Nerd Box Score: Oklahoma State and Central Arkansas

And we’re back with the nerd portion of the posting. I usually let OKC Dave take stuff like this because he’s “statistically into things” but sometimes I like to take a deep dive into the stats of a given game and what it tells us about both teams.

Here are a few notes.

• That 2.46 points per drive number is good but not great if we’re looking at the national landscape. Even more so considering OSU was playing a FCS team. That number would have ranked No. 44 in the country last year. Not where you want to be considering the opponent.

• On the starting field position points gained and lost, I’m using these numbers and rounding up. In recent years, OSU has ranked reasonably well in this category. It was in the top 10 in both 2013 and 2011 and never in the bottom 50. Your own 26 is not where you want to be on average and it had a lot to do with a poor return game on OSU’s part. Central Arkansas punted 10 times and OSU had one total return yard. One. Not great!

• OSU’s wasted yards (178) are a little misleading because I went ahead and counted the final drive which amounted to 55 yards and J.W. Walsh running out the clock at the end. Still, as Mike Yurcich noted, OSU’s yards gained and points posted do not match up right now. You shouldn’t gain nearly six hundy on anybody and not be able to crack the 40-point barrier.

• Same goes for those negative swing points. Seven of them were on the final drive. Still, OSU needs to be better inside the red zone. It was an atrocious 109th in FBS last year in TD percentage in the red zone (which leads to a lot of negative swing points). The Walsh package will (should) help.

• If you’re in the 50-60 percent range in defensive efficiency (meaning you hold offenses to 50 percent of what they normally gain), you aren’t losing. That might mean OSU holds Texas to 95 yards!