Cousins is good, his turnover timing is bad

by Georgia Spartan on Oct 12, 2011 9:34 AM CDT

I'm stuck in SEC country....thank goodness for B10 channel and ESPN3.

I was surprised when I looked at MSU's stats for the year and saw only three fumbles lost and four interceptions. While watching the games it has felt like a lot more. When I looked at the timing of the turnovers, it became very clear why some fans have been upset at Cousins while coaches and Cousins both keep saying he is playing very effectively.

I think coaches are seeing that he is racking up passing yards and has a good passer efficiency. Therefore he is moving the offense and keeping the offense on the field.

To state the obvious -- I think it is not the number of turnovers but timing of turnovers that has really hurt. Just a brief overview of all of MSU's turnovers so far this year. Keshawn Martin fumbled a punt return against Youngstown State on the YSU 41. This turnover hurt, but is the exception this year. It is exceptional because Cousins committed the other 6 turnovers.

Of the 7 turnovers committed by MSU this year (including Martin's - not including fake field goal at ND that turned ball over on downs), all were lost in enemy territory. Meaning we had good field position every time the ball was lost. 2 of the 7 turnovers were inside the opposing team's 7 yard line (OSU interception and ND interception). 4 of the other turnovers (including Martin's) were close enough that they should have resulted in a score...but obviously did not. Taken together this means that of our 7 turnovers, only 1 turnover happened when MSU was not on a drive that looked like it would result in a score (that one turnover was a third and 10 interception by Central Michigan on the CM 47).

My thought is the reason that fans are so upset about Cousins this year is not that he is turning the ball over too much (4 interceptions is about average for the Big 10), he is really just turning it over when the team is in very good scoring positions. This is killing both scoring opportunites and my feeble heart. I hope the offense can clean this up and turn these scoring opportunity turnovers into scores.

This is a FanPost, written by a member of the TOC community. It does not represent the official positions of The Only Colors, Inc.--largely because we have no official positions.

Tweet Comment 2 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Aberration?

100% of turnovers occurring in enemy territory has to be some sort of statistical aberration. As far as I can figure, there’s no greater likelihood of committing a turnover depending on your position on the field (I’d be interested to see the figures on that, though), so the fact that all of ours have occurred across the 50 seems like terrible luck. And you would think that’s the sort of thing that balances out over the rest of the season.

"It was worth it. Every needle, every dose of medicine that I've taken. That's why you play the game. A chance to be on a Final Four team, a chance to win championships." Delvon Roe

by Ducking Delvon on Oct 12, 2011 3:15 PM CDT reply actions

On the other hand

turnovers in your end of the field may not kill a near-certain scoring chance for you, but they set up one for the opponent. I’m not really sure either is better than the other.

I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.

by SpartanDan on Oct 12, 2011 4:37 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs