Clemson 41 - GT 10

[GoldZ]

The amount of push we got on QB sneaks almost reminded me of the VPISU game. Sims was getting 3-4 yards on those.

Sims himself was a big part of that push. He's much stronger now.

 

[bobongo]

Sims himself was a big part of that push. He's much stronger now.

Yeah, I don't remember a lot of push from the offensive line.

 

[roadkill]

I'm about ready to focus on WCU, but here is the advanced stats review from the Clemson game by Binion. Some good and some bad.

Georgia Tech Football: GT vs. Clemson Advanced Stats Review

Solid defense, same old issues on offense, and more concerning coaching add up to a 30 point loss

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

Pretty good analysis, generally consistent with many observations already expressed in this thread. I wonder if our coaches read this stuff? There are some insightful takes on individual player performances and recommendations going forward. Maybe we will see some Clemson-performance-related personnel adjustments in the WCU game.

 

[yeti92]

I haven't read all the way through this thread yet, but has anyone actually gone back and reviewed last year's game for comparison?

 

[whitegoldsphinx]

I'm about ready to focus on WCU, but here is the advanced stats review from the Clemson game by Binion. Some good and some bad.

Georgia Tech Football: GT vs. Clemson Advanced Stats Review

Solid defense, same old issues on offense, and more concerning coaching add up to a 30 point loss

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

We're number 1 in Total EPA!

Oh, that's percentile, not ranking? Oops.

 

[slugboy]

I'm about ready to focus on WCU, but here is the advanced stats review from the Clemson game by Binion. Some good and some bad.

Georgia Tech Football: GT vs. Clemson Advanced Stats Review

Solid defense, same old issues on offense, and more concerning coaching add up to a 30 point loss

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

It’s not perfect, but it’s a worthwhile overview. Glad I read it

I haven't read all the way through this thread yet, but has anyone actually gone back and reviewed last year's game for comparison?

Take a look at the link in the other quote.

Georgia Tech Football: GT vs. Clemson Advanced Stats Review

Solid defense, same old issues on offense, and more concerning coaching add up to a 30 point loss

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

It’s not a film breakdown, but it makes a comparison

 

[yeti92]

It’s not perfect, but it’s a worthwhile overview. Glad I read it

Take a look at the link in the other quote.

Georgia Tech Football: GT vs. Clemson Advanced Stats Review

Solid defense, same old issues on offense, and more concerning coaching add up to a 30 point loss

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

It’s not a film breakdown, but it makes a comparison

I'm not seeing it, but its a long article and I may have just missed it.

 

[slugboy]

I'm not seeing it, but its a long article and I may have just missed it.

I can pull some stats tomorrow. Offense was similar. Passes were shorter. Defense was better (believe it or not). Punting, because of the two blocks, was worse.

Field goal game is much better.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

So that's why Dodd ran up the score on Texas A&M in '66. Saw a video of that game (can't find it online now) and was amazed at the ending, which as you point out seemed out-of-character for Dodd. Along with Tech's 7-6 win over #1 'Bama in '62 at Grant Field, just a little more payback from the '61 Chick Graning game in Birmingham, and teaching Gene Stallings a painful lesson. I think the TD pass was thrown by backup Larry Good to Johnny Sias in the '66 A&M game.

Coach Dodd said he was prouder of the '66 team than any other, because of the way they overachieved. Went 9-2, losing the last two to Georgia and the Orange Bowl to Florida, but Georgia only had one loss that year and Florida two. Tech wasn't expected to end up anywhere near the Orange Bowl that season.

1966 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Schedule and Results | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

1966 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Schedule and Results

www.sports-reference.com

You are correct. It was back up Larry Good from Camilla who threw that late TD pass to speedster John Sias. Yep. It was payback on the part of Dodd and totally out of character for him but I understand why he did it. He saw an opportunity to let Stallings know he had not forgotten and he took it.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

So that's why Dodd ran up the score on Texas A&M in '66. Saw a video of that game (can't find it online now) and was amazed at the ending, which as you point out seemed out-of-character for Dodd. Along with Tech's 7-6 win over #1 'Bama in '62 at Grant Field, just a little more payback from the '61 Chick Graning game in Birmingham, and teaching Gene Stallings a painful lesson. I think the TD pass was thrown by backup Larry Good to Johnny Sias in the '66 A&M game.

Coach Dodd said he was prouder of the '66 team than any other, because of the way they overachieved. Went 9-2, losing the last two to Georgia and the Orange Bowl to Florida, but Georgia only had one loss that year and Florida two. Tech wasn't expected to end up anywhere near the Orange Bowl that season.

1966 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Schedule and Results | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

1966 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Schedule and Results

www.sports-reference.com

As a kid watching Lenny Snow in the Gator Bowl got me pulling for Tech. The following season (1966) was the magical season that made me fall in love with Tech.

 

[slugboy]

I'm not seeing it, but its a long article and I may have just missed it.

Here are the box score totals (https://www.sports-reference.com/):

2022

Stat	CLEM	GT
First Downs	22	13
Rush-Yds-TDs	40-119-3	30-73-0
Cmp-Att-Yd-TD-INT	23-38-259-2-0	23-36-164-1-1
Total Yards	378	237
Fumbles-Lost	2-1	2-0
Turnovers	1	1
Penalties-Yards	3-10	10-86

2021

Stat	GT	CLEM
First Downs	20	19
Rush-Yds-TDs	38-95-0	41-158-2
Cmp-Att-Yd-TD-INT	20-34-203-0-1	18-25-126-0-0
Total Yards	298	284
Fumbles-Lost	1-0	3-1
Turnovers	1	1
Penalties-Yards	10-63	8-66

In raw numbers, our offense declined from 298 yards to 237 yards. We went from 20 first downs in 2021 to 13 first downs in 2022. We went from rushing 95 yards to rushing 73 yards. We went from 63 yards of penalties to 86. We went from no TDs in 2021 to 1 TD in 2022.

On defense, we went from giving up 284 yards and 14 points and getting one safety to giving up 40 points and 378 yards. Those numbers don't tell the entire story, but Clemson last year was one of our better defensive outings in a long time. If your only view of our defense was last year's Clemson game, you'd say we had a good defense.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Here are the box score totals:

2022

Stat	CLEM	GT
First Downs	22	13
Rush-Yds-TDs	40-119-3	30-73-0
Cmp-Att-Yd-TD-INT	23-38-259-2-0	23-36-164-1-1
Total Yards	378	237
Fumbles-Lost	2-1	2-0
Turnovers	1	1
Penalties-Yards	3-10	10-86

2021

Stat	GT	CLEM
First Downs	20	19
Rush-Yds-TDs	38-95-0	41-158-2
Cmp-Att-Yd-TD-INT	20-34-203-0-1	18-25-126-0-0
Total Yards	298	284
Fumbles-Lost	1-0	3-1
Turnovers	1	1
Penalties-Yards	10-63	8-66

In raw numbers, our offense declined from 298 yards to 237 yards. We went from 20 first downs in 2021 to 13 first downs in 2022. We went from rushing 95 yards to rushing 73 yards. We went from 63 yards of penalties to 86. We went from no TDs in 2021 to 1 TD in 2022.

On defense, we went from giving up 284 yards and 14 points and getting one safety to giving up 40 points and 378 yards. Those numbers don't tell the entire story, but Clemson last year was one of our better defensive outings in a long time. If your only view of our defense was last year's Clemson game, you'd say we had a good defense.

I’m just asking a (psychological?) question about comparisons. If we compared the two Clemson games then we are declining as a team.

But do you think the reason some of us “saw” improvement was because we were unconsciously comparing this year’s Clemson game to last year’s Notre Dame and Georgia games?

We certainly improved from the end of last year but maybe comparing the two Clemson games (both teams in early season development) is more natural.

I don’t know.

 

[slugboy]

This isn't a film review, and it's not PFF grades. It's advanced stats. Put the weight on them that you think is fair.
Also, it's Thursday. We play Western Carolina in two days.

Stats from GameOnPaper

2022 (Clem 41 - GT 10) overall advanced stats:

Overall	Clemson	GT
EPA/Play	0.09 66th %ile	-0.25 1st %ile
Success Rate	49% 98th %ile	35% 5th %ile
Yards/Play	5.47 20th %ile	3.59 0th %ile
EPA/Dropback	0.22 92nd %ile	-0.17 8th %ile
EPA/Rush	-0.04 21st %ile	-0.37 0th %ile
Yards/Dropback	6.32 29th %ile	4.32 1st %ile
Explosive Play Rate	8% 34th %ile	5% 0th %ile
3rd Down Success Rate	53% 97th %ile	18% 0th %ile
Red Zone Success Rate	38% 45th %ile	33% 15th %ile
Def Run Stuff Rate	29% 100th %ile	11% 6th %ile
Havoc Rate	18% 100th %ile	8% 10th %ile

2021 (Clem 14 - GT 8) overall advanced stats

Overall	GT	Clemson
EPA/Play	-0.08 7th %ile	-0.08 7th %ile
Success Rate	42% 53rd %ile	39% 30th %ile
Yards/Play	4.15 1st %ile	4.23 1st %ile
EPA/Dropback	0.08 56th %ile	-0.15 9th %ile
EPA/Rush	-0.24 0th %ile	-0.04 21st %ile
Yards/Dropback	5.49 11th %ile	5.04 5th %ile
Explosive Play Rate	6% 2nd %ile	3% 0th %ile
3rd Down Success Rate	20% 0th %ile	56% 99th %ile
Red Zone Success Rate	33% 15th %ile	56% 100th %ile
Def Run Stuff Rate	12% 12th %ile	11% 6th %ile
Havoc Rate	11% 63rd %ile	8% 9th %ile

In Offensive Points Added per Play, we went from -0.08 to -0.25; That's significantly worse. On defense, it's a wash from last year.
In success rate (did you get the yards this down that you needed to keep ahead of the chains?), we dropped from 42% to 35%, and we went from the 53rd percentile to the 5th percentile. We didn't move the ball "as well" as last year. Clemson went from 39% to 49%, which is much, much better for them (and worse for our defense).
We went from 5.40 yards/dropback to 4.32--we were throwing shorter passes and getting fewer yards.

2022 Defensive Stats:

Defensive	Clemson	GT
Scrimmage Plays	66	78
Stop Rate	56%	35%
Havoc Plays Created	12 (18%)	6 (8%)
Passing	5 (13%)	3 (7%)
Rushing	7 (25%)	3 (8%)
TFLs Generated	11	5
Passing	4	3
Rushing	7	2
Sacks Generated	2 (5%)	3 (7%)
Passes Defensed	0	0
Interceptions	1	0
Fumbles Forced	1	1

2021 Defensive Stats:

Defensive	GT	Clemson
Scrimmage Plays	66	72
Stop Rate	68%	58%
Havoc Plays Created	5 (8%)	8 (11%)
Passing	1 (4%)	4 (11%)
Rushing	4 (10%)	4 (11%)
TFLs Generated	4	8
Passing	1	4
Rushing	3	4
Sacks Generated	0 (0%)	4 (11%)
Passes Defensed	0	0
Interceptions	0	0
Fumbles Forced	1	0

What's different in 2022? We got sacks--that's a plus. We got fewer stops--that's a big minus.

 

[slugboy]

I’m just asking a (psychological?) question about comparisons. If we compared the two Clemson games then we are declining as a team.

But do you think the reason some of us “saw” improvement was because we were unconsciously comparing this year’s Clemson game to last year’s Notre Dame and Georgia games?

We certainly improved from the end of last year but maybe comparing the two Clemson games (both teams in early season development) is more natural.

I don’t know.

This Clemson game was MUCH better than the UGA and ND games. I think we forgot how well we played in last year's Clemson game.

Also, we played Clemson last year in week #3. We played them in game #1 this time around, basically with a new offense and a largely new defense. The offense isn't clicking yet. Hopefully, it does start clicking. The secondary and a lot of other positions are changed over. We had first-game jitters.

We played better in some ways this year than last year. However, last year's Clemson game was one of our best games. I'm waiting to see if we get the offense going this week and in upcoming weeks. If our offense and our defense improve from week to week, we can have a good season. If we don't, it'll be a long season.

 

[yeti92]

I’m just asking a (psychological?) question about comparisons. If we compared the two Clemson games then we are declining as a team.

But do you think the reason some of us “saw” improvement was because we were unconsciously comparing this year’s Clemson game to last year’s Notre Dame and Georgia games?

We certainly improved from the end of last year but maybe comparing the two Clemson games (both teams in early season development) is more natural.

I don’t know.

I asked the same thing in another thread. This feels much better than end of last season, but if you think about how we felt after Clemson last year, we were probably even higher then. I think also that it's a new OC, so expectations are naturally lower in his first game when we are expected to still be working out the kinks and its easier to get excited.

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

From watching the game, you could really see the new offensive scheme taking shape and I liked it. Bootlegs, more under center, intermediate passing game, and zone running seem to be what to look for this year. Granted we were going against a top-notch defense, but the plays were there. Sims did a great job not forcing the ball and taking what the defense gave him. I loved that we called more screen plays and it helped stretch out the field. Also, crucify me if you will, but after a few days to ponder on it, I really like the call on the first play of the game. Of course it didn't work out because it was thrown a little late and short, but it was a single man read the whole way and could have set the tone for the game. Why call plays like you're scared? I love the idea of coming out of the gates swinging and trying to lay an early haymaker. Could you imagine how pumped we all would have been had it been completed? Remember, our receiver had a step had it been thrown a couple seconds earlier. Love the gutsy play call even though hindsight tells us it didn't work.

 

[LongforDodd]

...was because we were unconsciously comparing ...

I agree in that there is a fair amount of unconscious thinking around here.

 

[LongforDodd]

This Clemson game was MUCH better than the UGA and ND games. I think we forgot how well we played in last year's Clemson game.

Also, we played Clemson last year in week #3. We played them in game #1 this time around, basically with a new offense and a largely new defense. The offense isn't clicking yet. Hopefully, it does start clicking. The secondary and a lot of other positions are changed over. We had first-game jitters.

We played better in some ways this year than last year. However, last year's Clemson game was one of our best games. I'm waiting to see if we get the offense going this week and in upcoming weeks. If our offense and our defense improve from week to week, we can have a good season. If we don't, it'll be a long season.

I only watched the first half live. Last night I watched half of the 3rd quarter. Up until that point, we played a pretty decent game (except for O-line play...again) after holding clemson to that FG on the last drive I watched.

 

[CEB]

I’m just asking a (psychological?) question about comparisons. If we compared the two Clemson games then we are declining as a team.

But do you think the reason some of us “saw” improvement was because we were unconsciously comparing this year’s Clemson game to last year’s Notre Dame and Georgia games?

We certainly improved from the end of last year but maybe comparing the two Clemson games (both teams in early season development) is more natural.

I don’t know.

I think a lot of it is early season optimism.
I think we were pretty fired up last season after playing Clemson really well and very similar to how UGA played them two weeks prior. Given later results of last year, I think we all kind of dismissed the good Clemson game as the fluke. The teams were certainly on a different trajectory.
Hopefully we were on the right track last year before some injuries and missed opportunities, and hopefully we’re on the right track again. Maybe this time we can avoid injuries and take Advantage of a few opportunities this year

 

[bobongo]

I’m just asking a (psychological?) question about comparisons. If we compared the two Clemson games then we are declining as a team.

But do you think the reason some of us “saw” improvement was because we were unconsciously comparing this year’s Clemson game to last year’s Notre Dame and Georgia games?

We certainly improved from the end of last year but maybe comparing the two Clemson games (both teams in early season development) is more natural.

I don’t know.

I think it's more valid to compare the game to last season on the whole than to one game. Yeah, we played the same uniform, but there were different players in some of those unis and different coaches coaching them. On top of that, players and teams are up and down, so a comparison of one game this year to one game last year seems of questionable worth. A whole season is just a more representative sample. For instance, we gave up more points in this year's game, but I would say our defense played better than just about all of the 11 games it played last year - especially the pass defense and tackling (I didn't think the DL was all that bad last year). But I'm just talking about the defense. I want to reserve judgement on the offense (particularly the OL) until we get past game three. But the OL is an area of major concern.