[BostonCard]

[quote author=Boston Card link=topic=18293.msg217294#msg217294 date=1512582011]
Was the surprise related to Stanford's offensive efficiency being the same in both U$C games or that both of those were just above our average?

The surprise to me was that the two were the same.
WIM pointed out one possible reason why. Perhaps another was that the first game was very early on when I still had preseason-fantasy hopes for the team.
[/quote]

I assume you are thinking the first game seemed to be worse than the second.  Part of that is likely because we seemed to be dominated at the line of scrimmage by USC's defensive line, at a time when we thought our offensive line was good (it wound up being pretty good, but it took some position switching to get us there).  So, we probably had a larger proportion of plays that failed, interrupted by a couple of brobdingnagian Love runs.  Also, I think because the defense was so overmatched in that game, the game was out of reach early.  In the championship, the game overall was closer, even though the offensive scoring, and yardage were about the same (28 vs. 24 points, 343 vs. 342 total yards, 5.7 vs. 6.3 yards per play).  But, the offensive line, while it wasn't perfect, did perform better against USC's defense, and we were able to sustain more drives, plus the outcome was in doubt longer.

BC

[BostonCard]

[quote author=Boston Card link=topic=18293.msg217294#msg217294 date=1512582011]
Was the surprise related to Stanford's offensive efficiency being the same in both U$C games or that both of those were just above our average?

The surprise to me was that the two were the same.
WIM pointed out one possible reason why. Perhaps another was that the first game was very early on when I still had preseason-fantasy hopes for the team.
[/quote]

I assume you are thinking the first game seemed to be worse than the second.  Part of that is likely because we seemed to be dominated at the line of scrimmage by USC's defensive line, at a time when we thought our offensive line was good (it wound up being pretty good, but it took some position switching to get us there).  So, we probably had a larger proportion of plays that failed, interrupted by a couple of brobdingnagian Love runs.  Also, I think because the defense was so overmatched in that game, the game was out of reach early.  In the championship, the game overall was closer, even though the offensive scoring, and yardage were about the same (28 vs. 24 points, 343 vs. 342 total yards, 5.7 vs. 6.3 yards per play).  But, the offensive line, while it wasn't perfect, did perform better against USC's defense, and we were able to sustain more drives, plus the outcome was in doubt longer.

BC