Negative Plays

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scatman22

Flats Noob
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Nov 29, 2007
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In 2013, GT's offense had 1 or more negative plays in 51% of their offensive possessions vs FBS opponents. For context, here's the % of drives that contained at least 1 negative play for the top 5 rushing offenses in the FBS in 2013 (GT was ranked 6th BTW)

Auburn- 37%
Navy- 35%
Army- 42%
New Mexico- 46%
Ohio St.- 36%

Not to mention, the up tempo teams were getting about 30 more possessions per season on average.
 
A common misconception there. Up tempo teams get more possessions but so do your opponents. As John Madden would say, the goal is to score more than the other team, not to maximize the number of points you score in isolation.

But except for fumbles, negative plays were the biggest issues due mainly to both poor OL blocking and perimeter blocking.
 
I bet some % of this was Vad and his fumbleitis. That kid fumbled every öööö game.
 
I'd like to see this stat vs prior years at GT. Seems like we were tops in the country at it for a while.
 
I should go back and look if you were one of the people bashing me when I was saying Vad Lee wasn't better at moving the offense than Tevin.
 
It seemed you could always tell how our game was going to go based on our first few possessions. If we screwed those up, Vad became a quivering blob of jello.
 
beej67 said:
I'd like to see this stat vs prior years at GT. Seems like we were tops in the country at it for a while.
Click to expand...

2013- 51%
2012- 45%
2011- 44%
2010- 52%
2009- 43%
2008- 40%

Averaged about 135 Possessions/year vs FBS opponents.
 
GT1992 said:
I should go back and look if you were one of the people bashing me when I was saying Vad Lee wasn't better at moving the offense than Tevin.
Click to expand...

I probably was. Whether it was Vad, coaching, or a combo of both, his 2013 season was very disappointing.
 
Vad had "big play potential". Tevin did not. Probably worth swapping them, imo.

Hopefully JT won't fumble around and he does have bigger RUNNING play potential than Vad...and that's what CPJ does...he runs the ball. We shall see.
 
scatman22 said:
2013- 51%
2012- 45%
2011- 44%
2010- 52%
2009- 43%
2008- 40%

Averaged about 135 Possessions/year vs FBS opponents.
Click to expand...

Here's what I see:

1) 1st year QB's have way more negative plays. This is a consistent trend with almost all of our offensive stats, I've noticed.

2) Nesbitt was a tank that frequently broke multiple tackles to turn 2 yard losses into 2 yard gains. May not seem significant, but in our offense it very much is.
 
Biggest culprit was OL breakdowns that allowed penetration of the line of scrimmage.
 
johncu said:
Here's what I see:

1) 1st year QB's have way more negative plays. This is a consistent trend with almost all of our offensive stats, I've noticed.
Click to expand...

Statistically though that isn't represented. Our best year for least negative plays was in the first QB ever here and our worst was in that QB's last year (he still played more than Tevin that year). Maybe Washington isn't a good one to gauge from that stat since he got 4 games in the end of one year.
 
77GTFan said:
Biggest culprit was OL breakdowns that allowed penetration of the line of scrimmage.
Click to expand...

Probably so, but I also got pretty used to seeing Vad realize his original running lane would only net a small gain, reverse field (killing all forward momentum), and be swallowed up short of where he would have been if he just took the original lane.
 
GTLiebs said:
Statistically though that isn't represented. Our best year for least negative plays was in the first QB ever here and our worst was in that QB's last year (he still played more than Tevin that year). Maybe Washington isn't a good one to gauge from that stat since he got 4 games in the end of one year.
Click to expand...

I think it is represented, although the sample size is too small to support it, of course.

Like I said, Nesbitt broke the trend because he didn't get tackled for a loss very often at all. I realize that Nesbitt played a lot in 2010, but the statistics were pretty skewed from when Tevin took over. I remember repeatedly shouting at my TV when Tevin would just flop on the ground for a loss when plays broke down, sort of similar to how Vad did this past season. As he got better he made quicker decisions that resulted in fewer negative plays.

I don't have the time to compile stats right now, but in the past I believe that our offensive efficiency (ppg, ypg, turnovers, etc.) has correlated pretty strongly with how experienced our QB was at the time. The wildcard is that when it came down to the wire, Nesbitt won close games and Tevin did not. Hopefully JT can be more Nesbitt than Tevin/Vad, but we'll see.
 
scatman22 said:
In 2013, GT's offense had 1 or more negative plays in 51% of their offensive possessions vs FBS opponents. For context, here's the % of drives that contained at least 1 negative play for the top 5 rushing offenses in the FBS in 2013 (GT was ranked 6th BTW)

Auburn- 37%
Navy- 35%
Army- 42%
New Mexico- 46%
Ohio St.- 36%

Not to mention, the up tempo teams were getting about 30 more possessions per season on average.
Click to expand...

Shoot. We should adopt Navy's offense.
 
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