The final score shouldn't make blood leak out of your ears, but Detroit and Robert Morris -- two of the fastest teams in the nation over the last four seasons -- played a relatively controlled (for them) game in Moon Township this past weekend. The Colonials earned a valuable 11-7 victory over the Titans, evening Robert Morris' record while dropping Detroit's record to 1-2.
| METRIC | DETROIT | ROBERT MORRIS |
| Offensive Opportunities | 34 | 35 |
| Raw Offensive Efficiency | 20.59 | 31.43 |
| Raw Offensive Shooting Percentage | 15.91% | 29.73% |
| Shots per Offensive Opportunity | 1.29 | 1.06 |
| Turnovers per 100 Offensive Opportunities | 55.88 | 40.00 |
| Run-of-Play Groundballs per 100 Possessions | 11.59 | 27.54 |
| Saves per 100 Defensive Opportunities | 51.43 | 32.35 |
| Team Save Percentage | 62.07% | 61.11% |
Some very brief thoughts on this:
- The game could have gotten out of hand had Chris Kelly not stopped 18 shots from Robert Morris. The Colonials were the far superior offensive team on the day, but Kelly was an animal for the Titans between the pipes, generating saves at a high rate per defensive opportunity while helping to hold the Colonials to just over a shot per offensive opportunity.
- Detroit and turnovers are an awful couple but they refuse to break up and are actually talking about having kids together. A turnover rate above 45.00 is generally grounds to be shot out of a cannon, and the Titans' mark against Robert Morris has put Detroit into low orbit. The Colonials dominated the bean out of the Titans' possession, generating about 32 caused giveaways per every 100 Detroit offensive opportunities (this accounted for the majority of the Titans' turnovers). This is a disaster for maintaining any semblance of offensive efficiency.
- Detroit bombed the parking lot. Shooting only 16 percent while firing 1.3 shots per offensive opportunity at the cage -- or, more accurately, into the abyss -- isn't good news for a team that has capable offensive weapons.
- 69 total possessions is fast, but it's not blinding. I was kind of hoping for a more hectic atmosphere. Albany-Syracuse (with a very short overtime period) was played at 93 possessions earlier this season. The fact that Detroit-Robert Morris didn't rip a hole in space-time is disappointing.
- Not included in the table but bonkers enough to merit a mention: Mike Birney -- The Detroit Detonator -- shot 0.00 percent on 10 -- !!!! -- shots. Birney accounted for almost 23 percent of Detroit's shots against Robert Morris and didn't register one shot on goal. That's a tough day, one that ends with a sigh in a chair and a highball on the coffee table. Birney has a cannon, but he needs some control -- on the year, Birney is shooting just 17.9 percent and is putting only 25.0 percent of his shots on cage while taking over a quarter of the Titan's total attempts.