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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1145975, member: 289"] 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- ND 18, ND 21, (onside) ND 50, (onside) SU 44 / SU 2 ND 2 P- 35 (ND 9), 26 (ND 32), 44 (ND 37), 32 (ND 4), 42 (ND 28) / SU 4 ND 1 FG- 38 good, 37 no good / SU 1 ND 1 XP- blocked, try failed / SU 0 ND 2 Total for kicking game: Syracuse 7 Notre Dame 6 1st rush- 2, 3, -1, 8, 1, 8, -1, 4, 0, -2v, 15, 2, 4, 1, 1, 7TD, 5, 5 / SU 9 ND 9 1st pass- 38, 3, -7, I, 33, I, 25, I, I, 16, I / SU 4 ND 7 First Down total: Syracuse 13 Notre Dame 16 2nd rush- 3(7), 3(2), 7(12), 3(2), 1, 7, 5(6) / SU 5 ND 2 2nd pass- I, 9(11), 1(14), 14(11), 14(17), I, 28(9), 8(9), 46, I, I, I, I / SU 6 ND 7 Second Down total: Syracuse 11 Notre Dame 9 3rd run- -5, -3, 6(3), 13(24), 0, 2(1) / SU 2 ND 4 3rd pass- I, I, 8(13), 1(3), 19(5), 6(15), 3(5), I / SU 1 ND 6 Third Down total: Syracuse 3 Notre Dame 10 4th run- 42, 0 / SU 1 ND 1 4th pass- 6(2), I / SU 1 ND 1 Fourth Down total: Syracuse 2 Notre Dame 2 Total for plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 29 Notre Dame 37 Running plays: Syracuse 17 Notre Dame 16 Passing plays: Syracuse 12 Notre Dame 21 Penalties (not added on to play): SU 2 ND 5 (penalties by the other team that each team benefited by) Turnovers (by SU that benefited ND): SU 0 ND 1 Total for penalties and turnovers: Syracuse 2 Notre Dame 6 Total for when Syracuse had the ball: Syracuse 38 Notre Dame 49 When Notre Dame had the ball: KO- SU 25, SU 25, SU 21, SU 25, SU 10, SU 25 / SU 0 ND 6 P- 37 (SU39), 43 (SU 16) / SU 1 ND 1 FG- 37 Good / SU 0 ND 1 XP- Good, Good, Good, Good / SU 0 ND 4 Total for kicking game: Syracuse 1 Notre Dame 12 1st rush- 3, 1, 6, 2, 4, 5, -1, -2, 5, -1, 3, 3, 1, 6, 9, -1, 8, 7, 2, -2v / SU 11 ND 9 1st pass- 6, 14, 12, I, 3, 10, 8, 6(15), 23TD, 72TD, 9, 12, 18, 22, 4, 9, I / SU 3 ND 14 First Down total: Syracuse 14 Notre Dame 23 2nd rush- 4(4), 5, 2, 2(9), 7(2), 2(6), 6(12), 4(6), 7(12), 6(11), 5(3) / SU 3 ND 8 2nd pass- 5(12), I, I, 9(8), 10(9), 3(5), 13(11), 23(6), 7(5), 8TD, 6(2), 8(9), 1(1), 13TD / SU 3 ND 10 Second Down total: Syracuse 6 Notre Dame 18 3rd run- 14(5), 8(4), 3(2), 7(2), 5(5), 1(1), 2(1), 5(1) / SU 0 ND 8 3rd pass- -7, I, 7(7), 7(6), 7(23) / SU 2 ND 2 Third Down total: Syracuse 2 Notre Dame 10 4th run- none 4th pass- none Fourth Down total: none Total for plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 22 Notre Dame 51 Running plays: Syracuse 14 Notre Dame 25 Passing plays: Syracuse 8 Notre Dame 26 Penalties (not added on to play): SU 5 ND 2 (penalties by the other team that each team benefited by) Turnovers (by ND that benefited SU): SU 5 ND 0 Total for penalties and turnovers: Syracuse 10 Notre Dame 2 Total for when Notre Dame had the ball: Syracuse 33 Notre Dame 65 Overall kicking game total: Syracuse 8 Notre Dame 18 Overall plays from scrimmage total: Syracuse 51 Notre Dame 88 Running plays: Syracuse 31 Notre Dame 41 Passing plays: Syracuse 20 Notre Dame 47 Overall penalties and turnovers: Syracuse 12 Notre Dame 8 Game Total: Syracuse 71 Notre Dame 114 Comments: I had convinced myself that we’d seen a close game that turned on a handful of plays and a couple of officiating blunders. They gained 523 yards but we gained 429 and were +4 in turnovers. What if we’re granted that touchdown at the end of the half, the extra point doesn’t get blocked and that field goal doesn’t hit the upright? Now a 15-31 game becomes a 26-31 game. But the “winning plays” stats don’t’ show a close game in disguise. They show a blow-out in disguise. The two areas that made it so were our defense and the kicking game. Notre Dame got successful plays on 26 of 34 passes. They only got two really long plays, (consecutive TDs on first down). But they were able to keep control of the ball and march down the field because Bullough got gunshy after the two big plays and gave ND receivers huge cushions. Then, when the game had slipped away and it didn’t matter anymore, he tightened the coverage and Eskridge got a pick six by jumping one of those short routes. Would the game have turned out any better if we’d taken chances on defense, given up some big plays but also made some? I don’t know. They also had great success running on second and third down: 3-16. In fact, ever one of their eight third down runs got the first down. Contrast that with our filed attempts on both third and fourth down with a yard to go after Dixon’s big run off the fake punt. First Downs are often regarded as irrelevant of misleading as a stat. But in this game they mattered and ND got 29 of them to our 17. And every kicking play is a big play. Typically, the kicking team wins the vast majority of them, as Notre Dame did at 1-12. We countered with 7-6 which sounds good but is not. You are supposed to win those plays. We ran the ball a little better than I thought (17-16). And we got 5 “explosive” passing plays. One was on our first play of the game, another on the first play of the half. The other three came when we were way behind. Two of them came on a scoring drive- we got a field goal. The others went for naught because we were unable to sustain drives. But, hey! We got a lot of yards! Rate of play: Notre Dame got off 80 plays from scrimmage in 33:17 minutes of possession time. Syracuse got off 68 plays in 26:43. Notre Dame got off a play in an average of 24.96 seconds and got 2.40 plays per minute. With Syracuse it was 2.54 and 23.57. We were operating at a faster pace but got off a dozen few plays because we were less efficient than Notre Dame. TOTALS FOR YEAR When SU had the ball: KO- SU 10 OPP 8 P- SU 14 OPP 5 FG- SU 6 OPP 4 XP- SU 10 OPP 2 Total for kicking game: SU 40 OPP 19 1st rush- SU 51 OPP 41 1st pass- SU 15 OPP 22 First Down total: SU 66 OPP 63 2nd rush- SU 27 OPP 16 2nd pass- SU 22 OPP 24 Second Down total: SU 49 OPP 40 3rd run- SU 9 OPP 12 3rd pass- SU 11 OPP 25 Third Down total: SU 20 OPP 37 4th run- SU 3 OPP 1 4th pass-SU 2 OPP 2 Fourth Down total: SU 5 OPP 3 Total for plays from scrimmage: SU 116 OPP 109 Running plays: SU 90 OPP 70 Passing plays: SU 50 OPP 73 Penalties (not added onto play): SU 10 OPP 19 (penalties by the other team that each team benefited by) Turnovers (by SU) : SU 0 OPP 3 Total for penalties and turnovers: SU 10 OPP 22 Total when Syracuse had the ball: SU 166 OPP150 When the Opposition had the Ball: KO- SU 4 OPP 16 P- SU 6 OPP 12 FG- SU 2 OPP 6 XP- SU 1 OPP 9 Total for kicking game: SU 13 OPP 44 1st rush- SU 42 OPP 32 1st pass- SU 19 OPP 29 First Down total: SU 61 OPP 61 2nd rush- SU 17 OPP 30 2nd pass- SU 21 OPP 26 Second Down total: SU 38 OPP 56 3rd run- SU 5 OPP 17 3rd pass- SU 23 OPP 11 Third Down total: SU 28 OPP 27 4th run- SU 0 OPP 1 4th pass-SU 1 OPP 1 Fourth Down total: SU 1 OPP 2 Total for plays from scrimmage: SU 128 OPP 146 Running plays: SU 64 OPP 80 Passing plays: SU 64 OPP 66 Penalties (not added on to play): SU 14 OPP 10 Turnovers: SU (got) 7 OPP 0 Total for penalties and turnovers: SU 21 OPP 10 Total when the opposition had the ball: SU 162 OPP 200 Overall kicking game total: SU 53 OPP 63 Overall plays from scrimmage total: SU 268 OPP 289 Running plays: SU 154 OPP 150 Passing plays: SU 114 OPP 139 Overall penalties and turnovers: SU 31 OPP 32 Game Total: Syracuse 352 Opposition 384 Comments: We now fallen behind in the kicking game, 9and our opposition has had its problems, too). We run the ball a lot better than we pass it, especially on third down where we are 11 for 36 in making passing third downs. (Yeah, I know, farther to go…). Our defense had been playing pretty well until the ND game. If you want to look at the empty part of the glass, we should be 1-3 with the only win over a team that was missing its two biggest offensive weapons. But we’re not. We’re 2-2 with a beatable Louisville team coming up. And Florida State and Clemson, while still better than us, aren’t as good as they were last year. This season still has some possibilities. But we need to get in the right offense- and defense- and slow down the injury rate. [/QUOTE]

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