According to this, MSU had the 14th fastest paced offense in CFB last season.......

[Saltydog]

Didn't realize we were that high up on the rung....

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...astest-slowest

[msstate7]

Did the faster pace offense have something to do with our defense being down?

[Really Clark?]

Did the faster pace offense have something to do with our defense being down?

It contributed to it as well as the philosphy of the 1A/1B to help offset the number of plays the defensive players were on the field.

[missouridawg]

Did the faster pace offense have something to do with our defense being down?

Some of our defensive passing stats can also be attributed to having lots of large 4th quarter leads. Take LSU for instance.... What percentage of their yards gained were on Hail Marys? They completed two of them.

[Todd4State]

Did the faster pace offense have something to do with our defense being down?

I honestly don't think so. I think the 1A/1B philosophy hurt more than anything, along with our safeties going down. We also had the ability to slow it down and grind on people if we needed to.

[Todd4State]

Some of our defensive passing stats can also be attributed to having lots of large 4th quarter leads. Take LSU for instance.... What percentage of their yards gained were on Hail Marys? They completed two of them.

I was at the LSU game and I actually considered going on the sideline and asking Dan what the hell he was thinking.

[Todd4State]

I actually am OK with us playing up tempo. In theory it should actually help our defense since half of our division plays HUNH- Texas A&M, Auburn, and Ole Miss. Plus, Saban hates defending against it and he doesn't seem to stop it as well as the conventional pro-style offenses. I think Kentucky uses it some too- although they're so bad it's hard to tell what they're going for sometimes.

[Todd4State]

Looking at that list, I'm shocked that we are ahead of the three HUNH school in our division. To me, it doesn't seem like we go all that fast compared to the other three.

[DancingRabbit]

Did the faster pace offense have something to do with our defense being down?

I would think the opposite. We were middle of the pack in scoring defense, but near the bottom in total defense. Our defense couldn't get off the field. The old bend don't break defense keeps your own offense on the sideline.

While not appearing to be in full hurry-up mode, our offense always played with pace. Some of the HUNH offenses race to the line, but then look to the sideline, fart around and then run the clock down.

[Really Clark?]

I would think the opposite. We were middle of the pack in scoring defense, but near the bottom in total defense. Our defense couldn't get off the field. The old bend don't break defense keeps your own offense on the sideline.

While not appearing to be in full hurry-up mode, our offense always played with pace. Some of the HUNH offenses race to the line, but then look to the sideline, fart around and then run the clock down.

Actually I think you will find that teams who ran the most plays offensively also had some of the highest defensive plays as well. Part of a higher paced offense is you have quicker scores and some three and outs that doesn't run a lot of time off of the clock. Thus extending the game and requiring your defense to play more.

[DancingRabbit]

Actually I think you will find that teams who ran the most plays offensively also had some of the highest defensive plays as well. Part of a higher paced offense is you have quicker scores and some three and outs that doesn't run a lot of time off of the clock. Thus extending the game and requiring your defense to play more.

I think there's some truth to your point, but I don't agree entirely. Playing with pace doesn't necessarily mean big plays, quick scores or quick 3 and outs. MSU averaged 25.7 first downs per game which led the SEC. We tend to methodically march down the field but we do it with pace. Our downfall on offense last year was in the red zone.

With running the ball a lot and passing with a fairly high completion percentage, our offense didn't stop the clock a lot.

[Todd4State]

Actually I think you will find that teams who ran the most plays offensively also had some of the highest defensive plays as well. Part of a higher paced offense is you have quicker scores and some three and outs that doesn't run a lot of time off of the clock. Thus extending the game and requiring your defense to play more.

My personal theory on a lot of those HUNH teams and their defenses is they usually seem to tend to have offensive focused coaches that either don't pay attention to the defense enough or think that they can outscore everyone because they are a brilliant offensive mind. Like Mike Leach turning everyone into a slot WR.

[Really Clark?]

I think there's some truth to your point, but I don't agree entirely. Playing with pace doesn't necessarily mean big plays, quick scores or quick 3 and outs. MSU averaged 25.7 first downs per game which led the SEC. We tend to methodically march down the field but we do it with pace. Our downfall on offense last year was in the red zone.

With running the ball a lot and passing with a fairly high completion percentage, our offense didn't stop the clock a lot.

Go back and look at the top teams in the nation in first downs per game. Baylor, Oregon, Washington State, Ohio State, West Virginia, TCU, us, etc....see a pattern here? The pace of the offense dictates both sides of the ball. Look at Bama, until this year when they went up tempo their defense have not ran over 858 plays in a season. This last year 945 and was 771 plays in 2013. Their offense from 826 plays in 2013 to 1018 last year. Tempo effects both sides in amount of plays.

[Really Clark?]

My personal theory on a lot of those HUNH teams and their defenses is they usually seem to tend to have offensive focused coaches that either don't pay attention to the defense enough or think that they can outscore everyone because they are a brilliant offensive mind. Like Mike Leach turning everyone into a slot WR.

I think there is some truth to that but like I posted above, you know Saban is not about that and yet when they went up tempo their defensive plays went up as well.

[tireddawg]

Go back and look at the top teams in the nation in first downs per game. Baylor, Oregon, Washington State, Ohio State, West Virginia, TCU, us, etc....see a pattern here? The pace of the offense dictates both sides of the ball. Look at Bama, until this year when they went up tempo their defense have not ran over 858 plays in a season. This last year 945 and was 771 plays in 2013. Their offense from 826 plays in 2013 to 1018 last year. Tempo effects both sides in amount of plays.

Great post. Hammer meet nail

[dawgs]

Did the faster pace offense have something to do with our defense being down?

Our 1B secondary was mostly to blame. Also, look at per play defense. A much more accurate measure than total D these days.

[dawgs]

My personal theory on a lot of those HUNH teams and their defenses is they usually seem to tend to have offensive focused coaches that either don't pay attention to the defense enough or think that they can outscore everyone because they are a brilliant offensive mind. Like Mike Leach turning everyone into a slot WR.

Oregon has consistently been a top 20 D per play since kelly became the HC. Maybe not every year, but most years. Per play D is a much more accurate measure than total D. Just like adjusting for tempo gives a truer measure of offensive and defensive efficiency in basketball.