As always, these are only numbers from FBS vs FBS competion
Offense:
Yards per play: 1st (8.10 YPP) -- Some context: Almost a half a yard higher than the #2 team (Navy - 7.64). A FULL YARD HIGHER THAN #10. Insanity.
Yards per game: 1st (582.0 YPG) -- Insert psychotic laughing. WTF even is this? Literally historic production. FIFTY yards ahead of #2 (North Texas)
Points per game: 1st (47.0 PPG) -- 8 teams in the country are averaging 40+. We are a TD better than that.
Passing yards per game: 1st (399.2 YPG) -- 11 teams are averaging 300+ a game. We are almost at 400!
Passing completion percentage: 8th (68.7%)
Passing yards per attempt: 3rd (10.3 YPA) -- Only teams averaging more are Army and Navy, who have thrown 48 and 62 passes all year, respectively.
Passer rating: 3rd (181.88) -- Again, only behind Army and Navy.
Passing TDs: 1st (22 TDs) -- Clemson with 21 and Texas with 20, but both have played 1 more game than we have.
Rushing yards per game: 34th (182.83 YPG)
Rushing yards per attempt: 11th (5.54 YPA)
Rushing TDs: 22nd (14)
Sacks given up per game: 51st (1.67 per game)
3rd down conversion %: 1st (59.2%) -- This is a completely absurd number. In the past 8 FULL SEASONS, the best number is 58%. Bama in 2020.
4th down conversion %: 5th (87.5%, 7 for 8 on the season)
TFLs allowed per game: 11th (3.67 per game)
Red Zone TD %: 8th (78.57% TD rate, 22 TDs in 28 chances) -- 2023: 96th, 2022: 121st, 2021: 78th, 2020: 72nd. Hello, Cam Ward
Red Zone Scoring %: 21st (26 scores in 28 chances)
Field goal %: 16th (9 for 10)
PAT %: 1st (41 for 41)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 1st (126) TEN more than 2nd place Clemson, who has played 1 more game than we have.
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 1st (55) Only 5 teams in America have 40+. 3 of the other 4 besides us have played 7 games. We have FIFTY-FIVE in 6 games.
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 7th (19)
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 5th (11)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 8th (6)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 4th (4)
70+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 3rd (3)
Defense:
Yards per play allowed: 42nd (5.31 YPP)
Yards per game allowed: 22nd (325.5 YPG)
Points per game allowed: 58th (24.8 PPG)
Passing yards per game allowed: 65th (226.8 YPG)
Passing completion percentage allowed: 30th (57.6%)
Passing yards per attempt: 32nd (6.5 YPA)
Passer rating allowed: 32nd (119.53)
Rushing yards per game allowed: 13th (98.67 YPG)
Rushing yards per attempt allowed: 35th (3.75 YPA)
Sacks per game: 14th (3.0 sacks per game)
3rd down % allowed: 15th (31.08% allowed)
4th down % allowed: 80th (60.0% allowed)
TFLs per game: 18th (7.17 per game)
Red Zone td % allowed: 62nd (60% allowed -- 9 TDs in 15 chances)
Red Zone Scoring % allowed: 36th (80% allowed -- 12 scores in 15 chances)
Punting: 37th (44.4 Yard average) -- We have punted 12 times in 6 games. Only Indiana has punted fewer (11).
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 51st (78)
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 65th (27)
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 28th (8)
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 96th (8)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 125th (7) -- I HATE IT
Team Stats:
Penalties: 89th (6.8 penalties per game)
Penalty yards: 124th (74.7 Yards per game)
Turnover margin: 55th (+0.17 per game -- 8 takeaways, 7 giveaways) -- Not many good teams this poor here. 8 takeaways in 6 games is not good.
Time of possession: 8th (34:04 per game)
Number of offensive plays: (Avg 71.8 plays per game)
Takeaways:
I'm genuinely running out of words to describe this offense. It's really starting to get ridiculous. Or, I guess it's been ridiculous, it's starting to get historic. We do literally everything well. The only number that's not eye-popping is sacks allowed, but it's because we throw the ball so much and our QB is a maestro of play extension. Most points, yards, explosives, etc. You see the numbers. This is ******* insanity. I said all summer that there was ZERO excuse to not have one of the best offenses in the country, but even in my wildest dreams, I didn't see this coming. And again, looking a little more big picture, I said 10-2 was the worst record I'd accept, and honestly it was looking more like 11-1 the closer we got to the season. So I didn't expect a national championship, or a playoff win. But through 7 games, zooming out, if we DON'T at least come close to winning a national championship, did we "waste" this offense? More to follow on that in the coming weeks, but the fact that it's a discussion right now is a testament to the work Dawson is doing with these kids. We are so loaded on offense, it's just really fun to watch this team every week. I implore you to do everything you can to not ***** and/or focus on negatives. I mean, we're 7-0, so if you're constantly *****ing, you're just a *****. But not everything is pie in the sky, obviously. We're not perfect, no team ever is. More on the imperfect stuff in a minute, but overall, just have fun watching these kids play football. Cam is genuinely the most fun player in America. There are 134 FBS teams. We are the only ones who get to watch the most fun kid in the country play football every week. So have fun doing it, and focus on that fact rather than I think Louisville just hit another big pass a few seconds ago. It's been a long, long, long time since we've been this exciting and fun to watch. Enjoy the **** out of it.
On defense, woof. After I've had 2 days to digest this, I'm not quite as fully sick to my stomach as I was on Saturday with their performance. Don't get me wrong, it was putrid. But at the end of the day, Louisville got 6.22 a play against us. It was their 2nd lowest mark of the season...only ND held them lower. They scored 45, but 7 of those came off a kick return. And another 7 were following a turnover on our 20 yard line. When we HAD TO HAVE a stop, after our TD to go up 45-38, we got one. And we took the ball and went right down the field to make it 52-38 with 4 mins left, giving us a massively high chance to win.
But these numbers are starting to look really gross. Overall, when you look at the whole season, most of them aren't THAT bad. But looking at only conference games, it's disgusting. Here is where we rank when you ONLY take conference games into effect. Meaning, the SEC teams only have their numbers factored vs other SEC teams. ACC vs ACC only, etc.
Scoring defense - 121st
YPG allowed -- 84th
YPP allowed -- 110th
Passer Rating allowed -- 84th
YPA allowed -- 75th
Passing YPG allowed -- 106th
Yards per rush allowed -- 101st
3rd downs allowed -- 61st
Just absolutely brutal. We all know this. So, I'm not trying to sugar coat this. The defense the last 3 games has sucked ***. BUT....when we absolutely had to have it, they've been able to at least provide some resistance. 10 points in the 2nd half against VT. 10 points in the 2nd half vs Cal (the other 7 was a pick 6). The 4th quarter stop against Louisville. We finally scored a non-offensive TD. We held them to 3/12 on 3rd down (but 3/3 on 4th, and I don't think that includes the conversions via penalty). So, we're 7-0. IMO, we demolish FSU and Duke the next 2 weeks, because the team that's going to get us is going to be a high-powered offensive team, not a good defensive team with a **** offense. And that is FSU and Duke, clearly. But, again, this is a literal historic offense. I am going to put something together later for the ongoing 2019 LSU vs 2024 Miami discussion we've been having. Make no mistake about it, this is a national championship offense. It genuinely is. So somehow, some way, we HAVE to be able to figure out how to play complementary football. We don't need to be Top 10 in defense to make serious national noise the next 3 months. But we can't be 121st in scoring defense and give up all these explosives.
Go Canes.
