I went back and looked at last year's offensive stats by quarter and one thing jumped out in comparing offensive output in wins versus losses.
The games were all won or lost during the second and third quarters. In the games we won, the offense averaged 272 yards and 24 points, compared to 183 yds and 7.5 points in the losses.
Stats during the first quarters didn't differ by much (88.4 yards and 5.7 points in wins vs 94.25 yards and 6 points in losses). Fourth quarters were actually better in losses (140.5 yards/10.5 points) than in wins (96.7 yards/7.1 points).
The 2 worst offensive performances by quarter were both in 1st/4th quarters in wins.
The offense only gained 5 yards in the first quarter against Notre Dame and only 27 yards and 7 points in the 4th quarter against ECU, but the best 1st/4th quarter performances were 204 yards and 14 points in the first quarter loss to Tennessee and 203 yards and 13 points in the 4th quarter loss to Georgia Tech.
Comments
That's an interesting comparison. I suppose the 4th qtr depends on whether we're cruising with a lead or either team is fighting to stay In it.
Nice work, this is interesting. I wonder how this compares to CornFu's Memphis time and if it's a bigger trend. That would make sense since the offense likes to set things up with misdirection.
Only looking at Fuente's last year's data, at Memphis in 2015, the difference in wins and losses were staggering.
In wins: (yards/points)
112.4/10, 157.4/15, 162.8/11.3, 115.7/10.1
In losses:
85.75/4, 101.5/6.5, 84.75/5, 66.25/1.75
It looks like there's a trend of "slow" starts and doing the real damage in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. I assume that's a product of the system they run. I wonder if that's by design (use some plays to see what the D is doing and adjust) or just happenstance.
Damn yall offseason struggles hit hard even when it's game week
Until the ball is kicked off it is the off-season and off-season struggles are valid until that point
You might want to correct the spelling error in the post title before the English majors get a facial tick.
Didn't mean for my spelling to be so offensive
Actually, I think you did.
I hope they get that facial tick looked at, they might get Lyme disease
Scorewise, the only games where the outcome was affected by the 4th quarter were Notre Dame and the bowl.
i think part of the problem with this is i can think of at least 4 games where we had an insermountable lead in the 4th (loluva ecu liberty and BC) id love to see our 4th quarter output in wins vs losses in closer games (maybe rule out tennessee too as we were kinda out of that by the end)
4th quarter scores
Liberty (W 36-13)
VT 3-0
Tennessee (L 24-45)
UT 14-7
BC (W 49-0)
VT 7-0
ECU (W 54-17)
VT 7-3
UNC (W 34-3)
VT 7-0
Syracuse (L 17-31)
Cuse 14-8
Miami (W 37-16)
VT 7-0
Pitt (W 39-36)
Pitt 15-10
Duke (W 24-21)
Duke 7-3
GT (L 20-30)
VT 13-10
Notre Dame (W 34-31)
VT 13-0
UVA (W 52-10)
UVA 7-0
Clemson (L 35-42)
VT 14-7
Arkansas (W 35-24)
VT 14-0
Outscored in the 4th quarter in 5 games, but won 3 of them.
Of the 9 games where we outscored the opponent in the 4th, we lost 2 of them.
As I mentioned above, the ND and bowl games are the only two where the 4th quarter changed the final outcome, and both of those were wins for us. So we didn't lose any game in the 4th quarter, at least not where we were holding a lead going into it.
I remember we had some slow starts even in our wins last year. Tennessee was the exception and that ended poorly.