Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3570877, member: 289"] This season I will once again be charting Syracuse’s games in terms of “winning plays”. I look at the results of each play and decide which team got the minimum they wanted out of the play. Rather than making instinctive judgments, I use a formula: - On first down, the offensive team wants to get at least a third of the way to a new first down: they will have two more plays before they might have to surrender the ball and if they gain that same amount of yards on each of those two plays, they’ll get the first down. If they don’t make it a third of the way to a new first down, the defense won the play. - On second down, the offense wants to get at least halfway to a new first down by the same logic. - On third and fourth down, they want to get the first down. - Penalties, if added onto a play by the referees, are added on to the results above. If the offense gains 5 yards on first down but there was holding and they lost yardage instead, the defense won the play. If a running back made a 20 yard run on first and ten and the holding was 15 yards downfield, turning it into a 5 yard gain, that’s still a win for the offense. If the defense is penalized and it’s tacked on, again the net result is what is evaluated. The penalties I’ve listed negated the play entirely and are a “loss” for the penalized team and thus a win for their opponent. . - If a penalty was not tacked onto a play, it’s a lost play for the team being penalized. I'll count them separate from the other plays from scrimmage because I don't know if the intended play before the penalty would have been a run or a pass - so i wouldn't know where to put it in the chart below. - A turnover is, obviously, a win for the team that wound up with the ball. - On a kick-off a touchback brings the ball out to the 25 yard line. Teams still seem to be trying to kick the ball into the end zone and avoid a runback if they can, so any kick-off that results in the receiving team starting between their goal line and their 25 is a win for the kicking team. Beyond that, the receiving team wins. - On a punt, a touchback takes the ball out of the 20. So any punt that results in the other team taking over from their goal line to their 20 is a win for the punting team. If the next change in field position is at least 40 yards, the punting tam has also won the play. - A successful place kick is, obviously, a win for the kicking team. - Any play that results in a touchdown is, obviously, a win for that team that scores it. - A “victory play” where a team accepts a loss just to let the clock run out, is a win for the offensive team. I will indicate in parenthesis how many yards there were to go to get a new first down, (if other than 10), unless it was for no gain or negative yardage. If it was a touchdown, (“TD)” a scramble/sack (“S”) a victory play (“V”) or involved a penalty (P). I’ll treat a scramble or a sack as a passing play as the Cuse.com play by play now tells you when it’s either of those two. 1R means first down running plays. 1P means first down passing plays, etc. Note: I us the play by play from Cuse.com which did not design ate scrambles for the North Carolina or Pittsburgh games so those plays were recorded here as runs since I couldn’t tell if they were planned QB runs or not. (ESPN didn’t note scrambles, either) When SYRACUSE had the ball: KO: SU47, CL25, CL25, CL24 Total: Syracuse 3 Clemson 1 P: 37 to CL36, 37 to CL23, 41 to CL12, 33 to CL12, 38 to CL28, 56 to CL3, 40 to CL23 Total: Syracuse 4 Clemson 3 FG: none Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 0 XP: Good, Good, Good Total: Syracuse 3 Clemson 0 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 10 Clemson 4 1r: 0, 2, 2, 1, 4, 7TD, 21, 6, 12, 7(15), 7, 2, -1, 3, 0, 2, 2, 5 Total: Syracuse 8 Clemson 10 1p: I, I, I, 83TD, Interception, Interception Total: Syracuse 1 Clemson 6 First Down Total: Syracuse 9 Clemson 16 2r: 2, 8(5), 3, -1, -1, 3, 5(8), 0 Total: Syracuse 2 Clemson 6 2p: Interception, 13(12), I, 10(9), I, I, 13(8), I, FumbleTD(s), -1(s), 10(5) Total: Syracuse 4 Clemson 7 Second Down Total: Syracuse 6 Clemson 13 3r: 61(5), 4(3), 0 Total: Syracuse 2 Clemson 1 3p: I, 7(8), I, 15(12), I, I, 10(11), 7(4), 7(8), I Total: Syracuse 2 Clemson 8 Third Down Total: Syracuse 4 Clemson 9 4r: -2 Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 1 4p: none Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 1 Total on running plays: Syracuse 12 Clemson 18 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 7 Clemson 21 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 19 Clemson 39 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -5, -5, -5, +5, -5 Syracuse 1 Clemson 4 Game total when SYRACUSE had the ball: Syracuse 30 Clemson 47 When CLEMSON had the ball: KO: SU25, SU25, SU25, SU25, SU25, SU25SU25 Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 7 P: 44 to SU 20, Blocked, 51 to SU 4, 44 to SU 31, 51 to SU 8 Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 4 FG: Good from 24, No Good from 37, Good from 36. Total: Syracuse Clemson XP: Good, Good, Good, Good, Try- NG, Good Total: Syracuse 1 Clemson 5 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 2 Clemson 18 1r: -7, 8, 25TD, 4, 5, 3, 8, 1, 4, 9, 1, -13 (bad snap – I don’t know if it was a run or a pass but they never attempted a pass so I put it here), 9TD, 0, 5, 4, 4 Total: Syracuse 6 Clemson 11 1p: 10, 10, I, I, 5, I, 8, I, I, Interception-TD, 8, 8, 3, 7, I, I, 18, 23, 23P, 12, 11 Total: Syracuse 9 Clemson 12 First Down Total: Syracuse 15 Clemson 23 2r: 2, 0, 6,(17), 8(5), 2(5), 3(7), 1(2), 3(7), 6(1), -5, 3(9), 293), 6(5), 6(6) Total: Syracuse 8 Clemson 6 2p: I, I, 21(6), 8(7), 14, 20, 8(9), 17TD, 5(2), 1(2), 5(3), I, 9(23), I Total: Syracuse 5 Clemson 9 Second Down Total: Syracuse 13 Clemson 15 3r: 4(1), 10(11), 11(1), 5(4), 1TD Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 5 3p: 25TD, I, 7(11), 20(2), I, I, I, 12(15),-2s, 7(6), I, I Total: Syracuse 9 Clemson 3 Third Down Total: Syracuse 9 Clemson 8 4r: 6(3) Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 1 4p: none Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 0 Clemson 1 Total on running plays: Syracuse 14 Clemson 23 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 23 Clemson 24 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 37 Clemson 47 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -10, -5, -5 Syracuse 3 Clemson 0 Game total when CLEMSON had the ball: Syracuse 42 Clemson 65 Overall Game Total: Syracuse 72 Clemson 112 Comments: The line for our first down passes illustrates what it’s like when SU plays Clemson: I, I, I, 83TD, Interception, Interception We can’t compete with the Tigers on a play-to-paly basis so we have to make big plays. This game was 69-115 in ‘winning plays’ and yet we had a chance to win it because of a blocked punt, a pick 6, an 83 yard bomb and a 61 yard end around. Unfortunately we negated that with three interceptions, one in the end zone, and a scoop and score so we wound up losing by 26 points anyway. That’s why I think we might have won this game with Tommy DeVito, who was good at avoiding turnovers. We usually have an advantage in the kicking game but Nolan Cooney was a bit off, except for his 56 yarder to the Clemson 3, (strangely the play most argued about: people thought that Dino should have gone for it in his own territory midway through the third quarter in a one possession game). Will Spiers, when his kick wasn’t blocked averaged a net 47.5 yards on his punts and B.T. Potter put six of seven kickoffs into the end zone. The other was caught on the 1 and returned to the SU25, which was the same result. And Andre Szmyt, while excellent, has been mostly a spectator this season. Potter scored 11 points for Clemson while Szmyt got 3 for Syracuse. We were 10-4 in the kicking game, the Tigers 18-2. Our 15 drives averaged starting from our 26 with a total of 1,105 yards to the Clemson goal line. Their 15 drives started from their 28 with a total of 1,073 yards to get to our goal line. That’s 32 yards of extra offense for Clemson who did not need it. Our normal advent age in field position was absent from this game. In terms of winning plays, this game was similar to some recent games: 2019 Syracuse 77 Clemson 113 = -36 We lost 6-41 2019 Syracuse 76 Boston College 119 = -43 We lost 27-58 2020 Syracuse 70 North Carolina 114 = -44 We lost 6-31 2020 Syracuse 72 Clemson 112 = -40 We lost 21-47 [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?