First, I want to acknowledge that statistics are just numbers unless there is something meaningful to compare them to.  Nonetheless, I like trying to make sense of them.  Second, I will admit a bias towards normalized stats - that is statistics that allow comparison of apples to apples such as yards per attempt versus just total yards, etc.  Third, though I will present some numbers below, I won't discuss them because I think they are meaningless and really just something for commentators to use to fill time on the air.

I took a look at the first 4 opponents that Tech played and compared the box score of Tech games versus other Big XII teams to see how Tech compared against common opponents.  I focused on the defense because the performance of the Tech offense was very inconsistent.  If I hve time, I'll address the questions that I have regarding the offense in a separate post. 

So what can we glean from these games regarding the defense?  Nobody else in the Big XII plays SMU or U Mass, so I have nothing to compare those games to.  EWU played Colorado.  Here's how Tech Stacked up.

One important difference relating I think less to the defense and more to the offense is the number of plays run by EWU.  Versus CU, EWU only ran 74 plays, while they ran 87 versus Tech with 2 more possessions.  Why is that a big deal?  It gives them more opportunities to score.  It also shows why normalizing the statistics based on the number of plays is important.  The Tech offense struggled a little and relied on a couple of big plays which took little time off the clock.  Without the 2 extra chances, I think that the points allowed by TT would have been lower.  The total yards would have also been a little more reflective of the quality of play by the Tech D. 

All of this to say that the most important things besides score are plays per possession and yds per play.  Total yards, 1st downs, 3rd down conversions are at best very indirect measures of the defensive performance.  I can give you a number of scenarios where a team puts up over 400 yards in offense and never crosses the 50 yard line.  Total yards is also a weak statistic because it is related to the number of plays.  And while situationally 3rd down conversion rate might be interesting, how many times does a series make it to 3rd down?  The normalized statistics are much more meaningful (yds/play, plays/possession, yds/rec). But I digress. 

The Tech D was fairly stingy in yards per play, forced some 3 and outs, and cut some drives short with interceptions.  Conclusion: When you look at the normalized stats, the Tech D is significantly better than CU.  Looking only at yards, you wouldn't reach the same conclusion.

Nevada played Missouri.  (I was very interested in this one):

Given how close the points allowed were, I was surprised by how much Mizzou dominated almost every other category.  The difference came in that Tech only allowed FGs, whereas Mizzou gave up a couple of TDs.  Nevada had one more possession in their Tech game than in their Mizzou game.  Playing Tech in Reno may have helped the Wolf Pack, but I think it's pretty clear how Tech's D compares to Missouri's.  If Tech does make it to the Big XII championship, we better hope that the offense figures out the cure for what Mizzou did to them last year and the turnover margin continues to be in Tech's favor.

Against Mizzou, Nevada found themselves in a 14-0 hole 3 minutes into the 1st quarter and seems to have felt the need to try and pass their way back in the game.  Mizzou not only held them to 8.6 yds/catch, but the completion rate was only 53% resulting in a paltry 4.5 yds/att.  Tech on the other hand allowed 11 yds/catch and a 69% completion rate. 

The yards/attempt and yards/reception also helps to make sense of the number of break-ups and interceptions that Tech has had compared to other teams in the Big XII.  Teams are going to throw a lot if they think they can pick up that kind of yardage.  The bend but don't break philosophy on defense essentially waits for the other offense to beat themselves by stalling out or making mistakes.  This is what we see in Nevada V. Tech with the 2 interceptions and all of the field goals from Nevada.  The flaw in this is that better teams make fewer mistakes and are not as likely to stall. 

I think that yards/play and plays/possession are very telling.  They indicate how long the other team is moving the ball and sustaining drives.  I also like yards per reception because it tells us how well the defense is covering and is not dependant on how good the QB is.  Tech should be embarrassed by how this statistic compares to Mizzou.  It also is an indication of why Mizzou was able to defend Tech so well in the past.  People have been screaming it in the posts for the past 4 weeks.  Now here's the data to back it up.  Our secondary needs to play tighter.