Digging into the numbers from CLU's 16-7 win over Chapman:
Tough to score against: If you're thinking CLU has never played defense quite like it's playing right now, you're almost right.
Saturday's win over Chapman marked the third time this year that CLU has held an opponent to seven points. The Kingsmen have not had three such games in a season since moving to NCAA Division III in 1991. Nor, as a Division III program, have they had a five-game stretch in which they held opponents to 14 points or less, as is the case during their current five-game win streak.
To find comparable accomplishments, you have to go well back in the CLU record book. The last time CLU had three games allowing seven points or less in a single season was back in 1985, when a 6-5 campaign included a 28-7 win over Sonoma State, a 34-7 defeat of Western New Mexico, and a 24-3 defeat of St. Mary's. The last time the Kingsmen did it more than three times was in 1982, when the Kingsmen had three shutouts and a 21-7 win over Humboldt State. That team started the season 5-0, and allowed just 32 points in those wins to better the 48 points allowed in the current streak.
Still, since the first game in 1982 was a 34-16 win over Occidental, you have go go back another year to match, and better, the five straight games allowing 14 points or less.
The 1981 Kingsmen, who started 0-2, won their last eight games and never allowed more than 14 points in the process, giving up a total of just 65 points during the streak.
So CLU has played defense like this before. But it's been decades.
Tough to move against: The 139 yards allowed was not a CLU record -- the Kingsmen allowed just 26 yards to Caltech back on Oct. 30, 1965 -- but it is a fairly rare accomplishment. Football box scores are available on CLU's athletic website, clusports.com, back as far as the 2001 season, and Saturday's total equaled the low figure in the 69 games for which yardage stats are available. (The Kingsmen also allowed just 139 yards in beating Menlo 54-0 on Oct. 8, 2005).
Put another way, CLU has held opponents to less than 200 yards three times this season (Pacific Lutheran finished with 186 yards and Whittier had 192). In the previous seven seasons, CLU held opponents under 200 yards just five times, and never did it more than once in a season.
Tough to reach the end zone: Saturday's game was the second time this season CLU has won 16-7 -- the Kingsmen did it earlier against Pacific Lutheran -- but such low-scoring games have been a rarity during CLU's SCIAC era. In fact, since joining the SCIAC in 1992, CLU has only played in six lower scoring games: a 10-9 win over Azusa Pacific and a 14-3 defeat of Whittier in the first two games of the 1993 season; a 9-0 loss to Pomona-Pitzer in 1995, a 10-6 win over Chapman in 1996, a 6-0 overtime win over Occidental in 2002, and a 14-7 loss to Willamette last year.