Will Offensive Pace Matter in the Rose Bowl?

Man, I can't get my head around how Oklahoma scores so many points (other than they are really, really good at creating big plays).  When you break down Bill Connelly's advanced stats on Oklahoma, they are first in the nation in offensive explosiveness and efficiency. That is borne out when you consider the faced the third fewest 3rd down attempts in the nation with 144. For comparison sake, Georgia faced 165.

That is  an offense that is very effective at staying in front of the chains. When you factor in their 66 conversions and their 12 fourth down conversions, they are only giving the ball back a shade over 25% of the time when you get them to 3rd down.

That's around 11 3rd downs per game for Oklahoma, with 2 punts per game. They punt at a rate of .4 per offensive score.

Yet they run a pedestrian 75 plays per game.

So, they just line up and run plays until they score. If it takes two plays or 12 plays, they don't care. They'll get theirs.

I know this isn't freshly plowed ground, but it is starting to freak me out. The two things keeping me together are

1. Georgia's offense is specifically designed to eat clock while breaking the will of an opponent, and 
2. We've faced a similar offense twice this season in Auburn.

Is it too soon to start packing for Pasadena?

T

Tweet