[CTcard]

Stanford is tied for 31st nationally with 6.0 yards per play.

Last year, the team finished ranked 18th with 6.3 yards per play.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-foo...2018-10-12

I guess my point is that the offense, while very disappointing, is not quite yet statistically bad as a whole.

I don't trust teamrankings here. My impression is that cfbstats.com is usually pretty accurate.
They have Stanford with 6.02 yds/play (consistent with the overly rounded 6.0 on teamrankings), but at #51 nationally. 
Others seem off, e.g. Clemson's official site says 7.5 yds/play, matching cfbstats but not teamrankings.


But the point is to note that there are considerable problems with yds/play as an overall measure to compare different offenses. It is true that as a rate stat it can address differences in pace of play, which is a big issue in comparing Stanford to others. However, it also has a big component in style of play. So, offense A that has two, 10-play 60 yard TD drives manages 6.0 yds/play. Offense B has two drives, one a 60 yd TD run and then a three plays, four yards then a punt, averages 16 yds/play. I'd say offense A is better, but offense B beats offense A in yds/play by more than a factor of 2.

Yards and points per possession is really the best comparison stat. Unfortunately that's relatively hard to find. bcftoys.com has some per drive stats - focussing on points per drive. Stanford currently is at 2.13 points/drive, which comes in at #68 in the country.
http://www.bcftoys.com/2018-ppd/

[CTcard]

Stanford is tied for 31st nationally with 6.0 yards per play.

Last year, the team finished ranked 18th with 6.3 yards per play.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-foo...2018-10-12

I guess my point is that the offense, while very disappointing, is not quite yet statistically bad as a whole.

I don't trust teamrankings here. My impression is that cfbstats.com is usually pretty accurate.
They have Stanford with 6.02 yds/play (consistent with the overly rounded 6.0 on teamrankings), but at #51 nationally. 
Others seem off, e.g. Clemson's official site says 7.5 yds/play, matching cfbstats but not teamrankings.


But the point is to note that there are considerable problems with yds/play as an overall measure to compare different offenses. It is true that as a rate stat it can address differences in pace of play, which is a big issue in comparing Stanford to others. However, it also has a big component in style of play. So, offense A that has two, 10-play 60 yard TD drives manages 6.0 yds/play. Offense B has two drives, one a 60 yd TD run and then a three plays, four yards then a punt, averages 16 yds/play. I'd say offense A is better, but offense B beats offense A in yds/play by more than a factor of 2.

Yards and points per possession is really the best comparison stat. Unfortunately that's relatively hard to find. bcftoys.com has some per drive stats - focussing on points per drive. Stanford currently is at 2.13 points/drive, which comes in at #68 in the country.
http://www.bcftoys.com/2018-ppd/