Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Pass happy offenses, is the worst behind us?

Blutarsky hit on the new SEC meme that was put on grand display in the national game of interest this past Saturday. And that is that defense is minimalistic bordering on optional in the SEC this season. Georgia-South Carolina set the bar high (or low depending on how you look at it) and Alabama-Texas A&M cleared it easily.

But the point he makes (through a Rece Davis final thought on the weekend) speaks to experienced quarterbacks having the advantage, at least thus far. Murray, and his veteran compadres in McCarron, Manziel and Shaw, are all off to great starts this season. So I thought it might behoove us to take a look at how future opponents are faring under center. I left Boyd and Shaw in there for comparison purposes.


comp %
yards
TD
INT
rating
Boyd, Clemson
60.4
439
3
0
148.64
Shaw, S. Carolina
64.9
661
6
0
166.66
Thompson, UNT
70.9
818
5
2
149.72
Mettenberger, LSU
65.2
797
9
0
205.29
Worley, Tenn
61.4
372
5
1
141.66
Franklin, Missouri
66.7
530
4
1
155.12
Carta-Samuels, Vandy
58.8
670
4
3
138.1
Driskel, Florida
70.9
444
2
2
143.45
Bryant, App State
67.4
307
2
1
138.1
Marshall, Auburn
61.4
585
4
2
144.78
Smith, Kentucky
57.1
544
4
0
162.31
Lee, GA Tech
55.6
314
6
1
219.17

Impressions:
  • First and foremost, still very early as most of this is based on two, maybe three games worth. But these stats give us something to chew on nonetheless.
  • For what it's worth, Vandy, App State and Kentucky use more than one quarterback. What you see here are their leaders thus far.
  • Mettenberger has really had his way early. And he'll go against an Auburn pass defense ranked dead last in the SEC this Saturday as his last primer before a return trip to Athens.
  • Speaking of conference rankings in pass defense, the Dawgs will play three of the bottom five - Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Auburn. (The other two of that group by the way is Georgia and Alabama. Food for thought.)
  • Unless you believe in Vad Lee's stats against the likes of Elon and Duke, Mettenberger is the most efficient and productive passer on our schedule. But he too, to a lesser extent, is a product of some cupcake crumbs. His passer rating against TCU in the opener - 126.2.
  • Driskel is just gonna do Driskel things y'all.
  • Overall, the most experienced and dangerous quarterbacks appear to be behind us.
And just for the sake of comparison:

Aaron Murray - 71.2  /  632  / 4  /  1  /  194.77