LSU defeated the Missouri Tigers 49-39 in a wildly fluctuating and thoroughly entertaining college game I’m week 6.
In fact, such was scoreboard ticking over that broadcasters ESPN must have been wishing for more time to regroup and get their analysis team on top of the game.
Towards the end of the match, when discussing Missouri being down with 42-39 with 1:15 left on the clock, there was a key decision to be made.
Bob Wischusen and Robert Griffin didn’t quite gel with the ESPN Analytics department when it came to working out the odds on whether the Missouri team should go for a punt or a field goal.
Here is some of their commentary, and remember the graphics team were not quite helping:
Wischusen started the analysis with:
“It has to be a two percent chance or less” (of converting a 4th and 32, without showing those numbers), and suggesting there was “better than a two percent chance” of success from the punt strategy (again, without showing those numbers).
Griffin then says, “I ran the numbers, beep, boop, boop, boop, boop, and yeah, it’s higher to punt the ball away and try to have the defense get the ball back for you”.
Hardly sounds pinpoint accurate from ESPN.
The analytics department has some explaining to do, as the poor work left the veteran commentators making percentages up on the spot.
Regardless, the 23rd ranked LSU beat the 21st ranked Missouri team.
