Oklahoma State Offense Impressive in PPD, but Defense Even Better

We put out a poll on Tuesday to see which unit you guys have been most impressed with. It ended about how I thought it would (50/50), which I think is pretty interesting. The offense has (obviously) been elite throughout the first quarter of the season, but the defense has been nearly as good (without all the fanfare).

Let’s look at Glenn Spencer’s guys first.

Defensive PPD

This is a cumulative number so after Game 1, OSU’s PPD allowed was 1.21, and after Game 3 its PPD allowed overall was 1. Through three games, the Pokes have faced 38 drives and given up 38 points (note: special teams gaffes like what happened on Saturday against Pitt do not count against the defense for our purposes).

This is really impressive, and it probably won’t last. A reminder that the best numbers of the Gundy era was 1.29 back in 2013. This team shooting for 1.5 or 1.6 would be great.

Gundy Era PPD

Additionally, OSU is getting stops on nearly 9 out of every 10 possessions, which is outrageous. Against Tulsa, it got 11 stops in 14 drives. Against South Alabama, it got 11 in 12 drives. And against Pitt, it got 10 in 12 drives. Here’s a look at its season-long cumulative number.

Now let’s look at the offensive side of the ball. In 36 drives so far this season, OSU has scored 141 points. That’s really, really good and translates to nearly 4 points per drive which would be close to one of the most efficient seasons in history. Of course, it’s easy to post a monster number when you’re scoring on every possession like OSU did at Pitt on Saturday.

Offensive PPD

Again, this is a cumulative, season-long number. So 3.92 represents 141 points divided by 36 drives.

Gundy Era PPD

These are the numbers from the Gundy era. I said this last week, but I took them all from BCF Toys, which filters out end-of-half drives and garbage-time drives. Incredibly, this would probably make OSU’s number go up as it hasn’t really scored all that much in garbage time in the first three games. I’ll flip my data to those numbers when they’re released later this season.

All in all it’s been a banner year for both Glenn Spencer and Mike Yurcich so far. They have a long row to go in conference play, but the foundation has been set for special seasons on both sides of the football.