Statistical Review: Troy #84

Troy finished the season at 5-7, but they actually outscored their opponents over the course of the season (by .1 points per game). They were within one TD in every game but one this season, joining an elite group of 27 teams that lost no more than 1 game by more than 7 points (9 teams won or were within 1 TD in every game).

But outscoring Sun Belt opponents by .1 points per game isn't exactly elite.

Like many teams closer to the bottom of this list, Troy was haunted by turnovers. Total, turnovers cost Troy almost 40 points (47.48 gained on defense - 86.90 lost of offense; the average team broke even on turnovers); in other words, that .1 point per game advantage could have blossomed to more than 3.5 points per game and, given the tight margins in their losses, a much better record. They were almost equally bad at holding on to the ball as they were taking it away from others. And they compounded turnovers with 67 penalty yards per game.

Offensively, Troy was quite good at keeping defenders out of the backfield and completing passes (two things that tend to go together), but were at or below average in yards per rush and yards per completion. They were fairly good at extending drives, but often had a long, long ways to go. 

Defensively, they just weren't very good. Opponents had a sub-par completion percentage against them, 56%, but got almost 15 yards per completion Troy nipped only 6 passes all season. 

The Statistical Review breaks down teams along a number of performance categories, everything from red zone scoring to field goal percentage, and compares that performance against the rest of the FBS. All 124 teams will be reviewed from 124 to 1 by the hybrid rankings. You can find short descriptions of the stats used in the table below.