Spiff's Spots of Observation and Other Statistical Nonsense

[SpiffCoug]

One of the better wins in recent BYU history. I don't care if Michigan St winds up having a poor season, they're a "name" team. A Big Ten team. A Power 5 conference team. And this was a road win. A dominating win. A team win. A great win.

So here are some things I noticed from watching and the box score.

• This team enjoys playing for the coaching staff. They're having fun out there.
• The 31 points were actually the fewest points for BYU in a road win against a P5 teams since beating Ole Miss 14-13 in 2011 - a span of seven wins.
• BYU has 878 yards rushing the last three games. That's the most yards in a three FBS-game stretch since the Cougars gained 1,042 yards rushing against Texas, Utah and Middle Tennessee in 2013.
• With the win, BYU has now covered the spread in five of the six games this season.
• BYU also won the Passing Efficiency Rating (PER) battle. The team with the better PER is now 5-1 (.833) on the season and has won 51 of the last 58 (.880) games.
• The win was Taysom Hill's 7th win against a Power 5 conference (P5) team. He now has the most wins of any BYU quarterback; breaking a tie of six wins with Max Hall.
• The Cougars failed on their first (of six) blue zone trips. It was the first failure of the season as well. But they did score on their final five attempts, and have scored on 23 of 24 drives (15 TDs, 8 FGs).
• After giving up 30 plays of 10 yards or more, including six of more than 20 yards, the defense stiffened dramatically. They yielded just five plays of 10 or more yards, with the longest being 18 yards.
• Michigan St did not record a sack. It was the first game since Texas in 2013, that Taysom was not sacked in a game (a span of 24 starts).
• The Spartans 13 first downs were the fewest a P5 team has gained on BYU since Georgia Tech had just 12 in 2012.
• The Cougar offense has converted 23 of their last 40 3rd downs (.575)
• On the season, BYU has converted on 33 of 54 (.611) attempts of 3rd down and 6 or fewer yards.
• BYU is now 21-6 (.778) against teams in a green helmet.
• Mississippi St will likely lose unless they drastically change their helmet color. They usually don a maroon or white helmet. Both are bad colors if you are a BYU opponent as the Cougars own a 8-3 (.727) and 64-24 (.727) records respectively.

Receiver Efficiency Rating
Pearson, WR, 252.00 (152.56)
Trinnaman, WR, 177.00 (158.45)
Marshall, TE, 150.40 (103.55
Juergens, WR, 133.87 (107.96)
Ficklin, TE, 116.80
Kurtz, WR, 105.36 (126.63)
Brown, RB, 71.00 (145.07)
Williams, RB, 66.80 (120.10)
Laulu-Pututau, WR, 0.00 (119.49)

WR, 144.55 (124.20)
TE, 87.07 (136.48)
RB, 68.90 (107.48)

Some observations based on a half season of PER. Trinnaman and Pearson need more balls thrown their way. Perhaps Brown could be used more in the passing game as well.

[AmmonCougar1]

What was the PER for the game for each QB? And how is it that the TE's had RER's over 100 but their average was less than 100?

Thanks for the stats. I always enjoy reading them.

Go Cougs!!!
J. Child
Ammon, ID

[SpiffCoug]

What was the PER for the game for each QB? And how is it that the TE's had RER's over 100 but their average was less than 100?

Thanks for the stats. I always enjoy reading them.

Go Cougs!!!
J. Child
Ammon, ID

I don't always list a player who only had one target and it was incomplete. So there was probably a TE who a target that wasn't complete, dropping the position's overall RER.