Midweek Musings

Gopowercat.com's very own moped stalker suggested today that Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman is better on the road than at home. Well, let's test that hypothesis. KSU has played three road games (Auburn, Texas, Oklahoma State) and five home games (San Jose State, Missouri State, Kansas, Colorado, Baylor).

Home: 183 attempts, 119 completions, 6 interceptions, 65.0 completion percentage, 1,325 yards or 265 yards per game, 7 touchdowns, and has been sacked twice for 8 yards. His passer efficiency rating is 131.91 at home. You too can calculate passer efficiency at http://football.stassen.com/pass-eff/.

Road: 146 attempts, 90 completions, 2 interceptions, 61.6 completion percentage, 849 yards or 283 yards per game, 4 touchdowns, and has been sacked 4 times for 2 yards. His passer efficiency rating is 116.79 on the road.

I don't know what to make of the statistics, but Freeman appears to be playing pretty well both at home and on the road--though his passer efficiency rating is fairly marginal. His overall efficiency rating of 125.2 ranks 68th in the nation. 116.79 would rank 86th and 131.91 would rank 49th.

At the end of the day, I know that Josh had a simply awful first half versus Baylor, but he still ended the day 22/33/1 for 247 yards and three touchdowns. His efficiency rating? A cool 153.5. Not bad for having such a bad first half the coaches wouldn't let him throw.

Another gopowercat.com user, whom I cannot remember, came up with this nugget, or at least a similar version to this nugget: Jordy Nelson has 5 punt returns for 264 yards and 2 touchdowns. That's a nice little punt return average of 52.8 yards per punt return. WOW! Of course, Nelson doesn't qualify to be the national leader because he hasn't returned enough punts. The "other" KSU punt returner, Deon Murphy, does qualify for national rankings as he has returned 20 punts for 344 yards, a nifty 17.2 yards per return. Murphy ranks fifth in the nation and first in the Big 12. But what about Jordy? How many punt returns would he have to have to qualify for national recognition? A player has to have a minimum of 1.2 punt returns per game to qualify. Jordy would have to have 9.6 (ok, fine, 10) returns to qualify for national honors. If he had five additional returns of zero yards, his punt return average would be 26.4 yards per return, and then he would qualify for national honors. Oh, and his national rank? Number one. The current number one, Leodis McKelvin from Troy, averages 21.18 yards per punt return. So Nelson, without gaining another yard, would still be number one by over five yards per return. That too deserves a WOW!

Everything about Jordy Nelson deserves a wow, though. Not only is he a stellar punt returner and receiver, he also is 2 for 3 passing the ball for 45 yards and 2 touchdowns, with a passer efficiency rating of 412.67. Not bad for a walk-on from Riley, Kansas.

On the other side of the ball, teams have scored 28 times against KSU's defense (and one touchdown on special teams and the opposing team's defense scored one touchdown) in 120 drives (the number derived from page 24 of the Iowa State game notes provided by KSU Sports Information). Opposing teams have scored 19 touchdowns on drives and nine field goals.

That's 23.3 percent of the time, when the other team gets the ball, they score. 15.8 percent of all drives end in touchdowns. 7.5 percent of all drives end in field goals.

Twenty-nine times, opposing offenses have gone three and out, which is 24.2 percent of the time. Twenty-two times (16 interceptions and six fumble recoveries), KSU has forced a turnover (18.3 percent of the time).

Five of the scoring drives took between one and five plays. Nineteen of the scoring drives took between six and ten plays. Four scoring drives went for eleven plays or more.

Kansas State's defense has also been burned by the big play. The Wildcats have allowed 36 plays of 20 or more yards this season (including four of 40 or more yards). The breakdown:

Auburn, four plays of 20 or more yards, including one of 55 yards.
San Jose State, three plays of 20 or more yards.
Missouri State, three plays of 20 or more yards.
Texas, three plays of 20 or more yards.
Kansas, five plays of 20 or more yards.
Colorado, nine plays of 20 or more yards, including two of 40 yards.
Oklahoma State, four plays of 20 or more yards.
Baylor, five plays of 20 or more yards, including one for 52 yards.

Several other plays have gone for big yards as well, including a fumble return for a touchdown versus Auburn (34 yards), an interception return versus Auburn (49 yards), a punt return versus Auburn (57 yards), and a 98 yard kick-off return for a touchdown versus Oklahoma State.

By the way, by comparison, Kansas State has 9 fewer plays from scrimmage for 20 or more yards than their competition, a mere 27 (Auburn 3, San Jose State 3, Missouri State 3, Texas 1, Kansas 2, Colorado 7, Oklahoma State 2, Baylor 6).