly basis. We also like to weigh teams that are underdogs with both a better offense and a better defense.  We call them BODs. These are the BODs on this week's card:

Navy

Northern Illinois

Forty Niners

Back next week with an overview of next week's games.


For more in Marc Lawrence click here.