Yards per game is a statistic which, much like passing yards, can be meaningful, but it can also be empty. Teams can gobble up yards in garbage time, when trailing by 20 points. That doesn’t mean anything.
Teams can drive 75 yards but then stall in the red zone and kick a 22-yard field goal. If drives aren’t finished, yards lose a large measure of their value.
Of course, yards can reflect territorial and overall dominance. If one team has 450 yards and the other team has 275, chances are the team with 450 will win the vast majority of the time. Over larger spans of time, yardage averages mean progressively more … but after only five weeks of Pac-12 football, this might not be as clear-cut as it seems.
Here are the Pac-12 yardage leaders through Week 5: