Data on Common Opponents – Purdue

Each week from now until the end of the season, we’ll be publishing a couple of tables that show relevant statistics between the common opponents of OSU and their next foe.

At first, the tables will be thin. (As of now, OSU and Purdue only have one common opponent, hence why the data in each row is identical). As the season goes on, however, the data will become more comprehensive.

Like last year, we’ve only included the following ‘important’ stats: total points (Pts), total yards (Yds), total first downs (Dwns), and turnovers (TOs); for each team and its opponent (Opp).

Table 1: Purdue

Table 2: Ohio State

Notes:
With only one common opponent between the two teams, it’s hard to draw conclusions. Still, OSU’s defensive numbers are better across the board, keeping the Gophers’ offense to ten fewer first downs and just over half the yardage that Purdue allowed. (Note: two of Minnesota’s four TOs were “on downs.”) The number that stands out the strongest is in points allowed – Purdue’s 31 to OSU’s 7.

Offensively, note that Purdue scored more (45 pts) with a similar amount of offensive production (yardage-wise) as the Bucks had. This suggests that Purdue’s offense was moving the ball easier than the Bucks’ offense was. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt: the two coaches ran very different offensive schemes. Tiller depended on the pass (338 passing, 166 rushing), where Tressel used the run (209 passing, 250 rushing). One of the problems in using only one set of data points, I guess.

That’s enough analysis from me. This is meant to generate discussion, not be a MotSaG lecture/opinion post, so please share your two cents in the comments.