So I woke up yesterday thinking, man, that Fresno State vs. UNLV game last weekend was kinda wild. Wanted to see why, you know? Just peek under the hood a bit. Figured I’d try pulling apart some player stats myself, see what jumped out. Felt like poking around.
Where I Started
First thing, obviously, I needed the raw numbers. Hopped online looking for official stats. Took longer than I thought – why are these things sometimes buried? Anyway, finally grabbed the box score and some deeper player performance pages for both teams. Opened up a big, ugly spreadsheet on my laptop. Ready to dump stuff in there.
Started simple. Just tossed in the basics for the main offensive guys:
- Who threw the ball? How often? How many landed right? How many… well, didn’t?
- Who ran the ball? How many times they got handed it, and what happened then?
- The guys catching it too – which ones actually caught something?
Punched it all in manually, like a total caveman. Typing ‘Shough, 17-for-28, 245 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT’. Takes ages, feels kinda dumb, but hey, you gotta see it all laid out.
What Got Messy
Okay, numbers are in, right? Now… what the heck do they actually tell me? Just staring at rows. Need comparisons. So I started sorting stuff. Who threw the most? Who ran the farthest per try? Who caught the most passes?
Made a mess of my sheet at first. Tried making different columns – one for Fresno QBs, one for UNLV RBs… got confusing. Tabs are my friend. Created separate tabs for Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers. Better. Felt less like my brain was melting.
Also realized some numbers are weird alone. Total yards? Okay, but how many plays did it take? So I started adding little calculated columns: yards per pass, yards per carry. Basic math, but stuff the raw stats don’t always scream at you.
The “Oh, Huh” Bits
Sorting stuff started giving me that “aha, maybe?” feeling in spots.
- Noticed Fresno’s running game seemed WAY more efficient than just looking at total yards first told me. That one guy – I forget the name exactly in the mess – kept popping up with solid runs when they needed a few yards.
- UNLV’s quarterback? Seemed like he threw the dang ball a ton. Lots of attempts, but the whole ‘yards per throw’ thing? Kinda low. Made me think maybe they were stuck passing because they couldn’t get going running the ball? Dunno for sure.
- Then the interceptions… OUCH. Seeing those INTs listed right next to the completion numbers? Really stuck out. Felt like maybe that swung the game hard at certain points. Which team made the big mistake when it counted?
Wrapping It Up (Sort Of)
After a solid hour or two of clicking, typing, sorting, muttering at my screen… the sheet wasn’t pretty, but it told a story. Didn’t have some grand conclusion, just a clearer picture. You see who the busy guys were, who made plays when pressured, who maybe had a rougher day. The numbers don’t lie, but you gotta pull them apart to hear ’em talk.
Honestly? Kinda satisfying just doing the grunt work yourself. Feels different than reading someone else’s take. Might be the dumbest, most obvious stuff to a real expert, but for me? It clicked. Not the whole puzzle, but a few more pieces. That’s good enough for a Sunday afternoon project.
