AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September > 25
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
When ball’s in the air, bad things happening
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ll be brief today.
If Tech was granted one wish, and could make a big improvement in one area of its football team, it would have to be third downs, right? They’re ranked next-to-last in the nation, as Mike Knobler wrote today, and that’s deadly.
Chan Gailey certainly did nothing to disagree earlier today, and I’ll have some more numbers in the notebook later today to reflect how bad it’s been for the Jackets. Bottom line, they’re in way, way, way, way too many third-and-long situations. That means they’re getting stuffed on too many first- and second-down runs, or failing to complete many first- and second-down passes.
I’m going to try to scare up numbers as far as how they’ve done on first- and second-down runs and passes, but that’s a lot easier to do with the way the NFL (or rather some statistic-keeping companies) looks after such stats, but I’ll try.
Tech is converting just 20.8 percent of its third downs. By contrast, Saturday’s opponent, Clemson, leads the ACC with a rate more than twice as good — 42 percent.
More relevant, Clemson’s third-down defense is in the middle of the pack, ranked No. 9 in the ACC, allowing 38.2 percent. Then again, Virginia is No. 8, at 36.9 percent, and the Cavs held Tech to 3 of 15 last Saturday.
Many of these numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt because they include all games, which is kind of scary for Tech because that means the stats against terrible Notre Dame and Samford games count and the Jackets are still dreadful.
Third downs = passes.
Tech is N0. 11 in passing yardage at 166 per game, and No. 11 is passer efficiency rating (100.1). Again, they didn’t have to throw much against ND and Samford (when Taylor Bennett completed 8 of 9), but regardlessof that the numbers are very, very bad.
Clemson is No. 3 in pass defense, allowing just 169.8 per game, and No. 1 in passer efficiency defense (92.9).
On paper, this does not bode well.
On the flip side, while Tech is in the middle of the pack or just below it in pass defense and passer efficiency defense (thanks to the bloated numbers BC put up in the passing game against the Jackets), Clemson — noted for the way it runs the ball — leads the ACC in passer efficiency with a whopping 69.7 completion percentage, 13 touchdown passes and ZERO interceptions thrown.
Tech has thrown one touchdown pass, and intercepted one pass.
If these numbers hold to form Saturday, yech. If Tech can reverse the direction, it will help a lot to say the least.
By the way, my son’s team is 1-2, even if some of you don’t care. We’ve given up one touchdown in each game, yet lost twice, including 6-0 last week. Our quarterback is coming back from a viral infection, but probably won’t play until next week, and he may slowly work back in at QB. He’s quick, tough, OK thrower, and a heat-seeking missile on defense. We haven’t decided if my boy will stay at QB, move to another position, or just play defense as the returning player has a lot to catch up on after missing five weeks.
We can compete with anybody in the league, but we’ve got to spruce up the offense regardless of who QBs. I started to go into our problems, but one of those stinking Saints coaches might be reading this. Buzz off if you are! More next week.
Matt
