Where the Pack is ranked, statistically

It's a bit early for these rankings to mean much, but here's where the Pack ranks nationally in several key categories after two games, courtesy NCAAsports.com:

TEAM RANKINGS
119 teams ranked in Football Bowl Subdivision
Category	National Rank	Actual
Rushing Offense	109	78.00
Passing Offense	94	153.50
Total Offense	116	231.50
Scoring Offense	100	17.00
Rushing Defense	75	143.00
Pass Efficiency Defense	50	108.84
Total Defense	61	336.00
Scoring Defense	86	29.00
Net Punting	16	39.40
Punt Returns	51	10.83
Kickoff Returns	106	15.00
Turnover Margin	T-25	1.00
Pass Defense	51	193.00
Passing Efficiency	106	89.95
Sacks	4	4.00
Tackles For Loss	37	6.50
Sacks Allowed	T-69	2.00

(Continues)

Again, it's early, but you can't feel good about posting three-digit numbers in 5 of 17 categories. It's not surprising, though, that 4 of those are offensive rankings given how badly we've played on that side of the ball.

Some encouraging numbers are in there, though: 16th in punting, which is often overlooked in a team's success quotient. Its an even more impressive stat given just how much punting Bradley Pierson has had to do so far through two games. We'll hope that fatigue or "punter's leg" doesn't start to become a problem if our offense doesn't improve.

State's also showing fourth, nationally, in sacks at 4.00 per game. The strong rush is yielding dividends in the turnover margin, as well, as State is tied in 25th at +1 per game.

So kudos all around to Mike Archer and the performance of the defense thus far. Hopefully with the return of Russell Wilson at QB we'll see improvement offensively and start to turn this thing around and headed in the right direction.