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Georgia Tech at Tulane Advanced Box Score

Taking an in-depth look at the stats behind the game

Each Week FTRS will take apart the traditional box score and present our readers with the key insights on how the game was played. You can view all the Advanced Box Scores in the Football Analytics Story Stream. For any questions about the metrics listed below please first refer to the Advanced Stats Glossary for definitions.

Enough with the pleasantries, let's get right into it.

Advanced Box Score

Georgia Tech 38 - Tulane 21
Passing Downs Quarter Performance
GT Tulane GT Tulane
Plays 11 20 Yards / Play Success Rate Yards / Play Success Rate
Yards / Play 3.91 4.85 Q1 4.5 50% 6.73 53%
Success Rate 36% 35% Q2 7.15 60% 6% 31%
Standard Downs Q3 5.88 65% 3.5 33%
GT Tulane Q4 3.79 57% 5.59 35%
Plays 54 40 Down Performance
Yards / Play 5.85 5.75 GT Tulane
Success Rate 63% 40% Yards / Play Success Rate Yards / Play Success Rate
Passing Plays 1 6.79 55% 6 27%
GT Tulane 2 3.5 50% 5.95 52%
Plays 9 38 3 5.42 83% 4.18 45%
Yards / Play 0.89 5.74 4 - - 0 0%
Success Rate 22% 34% Drive Performance
Sack Rate (SD / PD) 1.9% / 0.0% 7.5% / 0.0% Num Drives Avg Start Spot % Methodical % Explosive
Running Plays GT 10 62.00 20% 10%
GT Tulane Tulane 11 65.73 9% 9%
Plays 56 22 % of Possible Yards Gained GT: 50% Tul: 42%
Yards / Play 6.27 4.95 Georgia Tech Hidden Yards 37.3
Success Rate 64% 45% Turnovers GT: 3 Tulane: 3

I'll start with the positives first:

  • A 63% success rate on standard downs is pretty great. That helps us move the chains and keep the passing game from having to bail the offense out.
  • Our defense forced three turnovers and I think our secondary, overall, played a very good game.
  • We also did great on third downs, 83% success rate is phenomenal.
And now some things we didn't do so well.
  • LOL the performance in the passing game was...lacking. Did we fulfill our successful passing plays allotment for the season last week? 0.89 yards per attempt is just not going to get it done. We were only sacked once and I don't remember a "theme" to our other 8 dropbacks, but sooner or later our passing game is going to have to make plays or be consistent and it did neither this week.
  • Two fumbles, can't have it.
Overall I think there were some encouraging signs (Tony Zenon's play, Justin Thomas is faaaaast) and some not so encouraging (not beating ourselves). We will have to play better if our goal is to win the Coastal Division.

Field Position

Tulgtfp_medium

Just as a reminder this shows the frequency of where each team's plays occurred on the field. A "taller" bump represents the fact that more plays happened in that area for the team. Tulane's plays are the bright green blob, Tech's is gold. The closer to the end zone, the better field position.

We really did win the field position game. Even though we only started with better field position by 3 yards per drive (check the Advanced Box Score for Hidden Yards), we were able to move the ball and set us up for scoring opportunities.

Drive Chart

This is something new I am trying after receiving some feedback from some readers last week (We here at FTRS take care of our readers). This shows the progression of field position from drive to drive for each team, so if you want to "follow along with the game" you would start at the bottom and work your way up. The x-axis represents the distance away from Georgia Tech's endzone. So the "0" yard line is Georgia Tech scoring a touchdown, and the "100" would be Tulane scoring a touchdown. Once again the green bars are Tulane and gold are GT. I also removed any drives that end in a kneel down, so our long drive at the end isn't shown. Should it be?

Tulgtdc_medium

  • This game had a ton of turnovers. Our first two fumbles really set up Tulane with excellent field position, but luckily for us they were only able to take advantage with one score. We were able to take advantage of the two picks and then were able to stop their offense in the 2nd half. We really didn't have the ball that much in the 2nd half so it is hard to really criticize our performance on only three drives.
  • This is a new element, so please put any comments, questions, or insights in the comments.

Win Probability Chart

Tulgtwp_medium

And here are the 5 biggest plays of the game according to the change in win probability of the play:

Quarter Down Tulane WP Play Result WPA
1 1 .541 Justin Thomas rush for -7 yards, Fumble + .178
2 1 .602 Tanner Lee pass to Xavier Rush for 61 yards, Touchdown + .143
3 1 .549 Tanner Lee Intercepted - .138
2 2 .700 Tanner Lee Intercepted - .115
1 1 .767 Tony Zenon rush for -6 yards, Fumble + .112

  • Turnovers win or lose games. Four of the biggest five plays in the game were turnovers. I'm a little wary of the numbers for the initial fumble, that seems like a big swing for the second play of the game. However we did gift-wrap them the ball in the redzone.
  • That first half was a doozy. After our 2nd fumble Tulane had an 87% chance of winning the game and Georgia Tech brought that all the way back to being likely to win the game at halftime. I know it was only Tulane but at least we didn't clam up and make the game even worse after that.
  • The 2nd half was just a slow march of death for Tulane's chances of winning the game. Now if we can just do that earlier next time...
What do you guys think? Any insights you gained from the numbers? Then put them in the comments. Also include any suggestions for improving the visuals as well.