Looking over some numbers over the course of the run dating back to the 2010 season and a lot of the numbers are comparable but looking only at the numbers a few things stick out.

There are a few alarming numbers that worry me.

Penalties (# of penalties/penalty yardage/penalty yards per game):

2010 - 104/902/64.4
2011 - 83/722/48.1
2012 - 73/600/40.0
2013 - 73/610/40.9
2014 - 97/797/49.8
2015 - 77/686/45.7
2016 - 83/764/54.6

This coaching staff needs to get tougher on penalties. These are things that can be controlled and when looking at other offensive numbers from 2016 it just shows you that penalties killed a lot of scoring drives.

Rushing (total yards/yards per rush/yards per game):

2010 - 2440/4.5/174.3
2011 - 2599/4.9/173.3
2012 - 3052/4.8/203.5
2013 - 3860/5.9/257.3
2014 - 3764/5.2/235.2
2015 - 3551/5.0/236.7
2016 - 3372/5.7/240.9

I don't think the sky is falling in the rushing game. The numbers from the past year are good enough to win a championship as the team has done 4 times rushing for less per game. I'm actually a little more concerned about offensive balance.

Passing (Total yards/yards per attempt/avg per game):

2010 - 2142/7.0/153.0
2011 - 2591/7.7/172.7
2012 - 2501/7.0/203.5
2013 - 3002/8.3/200.1
2014 - 3152/8.7/197.0
2015 - 2795/7.8/186.3
2016 - 2339/8.0/167.1

None of the numbers really jump off the page here but what is disappointing is to see is total yards and yards per game trending downward. The yards per attempt number is good, meaning they are having success when they do pass. Numbers say the team should be passing a little bit more.

Scoring (Bison per game/Opponent per game):

2010 - 25.4/18.2
2011 - 31.3/12.7
2012 - 33.0/11.5
2013 - 38.7/11.3
2014 - 32.9/14.1
2015 - 34.9/15.3
2016 - 29.1/16.6

The alarming thing here is the combination of the ppg dropping by over 5 points coupled with the trend of allowing more ppg on defense. Which points to another area the Bison need to work on.

TOP:

2010 - 29:14
2011 - 30:44
2012 - 34:21
2013 - 33:40
2014 - 34:04
2015 - 36:39
2016 - 31:51

That's right! The Bison's TOP dropped by almost 5:00 per game.

There are a few more numbers but basically I think the defense just needed to use this year to gain some experience and to get better. Hopefully next year they will be able to get off the field.

(Last one, I promise)

3rd Down % (Bison/Opponent):

2010 - 29%/34%
2011 - 43%/37%
2012 - 51%/29%
2013 - 55%/26%
2014 - 48%/32%
2015 - 47%/26%
2016 - 46%/40%

The defense was not getting off the field on 3rd down like it had in previous years, which affects the TOP, which affects scoring, which affects wins/losses.