News Article: The offensive revolution has slowed

Redwood Forrest · Jan 23, 2018

Scoring, total offense and touchdowns dropped in college football to their lowest points in six years, according to year-end statistics compiled by the NCAA staff for the 2017 season.

Teams averaged 28.8 points per game in 2017, a decline of 1.3 points from a record 30.08 points in 2016. That marks the lowest scoring average since 2011 (28.3). College football took a quantum leap in 2007 with scoring average jumping four points per team from 24.4 to 28.4.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...lution-over-it-certainly-slowed-down-in-2017/

This trend pleases me greatly. Roll Tide and Roll Defense.

Elefantman · Jan 23, 2018

I wonder if overtime scores are included? OT stats only inflate these numbers.

AlexanderFan · Jan 23, 2018

It just means they will allow more gimmicks on the offensive side of the ball. More missed holding calls, more defensive pass interference, less offensive penalties. I imagine the NFL pass interference rule will be put in place soon, along with that crazy Canadian football rule that lets the offensive guy take off running full speed out of the backfield. Ugh

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B1GTide · Jan 23, 2018

A one season decrease does not a trend make. Some defenses have caught up, but most have not come close.

cooleddie · Jan 23, 2018

I'm happy to see this trend. I personally enjoy watching the defensive side of the ball. I enjoy watching the chess match between the O and D coordinators, the presnap shifts, defensive linemen battling it out with offensive linemen for position, Linebackers filling gaps, a surprise blitz from a corner, etc. I feel like the whole "speed ball" gimmick robbed some very gifted athletes on the defensive side of the ball the opportunity to display their full talent when all they could do for 30 minutes was sprint to the next line of scrimmage just to avoid being offsides and then not even get to make a defensive call. We fans also get robbed of seeing that talent on display. I was so glad to see the substitution rule implemented. It was an appropriate step to help even the playing field to some degree.

Bamabuzzard · Jan 23, 2018

B1GTide said:
A one season decrease does not a trend make. Some defenses have caught up, but most have not come close.

To be perfectly honest, considering the rules and how they are so slanted toward the offense. I'm not sure most defenses have a realistic chance at catching up. Teams who are loaded with four and five star talent have done a lot better job at it. But even the elite programs still struggle to do it consistently. Also, the lack of consistently calling rules that do help the defense also contributes. Illegal linemen down field, pick err "rub" plays etc. that aren't consistently called make even harder.

STONECOLDSABAN · Jan 23, 2018

But I thought the offensive revolution....I mean Johnny football...I mean Gus Malzahn....I mean Ole Miss/Hugh Freeze...I mean Clemson...I mean Insert Team X was gonna be the end of Nick Saban's Dynasty. The media said so.

RTR91 · Jan 23, 2018

Think this might be the bigger point. Defenses as a whole haven't caught up. Offenses are slowing down some and not attacking as much in order to help their own defense.

"As always, defenses at some point begin to catch up with the 'new' ways offenses are attacking them," Texas A&M offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey said. "A lot of the 'hair on fire' offenses that were only concerned with yards and points are controlling the tempo more and trying to help their defense."

That has led to more balanced offenses. In 2007, there was an average of 73.4 more passing yards than rushing yards per team. That number shrunk to an average 51.2-yard difference in 2016.

Three of the top six most balanced Power Five offenses helped lead their teams to conference championship games -- Auburn, Stanford and Ohio State. The Buckeyes won the Big Ten.

rgw · Jan 23, 2018

I think one factor is that many of the more talented teams have went towards spread power or spread pass offenses with tempo and the run-pass option. So the second-tier teams that would try to push the pedal through the floorboard on larger, more talented teams still employing traditional power offenses have found that they're just getting into shootouts with less firepower. Basically, they've had to slow it down because their tempo is being backfired by opponents with superior talent using tempo.

Another factor is that officiating has gotten better at stopping substitution and quick snap ploys by the offense. A few years ago, there was a lot of hay made by offensive coaches by getting a big play with a personnel group then mass subbing a completely different personnel grouping that mismatches your personnel without a chance to respond.

I do think the best teams have kinda "caught up" with the spread but it still ain't easy to stop on defense. We mostly shutdown Clemson in 2016 for 3 quarters but lost the battle of snap attrition due to offensive efficiency. I think offense is a bigger factor in good defense these days than ever before because the game has become such a battle of attrition w/r/t pace and snaps. The team that does the best job staying on the field, scoring points on offense will usually have the better defensive performance.

TNElephantitis · Jan 23, 2018

RTR91 said:
Think this might be the bigger point. Defenses as a whole haven't caught up. Offenses are slowing down some and not attacking as much in order to help their own defense.

The best defense is keeping the other team's offense off the field. That is done by chewing clock and slowing the game down.

lowend · Jan 23, 2018

B1GTide said:
A one season decrease does not a trend make. Some defenses have caught up, but most have not come close.

Lots of the high powered offenses have suffered due to coaching turnover.

ROTYDE · Jan 23, 2018

Defense's are getting better at defending Those West coast offenses and the Spread.

Ole Man Dan · Jan 23, 2018

I would like to think the pendulum is swinging back toward strong Defenses.
In some ways it has. Teams have learned how to Defense the Spread, and how to Defense the Gus type Offense. To Defense the Gus Offenses you need a superior Defense and someone to pressure their QB and contain their running game. Sounds simple, but you have to have speed, and players stay in their lanes. YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE BIGGER, FASTER ATHLETES WHO WANT TO WIN MORE THAN ANYTHING.

RTR91 · Jan 24, 2018

lowend said:
Lots of the high powered offenses have suffered due to coaching turnover.

This is another point. So many teams have lost their OC to another school to become HC, which has caused some issues.

Don't think we can simply look at the numbers and point to one particular thing that has caused the small drop in one year.

bamaslammer · Jan 24, 2018

rgw said:
Another factor is that officiating has gotten better at stopping substitution and quick snap ploys by the offense. A few years ago, there was a lot of hay made by offensive coaches by getting a big play with a personnel group then mass subbing a completely different personnel grouping that mismatches your personnel without a chance to respond.

In my opinion the so called offensive revolution was nothing more than Freeze/Malzhan and some of the other high school coaches that entered the game brought rampant purposeful cheating to the game. That's practically normal at the high school level but never gets addressed because the losers have nowhere to turn (ask me if I'm still ....ed because of a McAdory High School game in 1983, hint: I am) Once the refs started looking harder at the lineman down field on RPO's and prevented the offense from snapping after a substituion the "revolution" ended.

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