Statistically Speaking: Hoosier Edition

Last week, we saw how close in stats Penn State was to EMU, an obviously over-matched opponent on the field.  This week, the disparity in stats is even greater . . . the Hoosiers are statistically worse than EMU.

From the NCAA stats site:

NCAA Stats Comparison
Category:	Penn St.	Indiana
Rushing	75	71
Passing Offense	76	36
Total Offense	89	58
Scoring Offense	81	71
Rushing Defense	30	95
Turnovers Gained	18	29
Passes Had Intercepted	54	30
Pass Defense	7	37
Net Punting	76	74
Punt Returns	65	66
Kickoff Returns	65	119
Turnover Margin	33	33
Fumbles Recovered	28	15
Passes Intercepted	21	58
Fumbles Lost	77	77
Turnovers Lost	73	53
Passing Efficiency	100	60
Pass Efficiency Defense	7	85
Total Defense	8	78
Scoring Defense	10	73
Fewest Penalties Per Game	34	116
Fewest Yards Penalized Per Game	25	104
Punt Return Yardage Defense	85	17
Kickoff Return Yardage Defense	60	28
Offense Third-down Efficiency	85	21
Offense Fourth-down Efficiency	10	57
Defense Third-down Efficiency	38	92
Defense Fourth-down Efficiency	94	94
Tackles for Loss	27	104
Offense Tackles for Loss	5	110
Pass Sacks	66	117
Pass Sacks Allowed	25	105
Time of Possession	79	73
First Downs	82	44
First Downs Allowed	10	75
Red Zone Efficiency	77	84
Red Zone Efficiency - Defense	114	71
Average NCAA Rank:	51.59	68.38
Weighted Avg. Rank:	49.33	64.25

For comparison, EMU had an average NCAA ranking of  57.89 compared to the Hoosiers 68.38.  Here are some other numbers to put that in perspective:

Wisconsin 28.72 (1st nationally)
Temple 33.00 (3rd nationally)
LSU 33.24 (5th)
Alabama 37.83 ( 11th)
Penn State  51.59 (41st)
Pittsburgh 66.37 (88th*)
Indiana 68.38 (95th)
New Mexico 89.37 (119th**)

(* Does not include the stats from their win over USF Thursday night.)
(**There are now 120 teams ranked in this division--FBS--but my computer program was written before Western Kentucky was added, so there are only 119 teams represented.  I've been too lazy to update it since, well, it's only Western Kentucky.)

A couple of individual stats really stick out is how poorly the Hoosiers are in kick-off returns, and how penalized they are as a team.

Offensively, they have done better than Penn State, but keep in mind we have faced Alabama and Temple which are statistically good teams, while the Hoosiers have faced Ball State (30th), Virginia (48th) and North Texas (109th) while Penn State has faced Temple (3rd), Alabama (11th) and Eastern Michigan (77th).  Their average opponent was ranked 62.33 while our opponents averaged 30.33 nationally.

And while they may have marginally better offensive stats against weaker opponents, our defensive stats are considerably better than theirs against arguably better opponents.

Of course, we didn't really need stats to tell us our defense is pretty good and our offense sucks.  You only have to watch the games to see that.