By The Numbers: THEM

Here are the NCAA statistics for Penn State and THEM:





NCAA Stats Comparison

Category:	Penn St.	Michigan
Rushing	25	8
Passing Offense	37	86
Total Offense	19	25
Scoring Offense	42	9
Rushing Defense	6	58
Turnovers Gained	68	68
Passes Had Intercepted	68	85
Pass Defense	14	80
Net Punting	86	2
Punt Returns	96	71
Kickoff Returns	119	37
Turnover Margin	67	88
Fumbles Recovered	97	85
Passes Intercepted	31	43
Fumbles Lost	39	66
Turnovers Lost	63	82
Passing Efficiency	32	54
Pass Efficiency Defense	12	38
Total Defense	5	64
Scoring Defense	2	46
Fewest Penalties Per Game	9	30
Fewest Yards Penalized Per Game	5	36
Punt Return Yardage Defense	116	46
Kickoff Return Yardage Defense	84	87
Offense Third-down Efficiency	3	44
Offense Fourth-down Efficiency	64	49
Defense Third-down Efficiency	21	34
Defense Fourth-down Efficiency	4	56
Tackles for Loss	7	33
Offense Tackles for Loss	10	88
Pass Sacks	11	86
Pass Sacks Allowed	16	49
Time of Possession	9	114
First Downs	16	30
First Downs Allowed	3	47
Red Zone Efficiency	67	78
Red Zone Efficiency - Defense	1	47
Average NCAA Rank:	37.14	55.38
Weighted Avg. Rank:	28.92	46.5

The only common opponent for both to date is !*w@. Both teams lost, and both teams had late opportunities to tie/win that went for naught on turnovers. For all the talk about how close this game will be, the NCAA stats are heavily in favor of the Lions. THEM leads significantly in a few categories: net punting, punt return yards, kick-off return yards and kickoff return defense. I hope they lead in punting this week as well, since you don't put points on the board if you are punting! They are also better in offensive fourth down conversions, but that is a rather dubious honor since it implies that the team has had to go for it on fourth enough times to pad those stats. When you look at the actual numbers, as opposed to the rank, you see PSU has a 4th down conversion of 50%. That is four attempts with 2 conversions. But for THEM, they rank higher based on a 56% efficiency--NINE attempts with five converted. That said, I really hope this game doesn't come down to whether they are able to convert a fourth down or not.

Another quirky stat is the time of possession, where THEM ranks 114th in the country. Yet they have the 8th ranked rushing defense. You would think that a team that good at running the ball, would be pretty good at chewing up the clock. Apparently not. But their offense does make good use of its time, being 9th ranked in the nation in scoring. The time of possession skewing is probably a combination of turnovers, poor passing, and poor defense. They can stop the run, but not the pass. PSU averages TOP of 32:57 while THEM averages 27:07, so the actual disparity of those ranks is about 6 minutes--give or take a COUPLE OF SECONDS! We really should not bet atlking about time in Ann Arbor.

I think the key stats for a Penn State win on the road is our rush defense against their rush offense. Force THEM to pass, and we will have a good chance to win. If we can't contain their run game, it could be a long, dreary afternoon.