Midweek Stat Tracker: 11.4.09

Another week has come and gone, and unfortunately the stats this week aren't as strong as they were last year. Duke's Thaddeus Lewis and his top passing offense in the conference (5th in the nation) tore through our former 5th ranked in the nation passing defense. How does this affect this week's numbers?

The numbers are not looking good this week, Hoos. The only gems on the chart from last week were our pass efficiency defense and pass defense. We're obviously still respectable in these categories, but we've seen that it may not necessarily be our defense that's doing the work, so much as our opponents just not focusing on the passing game (for example, Georgia Tech was not exactly looking to take it to the air).

But wow, look at that offense. We rank 116th in total offense, dead last in the conference. There are only 120 FBS teams, folks.

What's interesting for the ACC as a whole, though, is that Virginia is ranked 105th in rushing offense and 100th in passing offense. That's the 15th and 20th lowest in the country. But oddly enough, there are two teams below us in the ACC in rushing offense and THREE teams below us in passing offense. If the ACC wants to avoid being labeled as, well, the Big East, we've really got to get our act together. It's not as though the conference is known to be a defensive powerhouse.

Something to worry about is that while we rank 101st in the nation in tackles for loss, at 4.63, Miami is actually 9th in the country in this same category, at 7.75. That's a pretty big difference. Virginia D will need to step it up this weekend if they want to keep Miami's offense on their toes.