Drive Charts: Pokes Dominate Defensively Against Jags, Must Improve 3rd Downs

Oklahoma State pounded South Alabama 55-13 on Saturday evening in Stillwater, USA. It was a blowout by every measure of the word, despite a few bumps along the way (mostly on special teams). Now I’d like to look at whether it was as big of a blowout on paper as it was to watch. Let’s look at the drive charts for OSU and USA from Saturday.

OSU Drive Chart

OSU’s Pertinent Stats

Points per drive (offense): 3.2 (taking out the pick-six)
Yards per play: 7.2
Third-down conversions: 3/14 (21 percent)
Average starting field position: own 38-yard line
Red-zone scoring: 6/7 (5 touchdowns)
Points off turnovers: 7
Time of possession: 33:45

This looks really goo … wait, OSU was 3 for 14 on third downs?! I guess it’s mildly mitigated by the fact that they were 4 for 6 on fourth downs, but my goodness. Also, 3.2 points per drive against USA is good, not great. And special teams, while awful to look at, wasn’t all bad. Starting at your own 38 on average is pretty solid.

USA Drive Chart

USA’s Pertinent Stats

Points per drive (offense): 0.76
Yards per play: 3.0
Third-down conversions: 3/17 (18 percent)
Average starting field position: own 27-yard line
Red-zone scoring: 1/1 (1 touchdown)
Points off turnovers: 6
Time of possession: 29:11

I know those times of possession don’t add up, but this is what the box score is telling me. ?‍♂️ OSU’s 3 for 14 number on offensive third downs looks a little bit better compared to USA’s 3 for 17 (!) And I don’t care if you’re playing USA or ASU, 0.76 points per drive as a defense is pretty great.

There’s not a ton to draw from here — other than the fact that OSU needs to be far better on third downs offensively. Other than that, they obviously need to clean up special teams (it’s unfortunate that the NCAA voted against a 10th assistant coach in the offseason otherwise they could have brought somebody on to help out with this) as well as penalties before the Boise St. game on Saturday.