3rd Down Conversions

Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau

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Boomergump said:
allowed on defense. 2017 YTD 9/21 (38%), 2016 for the season (49%)

I know it is still early, but if we are looking for glimmers of hope in regards to our defense, this is an important stat. Last year, we had a terrible time getting teams off the field. 11% improvement is a significant number. Although it is a small sample size, YTD we have played an average to above average SEC team and an apparently championship caliber FCS team. When combined, in my estimation, they most likely represent an average opponent on our schedule. Is this meaningful? or way too early to start talking about? Discuss.
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I believe your evaluation of Tennessee is considerably inflated. We are showing improvement on defense, but I am not sure what we can glean from our stellar performance against Pittsburgh, but it certainly indicates movement in the right direction. CPJ's statement that we are smaller but faster and would try to employ those traits to our advantage was encouraging. I translated that to mean we would be more aggressive going forward with maybe some more stunts and blitzes. Coach said something about it being difficult to mount an offense when you are having plays for loss.
 
RedPete

RedPete

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For those who want to discount these 3rd down stats based on weak competition, remember last year our D struggled on 3rd down no matter who the opponent was. Duke came in with a weak offense but we made them look great, and it took one of JT5's best games of his career to come out on top. Virginia was on the verge of taking control late before we finally got a critical 3rd down stop. Make no mistake, the Yellow Jackets D is vastly improved this year.
 

Deleted member 2897

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RedPete said:
For those who want to discount these 3rd down stats based on weak competition, remember last year our D struggled on 3rd down no matter who the opponent was. Duke came in with a weak offense but we made them look great, and it took one of JT5's best games of his career to come out on top. Virginia was on the verge of taking control late before we finally got a critical 3rd down stop. Make no mistake, the Yellow Jackets D is vastly improved this year.
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Well, I would say Tennessee is an SEC Team, so they can stand as is. Jacksonville State is SEC-lite (full of a dozen transfers) on 4 days rest, and we played Pittsburgh every bit as well as Oklahoma State and Penn State did. So yea, none of these teams are ranked in the top 10, but we absolutely dominated all of them statistically. If we're trying to evaluate how good we are, looking at how we've doubled the other team's offense each and every game, that is extremely difficult to do.
 
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