Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1917590, 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 positon 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: VT 25, VT 25, VT 48, VT 18, VT 8 Total: Syracuse 4 Virginia Tech 1 P: 43 to VT 32, 57 to VT 24, 47 to VT 17 Total: Syracuse 3 Virginia Tech 0 FG: Blocked, Good from 51, No Good from 51 Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 2 XP: Good, Good, Good, Good Total: Syracuse 4 Virginia Tech 0 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 12 Virginia Tech 3 1r: -1, 5, 0, 12(S), -1, 4, -1, 1, 7(15), 2(1), -10, 0, 5(S), 4, 3, 2, 0, 9 -2(V) Total: Syracuse 9 Virginia Tech 10 1p: 6, I, 3(15), 5, 5, I, I, 11(14), 10, I, 12, I, I, 22, I, 0, I, I, 9, I, I, 6, I Total: Syracuse 9 Virginia Tech 14 First Down Total: Syracuse 18 Virginia Tech 24 2r: 1(S), 7, 3(5), 1, 5(5), 6(3), 3(11), 2(S5), 1, 9(9), 8(20), 7(S), 2(3), 18, 16TD, 4(8), 11(10), 1(1) Total: Syracuse 12 Virginia Tech 6 2p: 7(11), I, 84TD, 10(15), I, 5(11), 10(6), I, 16, I, I, 8, I, I Total: Syracuse 6 Virginia Tech 8 Second Down Total: Syracuse 18 Virginia Tech 14 3r: -4, 5(S), 1TD, 5(4) Total: Syracuse 2 Virginia Tech 2 3p: 4(3), 58TD, 6(3), I, I, I, I, I, 18(6), 9(8), -2(S), interception, I, 4(2), 11(3), 8(10), 9(5) Total: Syracuse 8 Virginia Tech 9 Third Down Total: Syracuse 10 Virginia Tech 11 4r: 0 Total: Syracuse 0 Virginia Tech 1 4p: 31(5), 8, 4(3), 5(2) Total: Syracuse 4 Virginia Tech 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 4 Virginia Tech 1 Total on running plays: Syracuse 23 Virginia Tech 19 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 27 Virginia Tech 31 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 50 Virginia Tech 50 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -6, -5, -5, +1, -4, +5, -5, +5 Syracuse 3 Virginia Tech 5 (Both the SU and ESPN play by play has our first penalty – on the second drive of the first quarter- -6 yards from the SU 33 to the SU 26 for false start and our last penalty of the half -at the beginning of our second to last possession – to be -4 yards from SU 13 to the SU 9, also for false start. Neither would have bene a “half the distance to the goal” situation. Maybe the referees stepped off the wrong yardage and the people keeping track just used the yardage they saw? Anyway it evened out, I guess.) Game total when SYRACUSE had the ball: Syracuse 65 Virginia Tech 58 Comment: Other than the long missed field goals, our kicking teams were back on the beam (12-3). We really didn’t dominate from scrimmage. It’s just that our good plays outweighed our bad plays. The big thing is we got 32 first downs and so were able to keep the ball and wear them down, leading to our fourth quarter successes. Dungey had 25 incomplete passes, many of them intentional. He had 12 on first down, 7 on second down, 6 on third down, (five in a row and then just one in the last 9 third down passes, and none in his 4 fourth down throws. It wasn’t that he was inaccurate. It was that he wasn’t going to force anything and he wanted to minimize the hits he took. He took plenty of them anyway, and no thanks to the refs since some of them were on those balls he threw away. When VIRGINIA TECH had the ball: KO: SU 25, SU 11(P), SU 25, SU 25 Total: Syracuse 0 Virginia Tech 4 P: 51 to SU 20, 37 to SU 35, 30 to SU 11, 50 to SU 13 Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 3 FG: Good from 36, No Good from 45 Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 1 XP: Blocked, Try for Two- Good Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 1 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 3 Virginia Tech 9 1r: -2, 0, -3, 8, 4, 16(s), 1, 9, 3(S), -2, 9, 7, 1, 6, 1, 2, 4, 6, Fumble Total: Syracuse 10 Virginia Tech 9 1p: -2(S), I, 20, 12, I, I, I, 21, 12TD, I, I, I, I Total: Syracuse 9 Virginia Tech 4 First Down Total: Syracuse 19 Virginia Tech 13 2r: 2(12), 5, 1(15), 4, 4(2), 0, 9, 2, 3(12), 10(1), 1(4), 6(4), 15, -1 Total: Syracuse 7 Virginia Tech 7 2p: 13(12), I, 29(1), 4(7), 9(3), 13, 52(9), 27(8), 10TD, 10(6), 6(4) Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 10 Second Down Total: Syracuse 8 Virginia Tech 17 3r: 8(12), 0, 2(3), 14(9) Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 3 3p: 4, 27(5), I, 2(6), 16(9), 15(8), I, Interception, I Total: Syracuse 5 Virginia Tech 3 Third Down Total: Syracuse 6 Virginia Tech 6 4r: -2 Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 0 4p: None Total: Syracuse 0 Virginia Tech 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 0 Total on running plays: Syracuse 19 Virginia Tech 19 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 15 Virginia Tech 17 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 34 Virginia Tech 36 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -10, +5 Syracuse 1 Virginia Tech 1 Game total when VIRGINIA TECH had the ball: Syracuse 38 Virginia Tech 46 Overall Game Total: Syracuse 103 Virginia Tech 104 Comments: Again, we did not dominate Virginia Tech. We dominated Colgate. We competed with Virginia Tech. We got first downs and some big plays went our way instead of the other team’s way. That’s how most games are won, at least against quality opposition. It’s interesting that we were good against 1st down passes, (9-4), which are hard to defend, since you don’t expect them, and good against third down passes, (5-3), which are vitally important because if you can stop them, you are likely to get the ball back, but horrible against second down passes, (1-10 and 173 yards surrendered). I don’t know why we were so bad on second down but fortunately we only gave up one TD in those situations. [/QUOTE]

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