Kansas vs. Northern Illinois Tale of the Tape

	National	Conf	Actual	Category	Actual	Conf	National
Advantage	Rank	Rank				Rank	Rank
Kansas	7		301.00	Rushing Offense	289		9
Northern Ill.	89		146	Passing Offense	220		61
Northern Ill.	39		447	Total Offense	509		14
Northern Ill.	27		42	Scoring Offense	49		15
Kansas	38		95	Rushing Defense	303		110
Northern Ill.	93		158.28	Pass Efficiency Defense	107.58		47
Northern Ill.	84		420	Total Defense	409		79
Kansas	66		24	Scoring Defense	26		71
Kansas	11		45	Net Punting	37		60
Northern Ill.	84		0	Punt Returns	13		25
Northern Ill.	92		17.2	Kickoff Returns	19.5		72
Northern Ill.	28		1(?)	Turnover Margin	1		28
Northern Ill.	100		325	Pass Defense	106		14
Kansas	2		291.64	Passing Efficiency	199.92		11
Kansas	24		3	Sacks	1		67
Kansas	8		10	Tackles For Loss	8		22
Kansas	28		1	Sacks Allowed	1		28

Northern Illinois probably has the overall advantage from a numbers standpoint but it is a one game sample and they definitely had Army in a situation where they really can't compete.  The boys from West Point don't have a lot going for them when they are down and things tend to snowball. 

At the same time Kansas played an FCS opponent so we have to take that with a grain of salt as well.  That said, it sure is refreshing to see some oft those numbers and rankings reflect such a sharp turnaround from a year ago.  I can't place the Kansas forced turnover at the moment in my head so I gave the nod to NIU on that one. 

Overall it's great to see the ground game ranked so high.  Even thought the yardage is pretty average the passing game does check in at a very high efficiency and the two combined is exactly the formula that is going to win Kansas football games.  Throw in the positive signs on defense in terms of sacks, tackles for a loss and defending the run and things don't look half bad.  There is definitely work to be done in terms of the pass defense but all in all this is a MUCH better picture than this time a year ago.