Why do opposing QB's have career days vs. Griz?

[Potomac Griz]

We're third in the conference in rushing defense (a yard per game more than second place MSU). You think opposing teams know that and utilize the pass more?

We're also fourth in the conference in scoring defense and fourth in the country in red zone defense.

Might be a little better to use conference only stats though to compare, since there are many teams in the Big Sky who played FBS teams, as well as some like PSU who played 2 lower division teams. Using conference only at least we get more common opponents and only D1 FCS opponents.

Those can be found Here.

In conference only stats we are (out of 13 teams):

#8 - Scoring Defense with 28.7 points per game.
#11 - Total Defense with 447.8 yards per game.
#7 - Rush Defense with 155.7 yards per game.
#12 - Pass Defense with 292.2 yards per game.
#11 - Pass Efficiency Defense at 147.4 (only ahead of UNC and Weber)
#11 - Opponent 3rd Down Conversions at 46.3%
#1 - Red Zone Defense at 62.5%

To give you an idea how bad our pass efficiency defense has been in conference...
JJ's efficiency in conference has been 145.7... so about 2 points lower than what our defense gives up for efficiency rating each game.

Each game on average we give someone a JJ performance, averaging 147.4 pass efficiency defense.

In the above 5 mentioned "career days" that QBs had against us, here were their efficiency ratings:

Saffron: 70.7% Completions, 153.12 Rating

Adams#2: 67.5% Completions, 202.97 Rating

Adams#1: 60.98% Completions, 152.57 Rating

Poe: 73.3% Completions, 134.43 Rating

Hanson: 68.85% Completion, 176.95 Rating

That's just not good at all... Very high completion percentages, some borderline insane ratings, and losses in all of those games except the Sac one. All 5 were "career days" for those QBs. We've played 20 games and have given up 5 career days to opposing QBs. That's not a good percentage

 

[AZGrizFan]

Imagine how good our stats would look if we got to play UNC and ISU. Or if our UND stats counted.

This is why even Conference Only stats are fucked.

 

[smarsh]

Because we cannot generate pressure on the quarterback with the front 4 in zone and they can find the soft spots. When we go man and blitz, we either lose contain or they hit the hot route and we don't tackle the receiver.

what this dude said. first 8-10 yards off of the line of scrimmage are a gimme for anybody we face. partly gregorak, partly the available talent.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Imagine how good our stats would look if we got to play UNC and ISU. Or if our UND stats counted.

This is why even Conference Only stats are f***[*].

Definitely true. Conference only stats used to be a LOT more telling. Now it's quite a cluster-f%ck. For example:

The Cats get to play 3 of the bottom 4 teams in the Big Sky (UND, Web, UNC) for conference games.
EWU gets to play 3 of the bottom 4 teams in the Big Sky (UND, ISU, Web) for conference games.
The Griz get to play 1 for an in conference game (Weber).

For top 4 teams the Cats & the Griz play all 3 of the other top 4 (EWU, Cats, NAU, Griz being the top 4). EWU and NAU don't play each other though.

That could cause a kind of messed up tie scenario if EWU beats the Cats but loses @Cal Poly, the Cats beat the Griz, and NAU wins out. You'd have EWU, NAU and the Cats with 1 loss. EWU would have beaten the Cats, the Cats would have beaten NAU, and NAU & EWU wouldn't have played each other.

Anyway, I think conference only stats are more telling since overall stats include many lower division and fbs games. Even with ignoring conference stats and over all stats, those 5 performances listed above should not happen as frequently. Our D giving up a "career day" in 20% of our games (seems to be damn near every time we run into a good QB) is a scary stat all by itself.

We are 7-2 though, and have a very good chance of being 9-2 heading into the game vs the Cats. I thought at this point in the season we'd be 5-4 with losses to App, NAU, EWU and Sac. So I'm very pleased to be 7-2 & having our playoff hopes still very much alive even if we do make opposing QBs look like Peyton Manning too frequently