3rd down defense vs YPP

[skurey]

Listed are the top 10 3rd down defenses. Their rank in defensive YPP are in parentheses.

1. Michigan (4)
2. Washington State (17)
3. Syracuse (96)
4. Virginia Tech (20)
5. Northern Illinois (12)
6. Georgia Tech (42)
7. TCU (26)
8. Texas (31)
9. Clemson (5)
10. Wisconsin (2)

One of these is not like the others.

 

[Orangepace]

One of these is not like the others.

Northern Illinois is not in a P5 conference. What do I win?

 

[TheCusian]

Listed are the top 10 3rd down defenses. Their rank in defensive YPP are in parentheses.

1. Michigan (4)
2. Washington State (17)
3. Syracuse (96)
4. Virginia Tech (20)
5. Northern Illinois (12)
6. Georgia Tech (42)
7. TCU (26)
8. Texas (31)
9. Clemson (5)
10. Wisconsin (2)

One of these is not like the others.

Makes it more impressive, imo.

 

[sufandu]

Listed are the top 10 3rd down defenses. Their rank in defensive YPP are in parentheses.

1. Michigan (4)
2. Washington State (17)
3. Syracuse (96)
4. Virginia Tech (20)
5. Northern Illinois (12)
6. Georgia Tech (42)
7. TCU (26)
8. Texas (31)
9. Clemson (5)
10. Wisconsin (2)

One of these is not like the others.

Yeah. We need a stat that reflects how often a team picked up a first down on first or second down. WF has to be the extreme for us, but only 8 of their 33 first downs were third down conversions.

 

[TheCusian]

Yeah. We need a stat that reflects how often a team picked up a first down on first or second down. WF has to be the extreme for us, but only 8 of their 33 first downs were third down conversions.

bend don't break until 3rd down - then get off the field. worked ok until this last week

 

[sufandu]

bend don't break until 3rd down - then get off the field. worked ok until this last week

Giving up first down yardage on first and second down is not bending. It's breaking.

 

[TheCusian]

Giving up first down yardage on first and second down is not bending. It's breaking.

Ideally, sure. But true "bend, don't break" is about keeping teams from scoring eventually during the drive. That's 10000% why we've been in more games this year.

 

[sufandu]

Ideally, sure. But true "bend, don't break" is about keeping teams from scoring eventually during the drive. That's 10000% why we've been in more games this year.

A bend but don't break defense should have a good defensive points per play stat. Lots of plays ending with few points. We're 96th in the country. It feels better than it is because it was so bad last year. 2017 - .439, 2016 - .553. Our third down percentage stat is a bit of fools gold. Our yards per point is 84th at 13.7. Last year we were at 12.9 (fewer yards is worse).

Incidentally, Louisville is 95th, .003 better than us.

We're improving, but not good yet.

 

[TheCusian]

A bend but don't break defense should have a good defensive points per play stat. Lots of plays ending with few points. We're 96th in the country. It feels better than it is because it was so bad last year. 2017 - .439, 2016 - .553. Our third down percentage stat is a bit of fools gold. Our yards per point is 84th at 13.7. Last year we were at 12.9 (fewer yards is worse).

Incidentally, Louisville is 95th, .003 better than us.

We're improving, but not good yet.

I hear ya.

I didn’t say we are good. I said our 3rd down defense has kept us close with everyone until last week. This combined with our tempo and going for it on 4th down has helped mask our continued growing pains.

 

[SmilinBob]

Curious on how or if they break down the 3 and 10+ 3rd and 9 3rd and 8 and so on. SU seems to do well on 3rd and short which may also be quite the anomaly.

 

[Ish88888]

Listed are the top 10 3rd down defenses. Their rank in defensive YPP are in parentheses.

1. Michigan (4)
2. Washington State (17)
3. Syracuse (96)
4. Virginia Tech (20)
5. Northern Illinois (12)
6. Georgia Tech (42)
7. TCU (26)
8. Texas (31)
9. Clemson (5)
10. Wisconsin (2)

One of these is not like the others.

Yea great, Whats the point? Wake never made it to 3rd down last week. Brutal stat to bring up this week.

 

[skurey]

Yea great, Whats the point? Wake never made it to 3rd down last week. Brutal stat to bring up this week.

If you can't see the point that's on you.

 

[SWC75]

Dino said on his show that we do so well on 3rd down because we do so well on 1st and 2nd down.

From my "Winning Plays" post, here is the offensive and defensive breakdowns of how we do on each down. The criteria is that for a first down you want to get at least a third of the way to a first down, on second down you want to get at least halfway and on third and fourth down you want to at least get the first down. On defense, you want to prevent the other team from achieving those goals

OFFENSE
1st down: 176-192 (47.8%)
2nd down: 119-163 (42.2%)
3rd down: 88-113 (43.8%)
4th down: 20-11 (64.5% - we are 14-1 running for it)

DEFENSE
1st down: 156-155 (50.6%)
2nd down: 104-125 (45.4%)
3rd down: 94-41 (69.6%)
4th down: 6-5 (54.5% - we are 3-2 when they run for it)

Our success on offensive 4th down runs and defensive third downs seems unusual when compared to our success on other plays.