Greatest transition in history... Of penalties

[vapspwi]

2018 opponents ran 64 plays per game (Tech: 4 penalties per game). 2019 opponents ran 73 plays per game (Tech: 4.5 penalties per game). 2020 opponents ran 80 plays per game (Tech: 9 penalties per game).

Your argument is that an additional 9 plays means ~1 more penalties per game (2018 vs 2019), but an extra 16 plays means an additional 5 penalties per game (2018 vs 2020).

Pace of play ain't the root cause.

I'm not making any sort of argument, I'm just trying to make sure that all the variables are being considered. I think there are contributions from pace of play, style of play, talent level, coaching style, experience level, weird Covid disruption stuff, and who knows what else (rule changes, variations in officiating emphasis).

JRjr

 

[vapspwi]

Particularly, when between '08 and '18, opponents could match our 12 play drives with 8 or 9 play drives of their own because our defense couldn't get off the field.

You say this like it's exclusive to CPJ and isn't still true? (I don't have a good intuition for how drive lengths have changed under CGC. It seems like we're sustaining more drives this year. It seems like our opponents can either do a "3 play 75 yard" TD drive or a death march on any given drive, but occasionally the defense surprises me.)

JRjr

 

[ElCidBUZZingFAN]

You say this like it's exclusive to CPJ and isn't still true? (I don't have a good intuition for how drive lengths have changed under CGC. It seems like we're sustaining more drives this year. It seems like our opponents can either do a "3 play 75 yard" TD drive or a death march on any given drive, but occasionally the defense surprises me.)

JRjr

True.

I was part lamenting about the lack of complimentary football with those teams, while going to the heart of the trap that many fell into this thread. As we see in the W/L column these past two years, the offense hid defensive problems only to a point. While the TOP and number of possessions are skewed, the number of plays in the game are not significantly different enough in my opinion so as to be able to explain the penalties issue.

 

[GEETEELEE]

I mentioned in a previous thread that I actually really liked Collins' statement after the game. I think his statements were intended to send a message to his players. I'd have to go back and look at the exact wording, but recollection of the message is: "Yes, those were bad calls. It's not something we can control, we have to ensure that the margin is wide enough between us an our opponent so that the bad calls can't be the difference."

TL:DR - I disagree with Cunningham on this point.

I do agree about the false starts and the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties (like spinning the ball in the end zone, for which there is no excuse).

I also absolute despise this statement towards the end, " The Jackets won’t ever have as many good players as the ACC’s top programs." It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's tacitly encouraging the best local players to go elsewhere by implying that Georgia Tech isn't big boy football, and makes me want to punch him in the face. It's not going to happen overnight, but we've already seen improvement and there's no reason we can't at least recruit competitively with the best of them if we put focus on it.

Without paying players and big money bagmen we will not compete with the big boyz. Maybe Collins knows how to put together bagmen and player payments without bringing the NCAA down on us, idk. I’m open minded about it, but I have my doubts.

 

[goldmember]

This thread might be the Greatest examples of Spin and BS in the history of Stingtalk. We lack execution at this point in ALL aspects of the game and penalties reflect that. We lack consistent execution on offense, defense, and special teams. Sometimes that lack of execution leads to penalties, other times it manifest differently. We lacked the basic execution on extra points virtually all HS teams had for much of the year.

 

[GTCrew]

That's harsh gold member. I believe you are looking at people who are saying "let's overanalyze all the possible contributors to what is obviously a high number of penalties" and calling that excuses.

I don't think it is. I agree with everything you said as the main cause, but did having more plays make it even worse? OF COURSE it did.

If there is anything silly here it is comparing 2018 CPJ to CGC. Dig out Paul's first year and I predict you will find we had more penalties than he did in later years. Maybe I'm wrong?