Winning Plays- Boston College

[SWC75]

THE SYSTEM: The offense wins a play if they get a third of the way to a first down on first down, half way to a first down on second down or gets a first down on third or fourth down. Otherwise the defense wins. Any score is a win for the team that scores. Any turnover is a win for the team that winds up with the ball. The kicking team wins a kick-off where the other team winds up with the ball from their own 25 in to their goal line: outside of that and the receiving team won. The kicking team wins any punt that produces a new +40 yard change in the line of scrimmage or forces the other team to begin from their 20 yard line in. Any successful place kick is a win for the kicking team. I’ve put the yards to go in parenthesis if it’s other than 10 yards. Penalties are simply tacked onto the play before the play is evaluated if they didn’t nullify it. If the penalty did nullify the play or was a dead ball foul, it’s listed separately.

When Syracuse had the ball:

KO- Touchdown, BC 14 SU 1 BC 1
P- 47 to BC 27, 30 to BC 40, 39 to BC 25, 34 to BC 22, 40 to BC 45, 18 to BC 12, 33 to BC 10, 46 to BC 20, 45 to BC 34 SU 6 BC 3
FG- none
XP- GOOD SU 1 BC 0
Total for kicking game: Syracuse 8 Boston College 4

1st rush- 2, 1, 1, 16, 5, 6, 4TD, -25, -1, 0, 1, 0, 1 SU 3 BC 9
1st pass- I, 9, 14, 9, 8, I, 7 SU 5 BC 2
First Down total: Syracuse 8 Boston College 11
2nd rush- 0, 29(9),2, 3(1), 6(5), 11(35), 6(21), 6, 0, 1(2) SU 5 BC 5
2nd pass- I, 11, I, I, 5(9), I SU 2 BC 4
Second Down total: Syracuse 7 Boston College 9
3rd run- 1(4), 4(1), -4 SU 1 BC 2
3rd pass- -7, I, I, -6, I, I, -10, 3(4) SU 0 BC 8
Third Down total: Syracuse 1 Boston College 10
4th run- none
4th pass- none
Fourth Down total: none
Total for plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 16 Boston College 30
Running plays: Syracuse 9 Boston College 16
Passing plays: Syracuse 7 Boston College 14

Penalties (not added on to play): SU 10, 10, BC 5, 15 SU 2 BC 2
Turnovers: Interception, Interception SU 0 BC 2

Total for penalties and turnovers: Syracuse 2 Boston College 4

Total when Syracuse had the ball: Syracuse 26 Boston College 38


When Boston College had the ball:

KO- SU 31, SU 30, SU 20, SU 26, SU 25 SU 3 BC 2
P- 40 to SU 29, 49 to SU 4, 31 to BC 43, 24 to BC 46, 41 to SU 25, 44 to SU 7 SU 2 BC 4
FG- No Good from 36 SU 1 BC 0
XP- GOOD, GOOD, GOOD, GOOD SU 0 BC 4
Total for kicking game: Syracuse 6 Boston College 10

1st rush- 4, -3, 5, -2, 11, 9(21), 2, 3, 3, -3, 12, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, -1, 5, 2, 3, 1, 2(9), -2v SU 16, BC 6
1st pass- 13(5), 7, 26,TD, 5, 15 SU 0 BC 5
First Down total: Syracuse 16 Boston College 11
2nd rush- -1, -4, 3(8), -1, 0, 18(8), 7TD, 5(8), 7TD, 5(8), 1(9), 3(11), 3(5), 42TD, 4(7), -2, 2(7) SU 9 BC 6
2nd pass- I, 14(13), 30(12), 9(7), 7(7), I SU 2 BC 4
Second Down total: Syracuse 11 Boston College 10
3rd run- 7(5), 0, 3(2), 5(3), 4(11), 0 SU 8 BC 5
3rd pass- I, -7, 5(8), -7, 15(3), I, 5(5) SU 5 BC 2
Third Down total: Syracuse 8 Boston College 5
4th run- 4(5) SU 1 BC 0
4th pass- -8, 9(3) SU 1 BC 1
Fourth Down total: Syracuse 2 Boston College 1
Total for plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 37 Boston College 27
Running plays: Syracuse 29 Boston Co9llege 15
Passing plays: Syracuse 8 Boston College 12

Penalties (not added on to play): SU 5, 10, 5, BC 11, 5 SU 2 BC 3
Turnovers: Fumble SU 1 BC 2
Total for penalties and turnovers: Syracuse 3 Boston College 3

Total when Boston College had the ball Syracuse 46 Boston College 40

Overall kicking game total: Syracuse 14 Boston College 14
Overall plays from scrimmage total: Syracuse 53 Boston College 57
Running plays: Syracuse 38 Boston College 31
Passing plays: Syracuse 15 Boston College 26
Overall penalties and turnovers: Syracuse 5 Boston College 7
Game Total: Syracuse 72 Boston College 78

Comments: This was not the Pittsburgh game, despite the similar score. In that game, Pittsburgh won 114 of 160 plays. This game was 72-78. We lost primarily because we were atrocious on third down 1-10. Of course we didn’t set ourselves up for third down conversions with effective first down rushing plays, (3-9). We also gave up that opening kickoff runback and eschewed a makeable field goal for a pooch punt. Sometimes that’s all it takes to lose by three touchdowns.

 

[SWC75]

TOTALS FOR YEAR

When SU had the ball:

KO- SU 27 OPP 210
P- SU 46 OPP 29
FG- SU 17 OPP 6
XP- SU 20 OPP 2
Total for kicking game: SU 110 OPP 58

1st rush- SU 104 OPP 102
1st pass- SU 50 OPP 65
First Down total: SU 154 OPP 167
2nd rush- SU 63 OPP 62
2nd pass- SU 54 OPP 79
Second Down total: SU 117 OPP 141
3rd run- SU 23 OPP 25
3rd pass- SU 37 OPP 88
Third Down total: SU 60 OPP 113
4th run- SU 4 OPP 2
4th pass-SU 2 OPP 4
Fourth Down total: SU 6 OPP 6
Total for plays from scrimmage: SU 337 OPP 427
Running plays: SU 194 OPP 191
Passing plays: SU 143 OPP 236

Penalties (not added onto play): SU 16 OPP 39 (penalties by the other team that each team benefited by)
Turnovers (by SU): SU 0 OPP 21
Total for penalties and turnovers: SU 14 OPP 56 16-60

Total when Syracuse had the ball: SU 463 OPP 545


When the Opposition had the Ball:

KO- SU 11 OPP 50
P- SU 17 OPP 46
FG- SU 5 OPP 19
XP- SU 1 OPP 31
Total for kicking game: SU 34 OPP 146

1st rush- SU 127 OPP 113
1st pass- SU 51 OPP 76
First Down total: SU 178 OPP 189
2nd rush- SU 62 OPP 87
2nd pass- SU 56 OPP 70
Second Down total: SU 118 OPP 157
3rd run- SU 30 OPP 39
3rd pass- SU 64 OPP 41
Third Down total: SU 94 OPP 80
4th run- SU 3 OPP 3
4th pass-SU 4 OPP 2
Fourth Down total: SU 7 OPP 5
Total for plays from scrimmage: SU 397 OPP 431
Running plays: SU 222 OPP 242
Passing plays: SU 175 OPP 189

Penalties (not added on to play): SU 44 OPP 23 (penalties by the other team that each team benefited by)
Turnovers: SU (got) 18 SU 19 OPP 0
Total for penalties and turnovers: SU 63 OPP 23

Total when the opposition had the ball: SU 494 OPP 600

Overall kicking game total: SU 144 OPP 204
Overall plays from scrimmage total: SU 734 OPP 870
Running plays: SU 416 OPP 445
Passing plays: SU 318 OPP 425
Overall penalties and turnovers: SU 80 OPP 83
Game Total: Syracuse 958 Opposition 1157

Comments: I like our kickers, Cole Murphy and Riley Dixon but we had a run of games against teams that seemed to have NFL caliber kickers and wound up -60 in the kicking game. But some of that was the kick returning game. Amazingly we got the same yardage on kickoff returns as our opposition (637)but we got kicked off to 64 times to their 51 times so that’s not really equal. The opposition has 329 punt return yards to our 167. They punted 63 times to our 76. We returned 20 punts, (26% of them). They returned 23 of them ((37%) and they averaged 14.3 yards per return to our 8.35. Check out the resulting differences in field positon, below.

We did OK rushing the ball (194-191) but poorly passing it (143-236), especially on third down 32-88. But it’s hard to pass on third down, (the opposition was 41-64), because the defense is expecting it. It helps is you avoid them or make them short enough that the threat of a run is there, (we were 23-25 on third down runs, meaning that we passed on third down 71% of the time. The opposition was 39-30 which means that only 60% of their third down plays were passes.

SEASON SUMMARY

VILLANOVA SU scrimmage: 29-36 VIL scrimmage: 40-46 Kicking: 17-11 PEN/TO: 5-10 Total: 91-103
C. MICHIGAN SU scrimmage: 41-36 CM scrimmage: 36-22 Kicking: 14-13 PEN/TO: 8-5 Total: 99-76
MARYLAND SU scrimmage: 41-34 MD scrimmage: 30-27 Kicking: 14-21 PEN/TO: 6-9 Total: 91-91
NOTRE DAME SU scrimmage: 29-37 ND scrimmage: 22-51 Kicking: 8-18 PEN/TO: 12-8 Total: 71-114
LOUISVILLE SU scrimmage: 23-37 LOU scrimmage: 30-37 Kicking: 9-21 PEN/TO: 9-5 Total: 71-100
FLORIDA STATE SU scrimmage: 34-31 FS scrimmage: 27-45 Kicking: 11-15 PEN/TO: 8-10 Total: 80-101
WAKE FOREST SU scrimmage: 32-36 FS scrimmage: 36-21 Kicking: 15-15 PEN/TO: 3-5 Total: 86-77
CLEMSON SU scrimmage: 19-41 FS scrimmage: 37-41 Kicking: 14-15 PEN/TO: 5-5 Total: 75-102
NC STATE SU scrimmage: 32-45 FS scrimmage: 39-29 Kicking: 14-20 PEN/TO: 7-7 Total: 92-101
DUKE SU scrimmage: 25-42 FS scrimmage: 40-24 Kicking: 8-24 PEN/TO: 5-8 Total: 78-98
PITTSBURGH SU scrimmage: 16-34 FS scrimmage: 17-58 Kicking: 6-18 PEN/TO: 7-4 Total: 46-114
BOSTON COLLEGE SU scrimmage: 16-30 FS scrimmage: 37-27 Kicking: 14-14 PEN/TO: 5-7 Total: 72-78

Comment: We don’t have as much talent as Notre Dame, Louisville, Florida State or Clemson but hung in there for most of those games anyway. We didn’t play well vs. Villanova, who is a very good FCS team. We have comparable talent to Maryland, NC State and Pittsburgh but didn’t play as well on those days, (with Pitt, it wasn’t close.). I think we were also comparable to Duke except we couldn’t match their superb kicking game. We were actually comparable to Boston College but couldn’t convert third downs and gave up a kickoff return TD. We were better than Central Michigan and Wake Forest. Of course you knew that but there it is in the numbers.

 

[SWC75]

I noted that against Louisville, both teams had 14 possessions and we had a combined 1,025 yards to go to score vs. 871 for Louisville. That to me was 154 yards of “hidden offense” the Cardinals didn’t have to generate to score. I decided to keep track of that stat for all the games this season:

Syracuse 9 possessions with 714 yards to go (average 79) Villanova 9/706 (78). +8 hidden yards for Villanova
Syracuse 11/746 (68) Central Michigan 11/865 (79) +119 hidden yards for Syracuse
Syracuse 13/1072 (82) Maryland 14/903 (64.5) +169 hidden yards for Maryland
Syracuse 12/909 (76) Notre Dame 13/930 (72) +21 hidden yards for Syracuse but +4 per possession for Notre Dame
Syracuse 14/1025 (73) Louisville 14/871 (62) +154 hidden yards for Louisville
Syracuse 11/711 (65) Florida State 11/748 (68) +37 hidden yards for Syracuse
Syracuse 12/918 (76.5) Wake Forest 13/913 (70) +5 hidden yards for Wake Forest but +6.5 per possession.
Syracuse 15/1092 (72.8) Clemson 15/976 (65.1)+116 hidden yards for Clemson
Syracuse 15/1122 (74.8) NC State 14/1009 (72.1) +113 hidden yards for NC State
Syracuse 15/1137 (75.8) Duke 14/897 (64.1) +240 hidden yards for Duke
Syracuse 11/857 (77.9) Pittsburgh 11/675 (61.4) +182 hidden yards for Pittsburgh
Syracuse 13/916 (70.5) Boston College (I’m going to count their kick-off return as starting on the Syracuse goal line- zero yards to go) 13/890 (68.46) +26 hidden yards for Boston College

Overall, we’ve had 151 possessions with a total of 11,219 yards to go, an average of 74. The opposition has had 152 possessions with a total of 10,383 yards to go, an average of 68. All told we had to go 836 more yard to go to score than our opposition did this year, more than 8 football fields. In the seven games where there was a significant difference, the team with the big advantage won all of them by an average of 19 points. It may not be the only reason they won or won by that margin, but I’m sure it helped.

I’ve also been comparing the number of plays run from scrimmage to time of possession. (I realize that TOP includes plays that weren’t runs and passes from scrimmage but I’m assuming the time of such plays will be about equal for both teams). The Daily Orange preview handed out before the Villanova game says the goal of both offensive coordinator George MacDonald and quarterback coach Tim Lester was to get off plays in an average of 18 seconds and to get off 3.33 plays per minute. In 2013 Syracuse got off 2.42 plays per minute. The fastest team in the country was Texas Tech at 3.08 plays per minute, (there was no quote on seconds per play).

Syracuse 69 plays in 22:12, Villanova 87 plays in 37:48
That means that we got off a play every 19.30 seconds and 3.11 plays per minute. Villanova got off a play 26.1 seconds and 2.30 plays per minute. But they got off 18 more plays than we did.
Syracuse 79 plays in 33:22, Central Michigan 68 plays in 26:18
We: 25.34 seconds/play and 2.37 plays per minute. They: 23.21 seconds/play and 2.55 plays per minute. But we got off 11 more plays.
Syracuse 79 plays in 32:14, Maryland 58 plays in 27:46
We: 24.48 seconds/play and 2.45 plays per minute. They: 28.72 seconds/ play and 2.09 plays per minute.
Syracuse 68 plays in 26:43, Notre Dame 80 plays in 33:17
We: 23.57 seconds/play and 2.55 plays per minute. They: 24.96 seconds/play and 2.40 plays per minute. But they got off 12 more plays.
Syracuse: 62 plays in 23:02, Louisville 70 plays in 36:58
We: 22.29 seconds/play and 2.69 plays per minute. They: 31.69 seconds/play and 1.89 plays per minute. But they got off 8 more plays.
Syracuse: 67 plays in 23:33, Florida State 72 plays in 36:27
We: 21.09 seconds/play and 2.85 plays per minute. They: 30.38 seconds per play and 1.98 plays per minute. But they got off five more lays.
Syracuse: 70 plays in 31:47, Wake Forest 59 plays in 28:13
We: 27.24 seconds per pay and 2.20 plays per minute. They: 28.69 seconds per play and 2.09 plays per minute. Neither team was playing hurry-up.
Syracuse 62 plays in 25:06, Clemson 83 plays in 34:54
We: 24.29 seconds per play and 2.47 plays per minute. They: 25.22 seconds per play and 2.38 seconds per play. Clemson played normally in the first half, sped things up in the third quarter and then slowed it back down in the fourth quarter.
Syracuse 68 plays in 31:18, NC State 79 plays in 28:43
We: 27.61 seconds per play and 2.17 plays per minute. They: 21.81 seconds per play and 2.75 plays per minute.
Syracuse 69 plays in 30:31, Duke 66 plays in 29:29
We: 26.54 second per play and 2.30 plays per minute. They: 26.80 second per play and 2.24 plays per minute.
Syracuse 54 plays in 21:18, Pittsburgh 72 plays in 38:42
We: 23.67 seconds per play and 2.54 plays per minute. They: 32.25 seconds per play and 1.86 plays per minute.
Syracuse 48 plays in 21:43, Boston College 66 plays in 38:17
We: 27.15 second per play and 2.21 plays per minute. They: 34.80 seconds per play and 1.72 plays per minute.
Total: Syracuse 795 plays in 322.51, Opposition: 840 plays in 396:52
We: 24.37 seconds/play and 2.46 plays per minute. They: 28.34 seconds per play and 2.12 plays per minute.

It may be that MacDonald and Lester were eliminating the time taken on kicking plays, (which is included in time of possession), so we might be closer to our goals than it appears. But it’s clear that the speed with which you get plays off does little to determine whether you win the game. It doesn’t even determine which team gets off more plays. What matters is how many successful plays you run and how many first downs you get. You aren’t going to wear teams out by hurriedly running plays that don’t work. At this point we seem to have given up on exhausting teams with our pace, (and trapping them in the same defensive packages with no time to change them). Pittsburgh had the slowest paced offense we’ve seen all year and they ran and passed all over us and had the ball nearly twice as much as we did. And Boston College was even slower than they were.

 

[SmilinBob]

I thought that passing on first down would be the best for Long and would have kept the pressure off him and possibly get him into some kind of rhythm as well as keeping BC off balance a little.