Pure Defensive and Offensive Efficiency

by ParisGuy on Nov 2, 2009 9:41 AM EST Comment 0 comments

Thanks to Mr. SEC, some stats to ponder

SEC Stats: PUre Defensive Efficiency, Week Nine

November 2nd, 2009 8:42 am ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

When your defense ranks among the best of the SEC, it also ranks among the best in the nation. And that’s certainly true for the top three defenses in this week’s Pure Efficiency ratings for defense.

To tally this statistic, we take the total number of plays a defense plays in league-games only. Then we divide that number by the total number of touchdowns a team has allowed. This tells us how many plays (on average) teams run between touchdowns against the SEC’s defenses in conference play.

This measures a defense’s real stinginess. It also provides a look at overall team efficiency, as team’s with turnover-prone offenses tend to put their defenses in bad situations.

Pure Efficiency — Defense

Rank	School	Defensive Plays	Touchdowns Allowed	Plays/TD
1	Alabama	339	4	84.75
2	Tennessee	337	5	67.40
3	Florida	336	6	56.00
4 tie	LSU	332	8	41.50
4 tie	Ole Miss	332	8	41.50
6	Vanderbilt	361	12	30.08
7	S. Carolina	377	13	29.00
8	Miss. State	339	13	26.07
9	Auburn	425	20	21.25
10	Georgia	413	20	20.65
11	Kentucky	328	17	19.29
12	Arkansas	344	19	18.10

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SEC Stats: Pure Offensive Efficiency, Week Nine

November 2nd, 2009 8:32 am ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

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Through nine weeks of the season — though we’re looking only at the results from in-conference games at the behest of some readers – it’s becoming clear which SEC offenses have what it takes to score. And which ones don’t.

The SEC’s defenses are clearly dominant this year, which makes those offenses at the top of our efficiency ratings so impressive: they’re putting up good numbers in the face of the nation’s top run-stuffers and ballhawks.

Here’s an example of just how good SEC defenses are. In five games against conference foes, Vanderbilt has scored just three offensive touchdowns. On Saturday against 11th ranked Georgia Tech, Vandy tallied — you guessed it — three touchdowns in one game.

The SEC is absolutely brutal when it comes to suffocating defenses.

As always, we figure “Pure Efficiency” for the offense by taking the total offensive snaps run by a unit and dividing that number by the total number of touchdowns recorded by that offense. That tells you how many plays each offense needs (on average) to score a touchdown in SEC play.

This rank gives a good idea to overall team efficiency as well, because a turnover-creating defense can give an offense short fields with which to work.

Pure Efficiency — Offense

Rank	School	Offensive Plays	Touchdowns	Plays/TD
1	Georgia	359	18	19.94
2	Arkansas	329	16	20.56
3	Tennessee	324	15	21.60
4	Florida	398	15	26.53
5	Auburn	432	16	27.00
6	Kentucky	340	12	28.33
7	Alabama	326	11	29.63
8	LSU	316	10	31.60
9	Miss. State	339	10	33.90
10	Ole Miss	350	9	38.88
11	S. Carolina	420	10	42.00
12	Vanderbilt	330	3	110.00