Statistical Review: Iowa State #57

Iowa State had a top 40 defense. They were 38th in points per games allowed and 33rd in points per possession allowed. And they did this despite being among the nation's worst in sacks per pass, TFL per run, and in the bottom half nationally in yards per carry and yards per pass allowed. Fairly high yards per play and low negative play rate meant that teams averaged 5.6 plays per possession against Iowa State. How were they able to turn all these negative fundamentals into a successful defense?

First, opponents started with poor average starting field position (29th best nationally). Second, they were fairly good at preventing  explosive plays (7th fewest nationally in explosive plays per rush). As a result, while the yards per play were high, the EPA per play was lower (nationally average in nominal terms, top 40 when adjusted for strength of schedule). Finally, while Iowa State didn't turn teams over at an exceptionally high rate they made the most of the turnovers they did force, which resulted in a high EPA per turnover.

On offense, Iowa State again outperformed its fundamentals. They were not good on 3rd down, gained 25 or more yards on only 3% of plays, and were below average in EPA per pass and per carry, and yet the offense was slightly above average in adjusted effective points per possession (EP3+). They didn't score a lot of points on those possessions, but they tended to turn bad field position into good field position for the defense. It's a silver lining.

-------------------- 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.