08-27-2015, 04:35 PM
Cal did improve it's ppg allowed from dead last 45.9 to dead last 39.8. That's an improvement of 13.2%. Then again, we improved our ppg allowed from a league leading 19 ppg to a league leading 16.4 ppg, an improvement of 13.7%.
They also improved their total yards allowed from a dead last 529.6 to a dead last 511.8, though that's only an improvement of 3.4%, and probably not statistically significant (I didn't run the analysis). We improved our ypg allowed from a second-place 343.5 ypg to a league leading 282.4 ypg. That's an improvement of 17.8%, which I suspect is statistically significant.
Where Cal did show a substantial improvement is in yards per play. They went from 7.08 ypp to 6.27, an improvement of 11.4%. Perhaps more importantly, Cal escaped the cellar in 2014. Of course we went from 4.86 ypp (second) to 4.21 ypp (a 13.4% improvement).
Bottom line is that for all of the raves of Cal's defensive improvement last year, we actually improved more in a relative sense. Just we gave up many fewer points, yards, and yards per play so we had a much lower base to improve over.
BC
They also improved their total yards allowed from a dead last 529.6 to a dead last 511.8, though that's only an improvement of 3.4%, and probably not statistically significant (I didn't run the analysis). We improved our ypg allowed from a second-place 343.5 ypg to a league leading 282.4 ypg. That's an improvement of 17.8%, which I suspect is statistically significant.
Where Cal did show a substantial improvement is in yards per play. They went from 7.08 ypp to 6.27, an improvement of 11.4%. Perhaps more importantly, Cal escaped the cellar in 2014. Of course we went from 4.86 ypp (second) to 4.21 ypp (a 13.4% improvement).
Bottom line is that for all of the raves of Cal's defensive improvement last year, we actually improved more in a relative sense. Just we gave up many fewer points, yards, and yards per play so we had a much lower base to improve over.
BC