Reply With QuoteThey are certainly the bright spot of the year and getting them together to gel this season is going to pay massive dividends next year when we threaten to win 10-11 games. Mullen needs to figure out how to continually put out lines like this.
While we're all waiting on word from the football media sages about when Mullen's bolting from our rinky dink football program, po dunk facilities, and inbred fanbase, I thought I'd take a second to check back in on our offensive line. It seems like they've played pretty damn well the past couple of weeks, and indeed, they have.
First, let's check out the basic stats from the KY and A&M games.
Against KY, the O-line gave up zero sacks and 3 TFLs, and helped us average 5.9 ypc on our way to 282 rushing yards. The next week when they played TN, KY made 7 sacks, 12 TFLs, and held TN to 3.7 ypc. Tennessee is sucking right now, but still, that's solid stuff.
Against A&M, the O-line gave up 2 sacks and 5 TFLs, and helped us average 4.4 ypc on our way to 228 rushing yards. The YPC number may be a little on the low side given that Bama, UF, and Arkansas all averaged between 5 and 5.8 ypc against A&M. But the line's ability to keep A&M out of the backfield is impressive in context. First off, remember that our passing offense has so far been less threatening than those of the other SEC teams A&M has played. (In conference play, Bama's, UF's, and Arkansas' team QB Ratings are 3rd, 8th, and 10th in the league. Ours is 14th.) So they could afford to load the box and focus on the run even more than usual. Second, here are A&M's sack totals in their four other SEC games: Arkansas - 6, SC - 7, Bama - 3, UF - 5. And here are A&M's TFL totals from those games: Arkansas - 7, SC - 12, Bama - 9, UF - 8. So no other SEC line A&M had played at home or on the road limited negative plays nearly as well as ours did. Nice.
As solid as those numbers are, the quality of the line's play so far this season is nationally outstanding. The number-crunching robots over at Football Outsiders compile advanced stats for every O-line in college football that take into account a ton of data, such as "line yards" (raw and opponent-adjusted ypc on short-yardage and long-yardage downs (which the site calls "standard downs" and "passing downs")), "opportunity rate" (the percentage of our rushes that gain at least 5 yards), "power success rate" (percentage of successful rushes -- i.e. TDs and first downs -- on short-yardage downs), "stuff rate" (raw rate TFLs-allowed plus zero-yards rushes), and "sack rates" (raw and opponent-adjusted sacks-allowed-per-passing-attempt rates for standard and passing downs).
Check out our line's current national ranks in those statistical categories:
Adjusted Line Yards - 11th
Standard Down Line Yards - 14th
Passing Down Line Yards - 6th
Opportunity Rate - 8th
Power Success Rate - 3rd
Stuff Rate - 6th
Adjusted Sack Rate - 1st
Standard Down Sack Rate - 28th
Passing Down Sack Rate - 1st
Let that sink in, y'all. We get 5+ yards per carry more often than 122 of the other 129 college football teams in the country. We can get 1 or 2 yards on 3rd or 4th down better than 126 of the other 129 college football teams in the country. And, when you consider the quality of the defenses we've played, we have the best pass-protection line in the country. (Our raw sacks-allowed rank, by the way, is currently 8th in the nation.)
I skimmed over the other teams in the rankings -- here they are -- and I didn't see any whose O-lines had performed even close to as well as ours across the board.
Yeah, we may get knocked around by Bama's line (though their TFL and sacks stats so far are no better than A&M or Auburn's), and yeah, getting anywhere close to our normal ypc will be really, really hard against them (they're holding SEC teams to 2.1 ypc). But against the teams we've played so far -- which include some stout D-lines and front sevens -- our line has put in a great season of work.
They are certainly the bright spot of the year and getting them together to gel this season is going to pay massive dividends next year when we threaten to win 10-11 games. Mullen needs to figure out how to continually put out lines like this.
No doubt they have done a great job. Question - How much does Nick's running ability skew these stats? For instance, we have a lot of 5+ yard runs. A lot of those are Nick. I just wonder how (or if) they factor a running QB into the stats.Originally Posted by Prediction? Pain.
That?s some great work. Thanks for posting that!
Hev be 😎
Oh and we start two freshmen tackles and we have been signing better players of late. Adding Suggs, champion, and Phillips could result in our best, deepest oline under Mullen by far next season
Wish you wouldn't post stuff like this, this board is way more fun to read when everyone is bitching.**
Great question, and I'm not sure I know the answer. No doubt the line's play benefits not just from good execution by the lineman, but also great QB and RB play, good blocking by TE's, good route concepts and/or solid wide receiver play, and good situational play calling.
I wonder how helpful it would be to look at the performance of other offensive lines on teams with dynamic quarterbacks? The first ones that randomly come to my mind are Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, the dude at Notre Dame, and the dude at Arizona. Let's take a looksee.
Louisville's is outstanding at getting solid ypc on passing and standard downs ("line yards"), and is good at preventing TFLs and sacks on passing downs. But they're awful at short yardage rushing (112th) and below average at allowing sacks on standard downs (79th).
Bama is great at standard-down ypc and at rushes of 5+ yards, and good but not great at ypc on passing downs (43rd). But they're bad to average at sack rates. (59th on passing downs, 117th on standard downs.)
Notre Dame's line is also very good at ypc and rushes of 5+ yards (though not as good as State), but their sack rates are a bit more average. (50th overall adjusted sack rate.)
Arizona has amazing pass protection, but it's situational ypc numbers are lower than ours. (55th adjusted "line yards" and 48th at rushes of 5+ yards.) And that's with a QB that is leading the nation with over 13 ypc.
There are obviously a ton of variables at work here. In fact, it occurs to me now that the four teams that popped into my head have some of the best offenses in college football. Three are in the top 10 of yards per play in FBS games (AZ, Louisville, and Bama), and the fourth (Notre Dame) is in the top 25. So my comparison happens to be with the creme of the crop here. (We're 63rd nationally in yards per play in FBS games, by the way.)
But even with a dynamic running QB heading up an elite offense, there's no guarantee this season that an O-line will excel at everything like ours has to date.
I think one of A&M sacks was a design QB run that they tackle Fitz in the back field.
The best surprise about the Oline so far is the play of the tackles. They are keeping guys off Fitz and giving him time to find someone. They are also doing a great job of sealing off the defense on our off tackle plays. And the best part is they are freshmen.
Also note teams are staying at the line of scrimmage in their assignments (GA and AU) to keep Fitz where he is the weak, in the pocket. Note how aTm worked out OL. They stayed in the block and then shed for a ton of short yardage tackles. When we play teams that try to get upfield on us, we run all over them. See LSU.
Downvotes_Hype
The stats look fantastic, especially considering that they include the blowout games to Georgia and Auburn. Imagine how good those stats would look without those two games. Might be first or second in several categories.
Maybe Mullen letting go of Sallach hit home with Hevesy
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