In celebration of bye week #1, I’m going to post the graphs from select non-Alabama games this week. The commentary will be light, but the stats aplenty.
Oklahoma (45) vs. Kansas (20), Oct 5th
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Team Success Rates (cumulative)
Well, things were interesting there for a quarter; but once the Oklahoma offense got some momentum and remembered how to gather all the yards against a real bad defense (literally the 120th-best defense against efficiency), they cruised and maintained that top speed for the remainder of the game.
Success and Explosiveness by Quarter
Play Map: Yards and Result by Play
On the Oklahoma chart, that’s a whole lot of explosive plays. Interesting, only two plays went beyond 30 yards: so these weren’t the “huge breakaway TD’s” variety so much as “these coaches know where to find soft spots for 15-25 yard gains” kind.
At a quick glance, it almost looks like there were as many explosive plays as non-explosive successful ones, which is crazy. I guess this is my first Big XII graphing article, so maybe it’s just how things go in those parts.
Success and Explosiveness by Play Type
Again, that’s just a lot of explosiveness on the board right there. For running, sure, but it’s incredible how well passing works in that league.
Success and Explosiveness by Down
Those second and third quarters? Total, total dominance.
Rushing rate (cumulative), Oklahoma
Interestingly, Okie actually did have a pretty even balance throughout the game—maybe that’s the Jalen-turns-passing-plays-into-runs effect—and they actually had a majority run rate by the end of the game.
Rushing and Passing Success (cumulative), Oklahoma
60%+ cumulative passing and rushing SRs? That’s a good offense, folks.
Rushing rate (cumulative), Kansas
Rushing and Passing Success (cumulative), Kansas
Top Runners, Oklahoma
Top Passers, Oklahoma
Surely this is what you’re all here for. Jalen Hurts had another good day on paper: this beats out Jake Fromm’s chart from the Georgia Tennessee game, and Tua Tagovailoa’s chart from the Ole Miss game last weekend. Hopefully we’re seeing the effect of poor defense more than the greater effectiveness of Oklahoma’s offense.
Top Receivers, Oklahoma
Top Tacklers, Oklahoma
Top Runners, Kansas
Ouch. This is a very, very ugly chart. That’s bad running! And your’e supposed to be able to run against Oklahoma.
Top Passers, Kansas
Top Receivers, Kansas
Top Tacklers, Kansas
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Takeaways
The stats line up pretty well with the score margin—you may have even expected the Sooners to lay another touchdown or two on top, or Kansas to not quite get to 20—so there’s not a ton to take away.
Games further into the season should tell us whether Jalen’s performances are a temporary effect of Oklahoma’s schedule so far. Hopefully he’s at least having fun in the meantime.