‘Statistics are for losers’
| 
| 
| Here’s a stat: LSU is 9-3 on the scoreboard
By CARL DUBOIS
Tiger Rag Associate Editor
We have plenty of time to pass - or run - before the bowl game, so let’s look at some interesting statistics this afternoon.
LSU gained 3,716 yards of total offense this season and gave up 3,919 - all while on the way to winning nine of 12 games. It almost doesn’t seem possible.
That a 9-3 team could give up more yards than it gains speaks to the point many coaches make (and one I agree with more often than not). The point: Statistics aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Of course, I’m not naïve enough to think LSU’s numbers don’t address troubling issues, but the second paragraph of this blog post contains the kind of evidence coaches and analysts can reference when they want to poke holes in the stats-mean-everything crowd.
Brief aside: After watching my hometown team and alma mater, McNeese State, appear to dominate Southern Miss in the 1980 Independence Bowl but wind up losing 16-14, I cited the numbers to a friend of mine.
“Statistics are for losers,” she sharply said.
Ouch.
But she was right. Winning is the only stat that matters.
Not all precincts agree. I’d have a bountiful Christmas if I received a dollar for every person I heard say “I know we’re winning, but it’s how we’re winning.” I get that.
But I’m the guy who, three or four weeks into every season (heck, sometimes one or two), cringed when I read in a newspaper (especially the one I was working for at the time) that so-and-so was ranked such-and-such in the national statistics.
As late as six or seven weeks into the season those national statistical rankings don’t mean as much as most people think, because teams don’t play the same schedule. One or two weeks into the season? No way are they meaningful stats. But we need something to write about and talk about, so we publish them and discuss them.
I might propose a universal disclaimer from now on:
Buyer beware. Please see LSU football, 2009 (9-3 record, got outgained).
I expect there will be a Wikipedia entry soon.
LSU allowed opponents 1,610 rushing yards this season. The Tigers rushed for 1,555. Realizing there is still a bowl game to play, at this point we can say it’s the first time LSU didn’t rush for more yards than its opponents since 2000 (1,483 to 1,442).
LSU threw for 2,161 yards this season and gave up 2,309 passing yards. The last time the Tigers yielded more yards through the air than they gained? Last season. I know that’s probably not a shock.
LSU threw for 2,617 yards last season and gave up 2,800 passing yards.
An LSU deficit in total offense - 3,919 yards to 3,716 - is a first since 1999. That season the Tigers gained 3,319 yards and gave up 3,840.
Most of that disparity owes to rushing yards: 907 for LSU and 1,675 for its opponents. Important note: LSU was 3-8 that season, Gerry DiNardo’s last as coach of the Tigers.
Just thought you’d find it interesting.
Carl Dubois has covered LSU athletics since 1999. You can contact him at carl@tigerrag.com.
Yeah, but at some point those stats catch up with you.
Bad trend that last year LSU gave up more passing yards and this year LSU gave up more total yards. That trend needs to stop or a losing season will be here as early as 2010!
Agree with Greg. The reason for the 3 losses AND the near loss to Georgia is lack of an established rushing game……..for 4 quarters.
I grew up listening to LSU football on a small hand held radio as a kid. The two things I could always count on was a strong defense and a strong running game.
It seems LSU has gotten away from the things that have made them great over the years. With all the talent I would have expected at least a 10 and 2 season.
All the individual talents did not add up to the great team that could have been.
Red zone defense is why we are 9-3. Say what you may, LSU stopped most teams from scoring a lot of points on them. They will wind up in the top 10-20 teams in scoring defense. I personally do not like the ‘bend don’t break’ approach of defense, but if it consistently stops most teams from scoring lots of points on you, one can ‘get by’ with a mediocre offense. This year LSU ‘got by’ with very mediocre offense and a ‘good enough’ defense. Thus, the stats are not that surprising. But I do agree that if we play that way next year with the brutal schedule we have for 2010, it will not be pretty. Drastic improvement must be made on the offensive side of the ball, and Chavis, with one year at LSU under his belt, must make better second half adjustments against high scoring offenses. Our players will always keep us in the game against the great teams but it is now on the coaches to put some distance between us and the so-so teams. We can’t afford to lose in the statistical category next year and expect to be 9-3 that is a certainty. Because, eventually, statistics will not lie again like they did this year.
I listened to LSU games growing up in Lafayette and Mandeville on the radio on the back porch with my Dad. Back in the day we had a strong running game and a great defense….but we were a mediocre team…BAMA RULED. If we were fortunate to make it to a decent bowl game we usually lost. So by the standards of the late 60s, the 70s, 80s and 90s, THIS IS AN OUTSTANDING LSU TEAM…For gosh sakes…if it weren’t for a touchdown that Florida scored that was really a missed offensive pass interference call, Gators (at best) win 9-3. Bama gets a touchdown from Juilio Jones on a missed block-in-the-back call when Patrick Peterson IS OUT OF THE GAME and then we get hosed on the missed interception call…otherwise we’re IN THAT GAME and possibly win it. Ole Miss is Ole Miss…we blew it…but even Les Miles is human…POINT IS: this is a season where the margin between victory and defeat was razor thin…which means this season should be celebrated as a year where “we were this close” to being a great team and had to settle for being a very, very good team. Those of you who believe the LSU program is slipping don’t remember the Saban years the way I do: UAB, a painful loss to Eli’s Ole Miss, an ugly shut out loss to Bama at home, a last second loss to the Hogs and Iowa…Saban was good, but really not all that great…I wonder how people would think differently of Miles if his coaching tenure at LSU preceded Nick Saban’s???
I bet no one wants to play these Tigers in a bowl game…