Welcome to the weekly installment where we look at the game from a statistical perspective. Feel free to add your thoughts. What stats impressed you? Any stats concern you? Here are 5 stats that stood out to me against Michigan.
393 – The Buckeyes continued to dominate on the ground racking up 393 net rushing yards for an 8.5 yard average. Carlos Hyde finished the game with 226 yards while Braxton Miller gained 153. Nice work by both of them. I will reiterate what I said last week…the battle in the run game is going to be huge this week against MSU. Here is a comparison of OSU offense vs. MSU defense (a little preview of by the numbers):
OSU Rushing Offense (Cumulative):
547 Attempts – 3,855 net yards – 321.2 yards/game – 7.0 yards/rush
MSU Rushing Defense (Cumulative):
349 Attempts – 777 net yards – 64.8 yards/game – 2.2 yards/rush
I know a lot of these stats are relative to opponents faced, but through 11 games these are very impressive stats on both sides. What will give on Saturday?
451 – I know some of you will take issue with me even mentioning this, but Devin Gardner threw for 451 yards and 4 TD’s. I don’t know if I have a good explanation for this. I don’t think this is too alarming for this week, but if the title game is in our future, the defense needs to figure out how to fix these issues. I do believe some credit should be given to the Michigan offense for coming up huge on the big stage. OK, even I am now cringing thinking about it. Let’s move on…
3 for 8 – After being pretty strong on third down for most of the year, the Buckeyes struggled a bit in this game. They only converted on 3 of 8 3rd down attempts. Not the typical conversion rate we are used to seeing, but one game does not cause me to worry too much.
Enough with the stats…I am having a hard time coming up with stats that in my opinion influenced the outcome of the game. Throw the records out, the stats don’t matter, who wants it more, Saturday was the epitome of all the old clichés. We watched two teams that wanted it really bad. The Buckeyes literally made one play at the end of the game that made the difference. All of the other stats in some way shaped the outcome, but at the end of the day the most important stat was…
1 – One huge play at the end of the game. One interception by Tyvis Powell to cement the victory.
#ONEMORETOGO O-H!
I-O!
I think that it’s safe to say that Devin Gardner is a little better than Connor Cook and Gardner had quite a few more weapons to throw to than Cook has. That 451 yards and 4 TD stat isn’t fun to look at but I think the pass defense looks a little better this Saturday.