Morning Jolt (Jan. 22): In 2015, scoring in Texas high school football was...

Football is an offensive game these days, right? Spread offense this, wide-open attack that, nobody plays defense such-and-such. Then why is it that scoring was down in Texas high school football last year? Huh? Answer me that! OK, while it may be true, it may also be a bit disingenuous. Let's go to the data. Texas high school football teams averaged 27.82 points per game in 2015, which is, in fact, a decline from 2014, when teams averaged 28.29 points per game. That's a whopping 1.6 percent drop in scoring! But focusing on the small sample will not give you a full view of the situation — and that situation is decidedly in favor of offense. Since 2003, the average scoring in Texas high school football has increased from 22.73 points per game to 27.82 points — even with this past year's decline, that's still a 22 percent increase in offense in the past 12 seasons. Put visually, if you were to map out the trend, it'd look like this: Scoring with trendline So, was scoring down in Texas high school football in 2015? It sure was! But that's a decided exception to an otherwise explosive rule.