bombs away...

Over at RUTS we were allowed to see just how bad PSU's passing offense has been since 2003. Like JoePa's salary this was privy information, but now that the awful truth has been exposed, being a numbers guys, I felt obligated to look a little deeper. PSU has averaged near 7th place, that is by far the worst in the Big Ten:

1. MSU 2.71
2. Minny 3.00
3. OSU 3.14
4. Indy 3.85
5. Iowa 3.85
6. Mich 3.85
7. Wisc 3.85
8. Purdue 4.85
9. Illini 5.28
10. NW 5.85
11. PSU 6.85


As you can see we are WAY behind the pack, WAY behind Northwestern, those purple things that play by the lake. It's shocking at first, but after a minute you realize it has to be right on...our passing game has been...well, shittastic.

But does that really matter? Here is the average Big Ten placing over that time:


1. OSU 1.57
2. Mich 2.00
3. Wisc 2.71
4. Iowa 3.71
5. PSU 4.00
6. Purdue 4.42
7. NW 5.00
8. MSU 5.14
9. Minny 5.71
10. Illini 6.42
11. Indy 6.42


So a quick look at the two lists. The top 5 in pass efficiency have placed, on average in the Big Ten: 8, 9, 1, 11, and 4. That's not great correlation.

So my point is not that these stats don't matter (I think they do), just that fixing this is not going to get us anywhere. It will, however, make our offense a little less painful to watch. Ya, that's a very good word, painful...

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