Big 12 Drive Charts: Pokes Fall Way Back Offensively Compared to OU, WVU

After Saturday’s game in Austin, I knew Oklahoma State’s offensive numbers would take a huge hit, and they dropped down way below where they should be given the talent the Pokes have on that side of the ball. The good news? They still have four of the five worst defensive teams in the league thus far on the slate.

Let’s look at offense first.

Kansas has 64 drives on the year and 54 points. Only 10 of their 64 drives have ended with points. Texas isn’t a whole lot better to date. OU is clearly the class of the conference so far, and they’ve faced Texas and Iowa State, which are two of the tougher defenses up to this point.

Oklahoma State is, surprisingly to me, still ahead of TCU but trails OU and West Virginia by quite a bit. Also, for the sake of posterity, there have been 534 Big 12 drives that have included at least one play. Here’s how they’ve ended:

• 201 Punts
• 146 TD
• 59 FG
• 34 end of half
• 31 INT
• 26 on downs
• 19 fumble
• 18 missed FG

Now let’s look at the defenses.

Spencer! We’ll see if we’re still singing his praises after OSU faces the two best offenses in the next two weeks, but that 1.8 number is exactly his goal for the year. If OSU stays there, it will probably play for the Big 12 title.

Finally, net PPD.

Not all is lost, friends. Net PPD is usually a pretty good indicator of how a team is going to finish up. Oklahoma State’s is still pretty high up there with TCU. Also, Iowa State might be legitimately good!

These numbers change quite a bit from week to week — especially after you score 13 points on 15 drives — but a picture of the conference starts to emerge as the year progresses. I would imagine Oklahoma State will gain ground offensively as the season wears on and loses a bit defensively. If they finish in the 3.2 mark on offense and 1.9 or 2.0 mark on defense, that would have been a terrific year and would most likely set them up to play for a crown the first week in December.