Bedlam 2017 a Matchup of Best Big 12 Offenses in Last Five Years

When Oklahoma and Oklahoma State take the field on Saturday in Mike Gundy’s lucky 13th Bedlam, it likely won’t feel like we are watching two dominant offenses.

OU lost Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon from a year go, and the O-State offense has sputtered a bit in recent weeks. And yet … to date, these are the two most efficient Big 12 offenses of the last five seasons. That’s 50 different offenses, and these two are scoring at a higher clip than any of the other 48.

Here’s a look, as the teams are ranked by their five-year average.

These stats are courtesy of OKC Dave (obviously) via BCF Toys, which removes garbage time and end of half drives. I should also point out that this isn’t a true average but rather an average of years. We don’t have the raw data, though, so it’s impossible to grab a true average. 

Offensive PPD

The next closest offense to these two was actually OU’s from last year at 3.48 points per drive. After that it’s a trio of Baylor offenses and a couple of Texas Tech ones. Oklahoma State’s 2017 offense is by far its best of the last five years (so far).

That five-year average for Oklahoma State kind of leaves me wanting a little bit more. Tied for third in the Big 12 over the past five years with Kansas State within striking distance? Doesn’t leave me feeling the warm and fuzzies over Mike Yurcich.

Also, Oklahoma is averaging 8.3 yards per play, on pace to beat its school record (7.6 in 1971). Its 2016 mark of 7.5 was No. 2 all-time. Oklahoma State comes in at 7.4 yards per play on pace to beat its school record of 7.21 from 1988.

Interestingly, OSU has actually been better on defense in that time from a pure rankings within the Big 12 standpoint. Here’s where the five-year defensive rankings stand.

Defensive PPD

Oklahoma State has both the best overall defense (2013) and the seventh-best (2017) in this span of time. OU has the sixth-best defense so far this season.

Lastly, and maybe most interestingly, let’s look at where each school has ranked in net points per drive over the last five years. OU has been on average first, which makes since given that it has won three Big 12 titles in that period of time.

Net PPD Rank

Pretty impressive stuff for the Pokes, and it correlates almost exactly with wins in this time period. This will change soon, too, as Baylor keeps losing and TCU keeps winning, the net PPD rankings will be almost exactly the same as the wins rankings for Big 12 teams. Stats are for losers, as they say, but this one is a pretty good one.

Wins/Net PPD since 2012