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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2847384, 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. When Syracuse had the ball: KO: WV 30, WV 25, WV 25, WV 14, WV 25, WV 25, WV 25 Total: Syracuse 6 West Virginia 1 P: 41 to WC 32, 43 to WV 45, 41 to WV 41, 37 to WV 13, 39 to WV 20, 35 to WV 45 Total: Syracuse 5 West Virginia 1 FG: Good from 39, Good from 34 Total: Syracuse 2 West Virginia 0 XP: Good, Good, Good, Good Total: Syracuse 4 West Virginia 0 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 17 West Virginia 2 1r: 2, 2, 7, -1, 5, 10, 2, 9, 1, 4(5), 7, 22, 7(20), 5, 6, 5, 0, 17, 4TD, 0, -1v Total: Syracuse 14 West Virginia 7 1p: 9, 9, 19, 19, I, -1s, 26, 6, 3p, 23, 7, 13, 14TD, I, 9, 42, 7 Total: Syracuse 13 West Virginia 4 First Down Total: Syracuse 27 West Virginia 11 2r: 3(1), 0, 1TD, 4, 4(3), -3, 8(9), 5(3), -1, -4, 3(1), -2, -1v Total: Syracuse 8 West Virginia 5 2p: I, -2s, 2(1), 44(8), Interception, -12s, 13p(9), I, I, 3(5), 12(4), 9 Total: Syracuse 6 West Virginia 6 Second Down Total: Syracuse 14 West Virginia 11 3r: 4TD, 3(20), 3(6), 3(2), 2(1), 2(1), 1(5) Total: Syracuse 4 West Virginia 3 3p: I, -13s, -2s, Interception, I, 4(14) Total: Syracuse 0 West Virginia 6 Third Down Total: Syracuse 4 West Virginia 9 4r: none Total: Syracuse 0 West Virginia 0 4p: none Total: Syracuse 0 West Virginia 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 0 West Virginia 0 Total on running plays: Syracuse 26 West Virginia 15 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 19 West Virginia 16 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 45 West Virginia 31 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -5, -5, +15, -10, -5, -5, -5, +15 Syracuse 2 West Virginia 6 Game total when Syracuse had the ball: Syracuse 64 West Virginia 39 When West Virginia had the ball: KO: SU 25, SU 9, SU 25, SU 43, SU 22, SU 25 Total: Syracuse 1 West Virginia 5 P: 40 to SU 25, 26 to SU 20, 36 to SU 11, 37 to SU 49, 42 to SU 42 Total: Syracuse 1 West Virginia 4 FG: Good from 28, Good from 36, Good from 44, Good from 49 Total: Syracuse 0 West Virginia 4 XP: No Good Total: Syracuse 1 West Virginia 0 Kicking plays total: Syracuse 3 West Virginia 13 1r: 2, 5, -1, 5, 11, 51, 4, 12, 4, 3, -4, 4, 6, -3, 0, 4 Total: Syracuse 6 West Virginia 10 1p: I, -6s, I, 12, I, -6s, I, -9s, Interception, 48, 4(23), 16, -9s, I Total: Syracuse 11 West Virginia 3 First Down Total: Syracuse 17 West Virginia 13 2r: 3, 1, 2, 2(5), 9, 3(19), 1, -1 Total: Syracuse 7 West Virginia 1 2p: 3, I, 18(11), I, 32p, I, 8, I, 3(4), I, I, 25(16), 16(19), 24(19), I Total: Syracuse 8 West Virginia 7 Second Down Total: Syracuse 15 West Virginia 8 3r: 3TD, 11(16), 4(6), 2(1), -3 Total: Syracuse 3 West Virginia 2 3p: I, 8, 20, 17(21), I, -2, I, 34, 3(15), 43(6), I, -9s, I Total: Syracuse 8 West Virginia 4 Third Down Total: Syracuse 11 West Virginia 6 4r: none Total: Syracuse 0 West Virginia 0 4p: 2(3), 3s(6), I Total: Syracuse 3 West Virginia 0 Fourth Down Total: Syracuse 3 West Virginia 0 Total on running plays: Syracuse 16 West Virginia 13 Total on passing plays: Syracuse 30 West Virginia 14 Total on plays from scrimmage: Syracuse 46 West Virginia 27 Penalties not tacked on to plays: -5, -10, -15 Syracuse 3 West Virginia 0 Game total when West Virginia had the ball: Syracuse 52 West Virginia 40 Overall Game Total: Syracuse 116 West Virginia 79 Comments: We’ve had a lot of games where we dominated on offense but the defense really won this game for us. 52-40 when they had the ball is our best defensive performance since the Florida State game. That’s not as numerically impressive as 64-39 on offense but a defense doesn’t have to dominate to win the game for you: it has to make big play, to dominate when it counts. The big interception, the goal line stand, 11-6 on third down and 3-0 on fourth down – those things win games. Of course having Will Grier abandon his team helped. If he had been there, we might have fallen well behind as we struggled through the first half. We did not dominate on special teams as we usually do in this game. Our average starting spot was our 28: theirs was their 32. They were 56 yards closer to the goal on their 15 possessions than we were on our 15. They also out-gained us 416-423 so we were -63 in ‘effective’ yards gained and an uncharacteristic -1 in turnovers but still won both “winning plays” and the game by a comfortable margin anyway. [/QUOTE]

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