Get your statistics, Hot off the press!
by Fox 71 on Oct 23, 2011 10:26 AM PDT
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I've been grabbing some statistics here and there to prove points (or at least to try to prove them.) I'm not going to try to prove anything this time. I'm just going to list where we rank in all the stats this particular place had. I found one statistic particularly interesting. Guess who is dead last, 120 out of 120, in the all-important time of possession statistic? I'll give you one hint - it's not UCLA. Anyway, make of these nuymbers what you will. I think it's interesting that our two best numbers are sacks allowed and intereceptions thrown. I don't know what that means.
83 Third down conversion percentage
118 Opp 3rd down conversion percentage
56 4th down percentage
92 Opp 4th down percentage
76 Penalties per game
86 Fewest yards penalized per game
116 First downs defense
93 First downs offense
95 Fumbles lost
79 Fumbles recovered
14 Interceptions thrown
102 Kickoff return yardage defense
87 Kickoff returns
35 Net punting
79 Passes intercepted
88 Passing defense
57 Passing efficiency
96 Passing efficiency defense
82 Passing offense
101 Punt return yardage defense
111 Punt returns
115 Red Zone Defense
96 Red Zone Offense
95 Rushing defense
47 Rushing offense
113 Sacks
11 Sacks allowed
108 Scoring defense
86 Scoring offense
107 Tackles for loss
16 Tackles for loss allowed
98 Time of possession
106 Total defense
74 Total offense
88 Turnover margin
92 Turnovers gained
57 Turnovers lost
No. 120 out of 120 in time of possession: The Oregon Ducks. And that’s why you shouldn’t listen to announcers.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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I think you should also provide a filtered list of our awesome top 25 accomplishments:
14 Interceptions thrown
11 Sacks allowed
16 Tackles for loss allowed
4 interceptions thrown
Not 14. All by Kevin Prince. That is actually an area where we have done quite well…with Brehaut…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I hope, for your sake,
that you don’t refer to your statistical news service as Fox News.
I was starting to think that, hey, 11th in sacks allowed; not bad. But, then I remembered that if you only throw 12 times a game, your sack numbers will be low.
Change a letter, though, and I bet we’d be right up there in sucks allowed.
For a team that has a run-heavy offense predicated on making 3,4,5 yard gains consistently
then the 98th in Time-of-possession is pretty bad.
Oregon’s offense – predicated on quick strikes, and also deliberately getting quickly to the line of scrimmage and running plays to keep opponents on their heels, is unsurprisingly going to be near the bottom in T.O.P.
Not listening to announcers is your own personal mission, but you might like to listen to them and decide whether or not what they are saying makes sense in context, after taking into account other factors.
I listened to announcers for years before I saw (or I suppose heard) the light.
Do you remember John Brodie? He was one of the first that convinced me to turn off the sound. Some team ran a trick play that caught the other team off guard. Brodie’s analyis was so stupid that it has stuck in my mind, verbatim, for at least 30 years. Here’s what he said: “You can’t anticipate something that you don’t know what to expect.”
That is so profoundly idiotic on so many levels. Listen to it again. Imagine the play by play guy has tossed the straight line to a very good quarterback, and you’re just waiting for his insight so you can understand exactly what happened. And then John Brodie tells you. And he tells you with a sonorous, pontificating voice which immediately makes you think “the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.” The great man says, “You can’t anticipate something that you don’t know what to expect.”
I have made my position on announcers very clear, Venice. There are nothing but good reviews of Gus Johnson. He is universally acclaimed as being wonderful. I don’t know. I have never heard him speak. Undoubtedly, a great part of my life is missing. I accept as a given that it’s a mistake ranking up there with the loss of Paradise not to listen to Gus Johnson.
Gus doesn’t announce all the games. The play by play guys by and large are fine. It’s the color guys – the guys who give you the subtle nuances – who I can’t stand. (Not just football. I think the color men on baseball are worse.) I’m watching the Bucs Bears game as I type this. The Bears just got tackled for a loss. I was able to see the play and I saw what happened. There was nothing that the color man could add that I didn’t see and didn’t aleady know. If he had been perfect with his analysis, it would have added nothing. But as often as they are on, they come up with things like “You can’t anticipate something that you don’t know what to expect.”
One of the reasons you know that I go to the First United Church of No Sound is from my comments during game threads. Those comments are invariably in response to a comment from a brother or sister who is lamenting the crappy announcing. The crappy announcing hasn’t bothered me in a long, long time, Venice. I have come out of the verbal sewage darkness into the video only light. I cannot command here, and I hold no one’s remote but my own. I can only try to persuade. Have you ever tried listening to a game with the sound off? Try it once. If you don’t like it, if you have to have the announcers, then turn the sound back on. It may just be that you’ll find it refreshing not to listen to the never-ending drivel coming from these guys.
Last example. Have you been around long enough to remember when the Dodgers had one guy in the booth? I don’t remember when they stopped, but when it was just Vinnie or Jerry Doggett (going back to the beginning) or Rick Monday or any of the others, it was fine. There was one guy having a conversation with you. Now we have two or three in the box, and there is a constant competition for air time. Even before I moved out of LA, the Dodgers were unlistenable.
But that’s just me. Others may need or like to hear the announcers. There is a faction that needs to hear the sounds of the crowd and the bands and the sneakers squeaking and are willing to accept the inane comments in order to get those sounds. I accept that, and I salute their greater strength. What I don’t understand, and which, frankly, wastes a nanosecond of my life when I read them, is the fairly constant complaining about announcers. I think you give up your right to crab about announcers if you leave the sound on.
If you don’t want to read my street-corner preaching, then don’t read these sorts of rambles. But better, why don’t you join me and we can both lead the less enlightened out of the verbal garbage pit.
Profoundly idiotic
You can bet I will have the sound off during tonight’s world series game. I would name the Mute button on my remote “Tim McCarver,” except that I would be short-changing the likes of Billy Packer and Dick Vitale. Some sounds deserve to fall in empty forests, not on my ears.
My biggest beef with announcers and, especially, color persons, is they don’t know when not to talk, which for me is most of the time. That 2-yard run doesn’t need analysis. I can see that the defensive tackle fought off his block and dropped the runner. You don’t need to probe the depths of meaning for that short slant pass. I saw it.
That’s bad enough, but they also talk at the worst of times—when the drama of the situation and the noise of the crowd calls for minimalist or no talking from the booth. They talk OVER the action. It’s bad enough that they give me information I don’t want or need, but worse, they prevent me from getting the “information” I do need—the crowd noise. They deprive me of the thrill of the moment, because they’re talking over the moment.
Vin Scully’s call of Kirk Gibson’s home run of game one of the 1988 World Series was perfect. He called the action, in real time, and then he shut the hell up and let his listening audience hear the crowd for what felt like ten minutes. Perfect.
We were spoiled, I think, to grow up with Vin Scully, Bob Kelly, and Dick Enberg, for the most part, soloists all. No color persons needed. Describe the action. Then, get out of the way.
Color persons CAN add to the enjoyment. Mary Carillo offers good commentary in tennis; so does John McEnroe, sometimes, but he talks too much, too. Some football, basketball, baseball and hockey color persons DO add enjoyment to a broadcast, but it seems that most of them say to themselves, “OK, they want me to talk. When the play-by-play guy pauses, that’s when I go.” It’s like they abhor vacuums. They, and I include network producers in this “they,” think that silence is the enemy.
At least John Brodie gave his babble an amusing, Berra-esque twist. He got you to put the words “profoundly” and “idiotic” together in a sentence—a service to mankind. It’s the babble that adds no information and does not bring a smile to my face for its silliness that seriously grates me. But, those are misdemeanors. I can mute them. it’s the felonies, the talking over game-turning action, that makes me want to hurl heavy objects at my TV. I want to be there, with the crowd. Shut the eff up!
In general, you can count me as an imperfect member of your Church of No Sound, if you like. But, don’t expect any donations and don’t expect my attendance every week, either. :-)
The best part about my church is that you don't get to listen to the sermon.
Probably the most famous non-talking was Al Michaels’ silence at the end of the Olympic Hockey game.
I remember the one and only experiment with no announcer at an NFL game. I think it was pre-season. I don’t know if they had any graphics, but the absence of announcers but the presence of crowd noise was kind of eerie. I know that idea went nowhere. I actually prefer no sound to that noise.
There is a rift in the Cnurch of No Sound which is approaching a full blown schism. Mrs. Fox 71 likes nothing more than an NFL game at a moderate to low volume for her after real church nap on Sunday afternoon. She says nothing puts her to sleep faster than the white noise coming from a TV set when an NFL game is on.
Tell Mrs. Fox
to try golf on TV. If that doesn’t put her to sleep in record time, her metabolism is somewhere north of a hummingbird on espresso.
perhaps it is the wisdom of your years
that allows you to say
There was nothing that the color man could add that I didn’t see and didn’t aleady know
Personally, there are still things I don’t see or understand until someone points them out to me. I struggle to keep track of what all 11 people on my team are doing and how their activity interacts with the 11 people on the other team. When something goes wrong on a play, it’s not always obvious to me which player wasn’t doing the right thing.
But perhaps when I have a few more years experience under my belt, I’ll go to the muted version. :-)
To each his own, Venice.
There may be a time when your tolerance gets exceeded. You will always be welcome in the Church of No Audio.
And now to get back to the original point - these stats
It seems to me that we should consider ourselves lucky to be only 3-4. Sitting at 74 in total offensive team and 106 in total defense, I would have expected a poorer record.
Our best defensive ranking is in interceptions, where we sit at no. 79. That’s our BEST defensive number. Opponent’s third down percentage at 118 and red zone defense at 115 ought to be unacceptable to the head coach. What on earth could Tresey possibly be saying at the meeting to keep his job? Tresey needs to be relieved of his duties, or if not, he need to be told to pull a George Costanza, and do everything just the opposite of what his instincts say. Cal is 4th and inches at midfield? Go to the prevent. Well, maybe not that. Unless he has some horribly debilitating sensory problem, he has to know that his schemes aren’t working. Sure, he can say “I told you so” and point at the time our DB pressed the line of scrimmage and fell down to allow the receiver an easy touchdown, but maybe that was just bad luck. Why not try jamming the line of scrimmage, or try an all out blitz?
Anyway, to Venice and everyone else, I apologize for my rants about the volume control. Just keep sending those checks to the Church of the Video Only.
average stats only tell you some things
in our case, our below-average stats represent a combination of some blowout defeats and some close wins. With our average stats, we could definitely be looking at a worse record. But we’ve had the good fortune to play 3 pretty bad teams.
115 Red Zone Defense
Get in our Red Zone. And don’t score? You must really suck.
(What a horrific thought about my school. I’m going to bed.)
U-C-L-A Fight, Fight, Fight! Go Bruins!
NBA: Where Greed Happens. RIP 10/10/11.
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