Old Man Mike
Fast as Lightning!
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No such premonitions into the future make any sense, but I'd like to look into the recent past. People who do not like Notre Dame are saying things like our season is a shadowshow, a figment of circumstance lacking substance. What I'm about to do here is of at least a LITTLE substance, I believe.
We have played seven games, and our opponents have played 44 games other than us. 44 is not hundreds, but it is a big enough number that it should give some reason to assess whether we are any good.
Take our defense vs the 44 other defenses our opponents have played. [you are correct in saying that "transitional" score comparison is invalid, but comparing to 44 is not transitional, it is actual statistical comparison data]. Against our opponents, our defense outperformed the other defenses [in terms of the scoreboard --- to me what it's all about] 37 0f the 44 comparisons with one tie. That means that our defense has outperformed other defenses in this datablock 86% of the time. I will bet that that is WAY up there in any such national ranking.
But what about our horrible offense? Compared to the other offenses our opponents have faced, our offense outperformed them 31 out of 44 times with two ties. That is an offensive superiority rating of 73% [73% of the games we get on the scoreboard better than the other opponents were able to do].
Hmmmm..... maybe we don't stink afterall.
But then why do we feel that we regularly stink the field up offensively? MAYBE it's because we've played five of the best defensive teams in the nation. The two chumps that we played, we put up 50 and 41 on them. Our offense, in fact has underperformed, comparatively, against only one team: Purdue. Four of Purdue's opponents were able to score more than we could.
Is there an explanation? Kelly's smarter than us as usual. I have twice wondered why he said "Purdue" instantly during two interviews spaced widely apart, when asked who was difficult to prepare for. And he told us [I just wasn't listening intelligently enough]: he said that Purdue has a new DC, and we had no tape on him as he came from the pros. They didn't know what to expect and couldn't effectively gameplan.
If we could have, and if we then scored "40" like three of their later opponents, our O-Rating would approach 80%, and maybe we'd be more generous with our assessment of our O afterall.
Maybe we really are good. Good enough for the rest of the schedule? No predictions.....
We have played seven games, and our opponents have played 44 games other than us. 44 is not hundreds, but it is a big enough number that it should give some reason to assess whether we are any good.
Take our defense vs the 44 other defenses our opponents have played. [you are correct in saying that "transitional" score comparison is invalid, but comparing to 44 is not transitional, it is actual statistical comparison data]. Against our opponents, our defense outperformed the other defenses [in terms of the scoreboard --- to me what it's all about] 37 0f the 44 comparisons with one tie. That means that our defense has outperformed other defenses in this datablock 86% of the time. I will bet that that is WAY up there in any such national ranking.
But what about our horrible offense? Compared to the other offenses our opponents have faced, our offense outperformed them 31 out of 44 times with two ties. That is an offensive superiority rating of 73% [73% of the games we get on the scoreboard better than the other opponents were able to do].
Hmmmm..... maybe we don't stink afterall.
But then why do we feel that we regularly stink the field up offensively? MAYBE it's because we've played five of the best defensive teams in the nation. The two chumps that we played, we put up 50 and 41 on them. Our offense, in fact has underperformed, comparatively, against only one team: Purdue. Four of Purdue's opponents were able to score more than we could.
Is there an explanation? Kelly's smarter than us as usual. I have twice wondered why he said "Purdue" instantly during two interviews spaced widely apart, when asked who was difficult to prepare for. And he told us [I just wasn't listening intelligently enough]: he said that Purdue has a new DC, and we had no tape on him as he came from the pros. They didn't know what to expect and couldn't effectively gameplan.
If we could have, and if we then scored "40" like three of their later opponents, our O-Rating would approach 80%, and maybe we'd be more generous with our assessment of our O afterall.
Maybe we really are good. Good enough for the rest of the schedule? No predictions.....
