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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1978081, 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 games 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 halfway to a new first down by the same logic. - On third and fourth down, they want to get the new 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. - 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. - 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 sack (“S”) a victory play (“V”) or involved a penalty (P). I’m undecided about whether to count a scramble as a running play or passing play. For now, I’ll count it as a running play and put an ‘S’ next to it in case I change my mind. Thus an S in running plays is a scramble, an S in passing plays a sack. 1R means first down running plays. 1P means first down passing plays, etc. When SYRACUSE had the ball: KO: Pitt 35, Pitt 35, Pitt 36, Pitt 29, Pitt 23, Pitt 35, Pitt 22, Failed Onsides SU 44, Failed Onsides SU 43, Failed Onsides Pitt45 Total: Syracuse 2 Pittsburgh 8 P: 34 to Pitt 2, 48 to Pitt 32, 0 to SU 35, 35 to Pitt 31, 43 to Pitt 34, 52 to Pitt 7 Total: Syracuse 4 Pittsburgh 2 FG: No attempts Total: Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 0 XP: Good, Good, Good, No Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, No Good Total: Syracuse 7 Pittsburgh 2 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 13 Pittsburgh 12 1r: 2, 5, 2TD, -3, -1, 6, 2, 11, 4, 6, 8, 3, 3, 4, 0, 2, 6, 3, 42, 2, 11, 6 Total: Syracuse 12 Pittsburgh 10 1p: I, I, I, 3, 9, -7(S), 12, 10, 8, 5, 8, 5TD, 41(15), 7, I, 5, 17, -2, 12, 8, 9, 16, I, I, I Total: Syracuse 15 Pittsburgh10 First Down Total: Syracuse 27 Pittsburgh 20 2r: 3, 3, 4, 5(4), 5TD, 3(2), 2(4), -1, 4(2), 2(7), 0, 1(8), 2, 7(4), 8(7), 19(2), 2(1), 4 Total: Syracuse 10 Pittsburgh 8 2p: 12(8), 5, 5, I, 8(16), 7(1), I, I, 5(11), 7(6), 6(2), I, I, 7(5), 6(12), 3(8), I, 24(P), I Total: Syracuse 10 Pittsburgh 9 Second Down Total: Syracuse 20 Pittsburgh 17 3r: 6(3), 3(13), 0, 42TD, 0 Total: Syracuse 2 Pittsburgh 3 3p: 8(7), 6(5), I, 25(5), I, 30(17), 7(2), INT-TD, -7(S), 4(8), 12(6), I, -4(S), 13(10) Total: Syracuse 7 Pittsburgh 7 Third Down Total: Syracuse 9 Pittsburgh 10 4r: None Total: Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 0 4p: 7TD, 49TD, 22 Total: Syracuse3 Pittsburgh 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 3 Pittsburgh 0 Total on running plays: Syracuse 24 Pittsburgh 21 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 35 Pittsburgh 26 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 59 Pittsburgh 47 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -5, -5, +5, -5, -5, +15, -5, +15, +5 Syracuse 4 Pittsburgh 5 Game total when SYRACUSE had the ball: Syracuse 76 Pittsburgh 64 Comments: A team will normally dominate their own kick-offs. Pitt won 9 of their 12 kickoffs- and 8 of our 10. SU we were 5-17 on kickoffs overall. Our average starting point after a Pitt kick-off was our 23 ½. The average starting point after our kick-offs was their 37. Part of it was Quadree Henderson, Pitt’s electric kick returner who is averaging 30 yards a kickoff return and has taken three of them the distance, (he also has scored on a punt). Some he returned. Some we intentionally kicked out of bounds to avoid Henderson, (which, to me is still a Pitt for Pitt as it puts the ball on the 35 yard line). Then there was the three unsuccessful onsides kicks. I don’t know what the percentages are on the kicking team getting possession is but I know .000 is bad. I thought that on our returns that Sean Riley was making the mistake of running it out of the end zone when taking a knee is the equivalent of a 25 yard return but that happened only twice in 25 kicks, though there’s a lesson in the fact that he only ogt out to the SU 9 and SU 17 on those occasions. We had 47 unsuccessful offensive plays from scrimmage and still wound up +12. We had no fourth down running plays. We lost third down running plays 2-3. We won every other down, run or pass. The fact that we had 47 first down plays shows how well our offense was working. That’s Dino’s dream: move the chains, tire them out and break their spirits. We saw that a few times this year. We’ll see it a lot more next year. When PITTSBURGH had the ball: KO: SU 25, SU 20, SU 26, SU 9, SU 32, SU 38, SU 11, SU 15, SU 17, SU 35, SU 31, SU 23 Total: Syracuse 3 Pittsburgh 9 P: 38 to Pitt 45, 47 to SU 8, 33 to Pitt 45 Total: Syracuse 2 Pittsburgh 1 FG: None attempted Total: Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 0 XP: Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, Good, No Good Total: Syracuse 1 Pittsburgh 10 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 6 Pittsburgh 20 1r: 1, 12, 3, 6, 6TD, 5, 21, 9, -1, 22(P), 5, 77TD, 0, 5, 1 -3, 3, 1(1), 42, 1TD, -1(V) Total: Syracuse 8 Pittsburgh 13 1p: I, INT, 35TD, I, 18, I, I, 66TD, I Total: Syracuse 6 Pittsburgh 3 First Down Total: Syracuse 14 Pittsburgh 16 2r: 2(11), 5(9), 0, 9, 1, 5, 7(5), -6, 2(13), 34(7), -2V Total: Syracuse 6 Pittsburgh 5 2p: 59TD, 16(7), 34(5), 10(11), I, 10(5), 18, I Total: Syracuse 2 Pittsburgh 6 Second Down Total: Syracuse 8 Pittsburgh 11 3r: 4(9), 4(1), 2(1), 13TD, FUM Total: Syracuse 2 Pittsburgh 3 3p: 9(4), I, 79TD, 6TD Total: Syracuse 1 Pittsburgh 3 Third Down Total: Syracuse 3 Pittsburgh 6 4r: None Total: Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 0 4p: None Total: Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 0 Total on running plays: Syracuse 16 Pittsburgh 21 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 9 Pittsburgh 12 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 25 Pittsburgh 33 Penalties not tacked on to plays: +5 Syracuse 0 Pittsburgh 1 Game total when PITTSBURGH had the ball: Syracuse 31 Pittsburgh 54 Overall Game Total: Syracuse 107 Pittsburgh 118 Comment: We lost another one in “winning plays”. But it was 84-80 in plays from scrimmage. Surprisingly, we had only two less “explosive” plays, (that gained over 20 yards), than they did, seven to nine: 42, 41, 24, 42, 25, 30, 49 vs. 21, 77, 42, 35, 66, 34, 59, 34, 79. But ours totaled 253 yards and produced 2 TDs. Theirs produced 447 yards and 5TDs. [/QUOTE]

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