Inside The Numbers

I’m not going to lie, I am a stat geek. I love perusing through box scores to see all of the varied stat lines. This is true of almost all sports, even ones that I don’t like watching. I can’t stand watching the NBA, but I love going through the box scores every morning to see all of the varied combinations that are possible with basketball. This might be why I’m loving my Fantasy Basketball League, even though I probably won’t watch a full game until the playoffs, and maybe not even then.

This weekend in college football provided some astounding statistics, and I will share them, and my reaction to them, here.

Miami QB Kirby Freeman
1-14, 84 yds, 1 TD, 3 INT

This one is truly amazing. Not just the fact that Freeman’s only completion was an 84-yard touchdown pass. And not just the fact that he completed more passes to the other team than to his own. It’s simply unbelievable that when your quarterback completes three times as many passes to the opposing defense than to your own receivers that the game still went into overtime. Miami lost 19-16 to NC State in overtime, and to still have a chance to win when your quarterback has a completion percentage of 7 freaking percent is truly mind-boggling. But hey, when you rush sixty times for 314 yards (using 5 backs who each got more than 5 carries), it’ll probably keep you in any contest.

South Florida commits 8 turnovers in a loss against Cincinnati

Again, you have to look deeper to see how this statistic becomes incredulous. It’s not the fact that the Bulls gave the ball away 8 times, I’m sure that this has happened before. It’s the fact that USF committed 8 turnovers and still scored 33 points and only lost by 5! It takes some serious wackiness for this to occur, and indeed it was provided. Like for instance, scoring 14 points before your offense even takes the field, which is exactly what South Florida did. On Cincinnati’s first possession, the Bulls returned a pick 63 yards to the house. The Bearcats responded with a touchdown drive of their own, only to see the ensuing kickoffs get run back, you guessed it, to the house. After 5 minutes, it was 14-7 USF, and their offense hadn’t even touched the field yet. Their sequence of possessions for the rest of the game is baffling.

Punt, Interception, Fumble, Fumble, Interception, Field Goal, Interception, Punt, Field Goal, Fumble, Touchdown, Punt, Punt, Interception, Touchdown.

Imagine the South Florida coach saying something like this after the game:

“You know, if we had only turned the ball over 5 or 6 times in this game, we would have had this one easy”

And it would have been true. Imagine how pissed off South Florida’s defense is too. They even scored a touchdown, but watched their offense turn the ball over eight times, including a pick 6 and a blocked punt for a touchdown.

I honestly spent half an hour looking at this box score, and still am not sure I completely understand it.

Arkansas rushes for 542 yards against South Carolina

Absorutery Unberievable. This cannot happen in the SEC, but it did. Again, looking at the details makes it all the more grizzly/astonishing/mind blowing. We have all seen how Darren McFadden (the next Adrian Peterson by the way, he’s going to light up the NFL so bad) had 321 yards on the ground, tying an SEC record. How about backup Felix Jones netting 166 on just 13 carries. Dude had touchdown runs of 7, 40 and 72 yards. No, what’s most ridiculous is that the team averaged 9.3 yards per carry…on 58 carries!!!!!! South Carolina gained 125 yards on the ground, yet had a quarter of the Hogs total. Arkansas’ longest pass went for 35 yards. They had 4 rushes that went 35 yards or more.

McFadden and Jones are 1-2 in the SEC in rushing and both are over 1,000 yards. Jones is averaging 9.3 yards per carry…on 111 carries!!!! Insane. McFadden has 250 more rushing yards than the Arkansas quarterback, Casey Dick, has passing. And Jones is only 30 yards rushing behind what Dick has passing. At the end of the year, Arkansas might have two running backs with more yards running that their quarterback has thrown. N.u.t.s.

Random Note of Hilarity 1:

The Oceanliner and Austin rocked the Big Apple this weekend, and it was the titties. On Friday night, we were taking a cab home, and the driver realizes he has missed a turn. Does he go around the block? Hell no. Instead, he throws it in reverse and hightails it backwards on a one-way street for two blocks while I’m busy shitting my pants.

Random Note of Hilarity 2:

The Oceanliner walked out of his room this morning to find Beercan Potts watching Saved By The Bell before he left for work. And of course it was on TBS.

Well folks, that’s it for this week. Austin, Schling, Kyle and I will be heading to Miami on Friday, to hopefully represent the Wahoos well in the last game in the OB. I hope something ridiculous happens, and I hope I don’t get hurt. Until next time, keep it real and stay tuned. Twenty-Inch Blades.