OrangeBowlMagic
CEO
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2014
- Messages
- 19,076
As always, these are only numbers from FBS vs FBS competition.
Offense:
Yards per play: 29th (6.15 YPP)
Yards per game: 35th (415.2 YPG)
Points per game: 20th (33.1 PPG)
Passing yards per game: 24th (269.6 YPG)
Passing completion percentage: 2nd (72.9%)
Passing yards per attempt: 16th (8.6 YPA)
Passer rating: 8th (163.74)
Passing TDs: 10th (25 TDs)
Interceptions: 83rd (10 INTs)
Rushing yards per game: 74th (145.6 YPG)
Rushing yards per attempt: 88th (4.00 YPA)
Rushing TDs: 53rd (19)
Sacks given up per game: 6th (0.82 per game)
First Downs per game: 32nd (22.2 per game)
3rd down conversion %: 21st (46.32%)
4th down conversion %: 18th (66.7%, 12 for 18 on the season)
TFLs allowed per game: 7th (3.55 per game)
Red Zone TD %: 22nd (71.4% TD rate, 33 TDs in 47 chances)
Red Zone Scoring %: 14th (43 scores in 47 chances)
Field goal %: 17th (15 for 17)
PAT %: 1st (44 for 44)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 55th (153)
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 63rd (48)
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 49th (23)
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 82nd (9)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 86th (4)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 84th (2)
70+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 103rd (0)
Defense:
Yards per play allowed: 8th (4.57 YPP)
Yards per game allowed: 11th (285.6 YPG)
Points per game allowed: 6th (14.8 PPG) *Gave up 26.7 last year. A 12 point per game improvement*
Passing yards per game allowed: 29th (199.3 YPG)
Passing completion percentage allowed: 30th (58.6%)
Passing yards per attempt: 13th (6.1 YPA)
Passer rating allowed: 15th (113.37)
Rushing yards per game allowed: 5th (86.36 YPG) (Remember all off-season when we heard we didn't have the bodies to stop the run?)
Rushing yards per attempt allowed: 7th (2.91 YPA)
Sacks per game: 7th (3.0 sacks per game)
3rd down % allowed: 11th (31.1% allowed)
4th down % allowed: 44th (50%, opponents 12/24 on 4th down)
Red Zone td % allowed: 93rd (65.2% allowed -- 15 TDs in 23 chances) 22 Red Zone attempts is 4th fewest in the country (IND, OSU, Texas Tech)
Red Zone Scoring % allowed: 97th (86% allowed -- 20 scores in 23 chances)
Punting: 42nd (44.35 Yard average)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 13th (107) Pitt only had 6 all game
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 19th (34) Pitt had 3
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 31st (17)
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 3rd (5)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 5th (2)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 7th (1)
Team Stats:
Penalties: 130th (7.9 penalties per game) Tied for our season low with 5 against Pitt
Penalty yards: 115th (63.8 Yards per game) Season-low 28 penalty yards against Pitt
Turnover margin: 23rd (+0.64 per game -- 18 takeaways, 11 giveaways)
Time of possession: 3rd (34:13 per game) Army and James Madison the only teams better
Seconds per play: 129th (30.0 seconds between plays, only 7 teams slower, 3 of them being Army, Navy, and Iowa. But also Ohio State)
Takeaways:
I can't believe this is the last one of these for the season. Where the **** does time go? But if this is the last game of the year, what a way to go out. Starting on offense, as I've said in this space for weeks, I was skeptical of the recent success. Syracuse, NC State, and VT are inarguably 3 of the worst defenses in the entire country. Running it up on them did nothing for me, expect I do think it showed both the players and staff that you can "let it rip" (please, go easy on me) and have success. Everything doesn't have to be slow and methodical and with the only goal to be to set up short yardage 3rd downs. So I was very interested to see how we'd play on the road, in the cold, against a real team. Pitt isn't Ohio State on defense, but they're sure as **** not Syracuse or NC State, either. And what we got what a thorough beat-down. Not the most incredibly impressive statistical game, but we were efficient (5.86 YPP, which is a Top 40 number nationally), and more importantly, 38 points on only 9 possessions. Yet another game with very limited possessions, only 9 after having only 8 last week. But, much like last week, we scored when we had the ball, which is the name of the game. 38 points on 9 drives is 4.22 points per drive. North Texas is #1 in the country, at 3.93 points per drive. Miami's #1 offense last year averaged 3.83 points per drive. So, it's pretty safe to say that 4.22 points every time you get the ball is literally as good as it gets.
I rarely go into the gameday thread but I made a point in there this week at the half that it really is incredible how many of our games are almost the exact same. We get somewhere around 5.75 yards per play, we hold the ball a long time (3rd in the country in TOP), we don't take sacks, we don't take negative plays, our QB completes a high percentage of his passes, we don't hit a lot of explosives, and, because of that, if we do have negative plays (penalties included), we torpedo drives because we cannot make up for it with explosive plays. Almost every single game was like this. In the 8 ACC games, FIVE of them we averaged between 5.46 and 5.86 yards per play. The last 3 were the only 3 better than that (against the aforementioned atrocious defenses). But, when you put all this into the over and bake the pie, you get out a Top 30 offense, which is what we were all pretty much looking for as a decent target, with hopes we'd be better. We just happened to play the majority of our cupcakes late in the year, so the numbers have steadily increased. And, we're not getting as many back-breaking penalties, nor turnovers. Beck threw 1 pick in the last 4 games combined, and it was in garbage time on Saturday. We only lost 1 fumble the entire season (only 5 programs can say the same). So, when we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, we can score points. We lost the Louisville game because we turned it over 4 times. We lost the SMU game because we turned it over twice, but more importantly we had seven offensive penalties just in the first half. This offense, at the end of the day, is very good, but the lack of explosives limit the ceiling. Top 20 in scoring, Top 30 in yards per play. I think statistically, this is probably going to be one of the 10 best offenses we've had in the last 40 years. Maybe even better. But we just weren't quite consistent enough, and it bit us twice (20 against SMU, 21 against Louisville).
The other side of the ball, I mean Jesus Herbert Walker Christ, give Corey Heatherman the Congressional Medal of Honor. I'm honestly out of superlatives. In my wildest, orange and green hued, most homeristic mushroom-infused dreams, I would have never imagined THIS turnaround on that side of the ball. Pitt is the #30 team in the current Sagarin rankings. They came into the game 8-3, at home, with a QB who had only lost once as a starter. Since Heintschel became the starter, here are their point totals: 48, 34, 30, 53, 35, 15, 42. Against Miami? Seven. Pitt is STILL the #21 scoring offense in the country, even after facroring in the 7 they got against us. The last time they were held to 7 points or fewer was 2023, against FSU, and I think we know how good that defense was with Fiske, Verse, etc. Here is their drive chart for the game:
3-and-out
3-and-out
TD
Missed FG
Punt
3-and-out
Turnover on Downs
Punt
Punt
Interception
The way Mario and all the defensive guys completely flipped this side of the ball needs to be studied. Just look at those numbers. 14.8 points per game? We gave up 14.8 points in some QUARTERS last year. 8th in yards per play. 11th in 3rd down percentage allowed. We are good in literally every single metric, except the one we're not (red-zone defense), well, we never let teams get into the **** redzone. The only 3 teams who allowed fewer total redzone trips are in the Top 5 in the country. Pitt had absolutely no chance. They got completely swallowed on the first snap of the game, their first 6 plays on offense resulted in NEGATIVE 12 yards, and it was off to the races. They only had one drive the entire game, and they were doing a **** highwire act the entire drive. A 4th and 1 they converted by about an inch, a fumble inside their five that they happened to fall on, the TD catch, Jakobe Thomas made a great hit on the ball and knocked it loose, but Holmes was luckily able to control it and get in. And that's literally it. We won the first down battle 28 to 11. We held the ball for almost 36 minutes. We had almost 200 more yards of offense. We held them to 4/13 on 3rd down. Four sacks. We only had 5 penalties, for 28 yards (season low). Just a completely thorough *** kicking, on their home field, in front of 50,000 horrified onlookers.
All in all, this is the statistical profile of one of the very best teams in America. I've been critical of the offense, and I'm sure we'll go more into this in the months ahead, but at the end of the day, if you're 20th in scoring offense and 6th in scoring defense, you should be in the playoffs. I thought, based off our metrics, we were one of the ~15 best teams in the country last year. We are better in 2025, full-stop. This is one of the 10 best teams in the country, and that might be selling it short. This is a numbers thread, not a playoff thread, but I *REALLY* hope we get to see this team play again, because I'm so intrigued to see how this offense can do going forward against elite teams. Is the way we're playing now really sustainable against good teams? Or is it more a byproduct of the talent discrepancy? I'd love to find out. But all I know is, you look up and down these numbers, these kids deserve to match up against the very best in America, because they are, indisputably, among that group.
Go Canes.
Offense:
Yards per play: 29th (6.15 YPP)
Yards per game: 35th (415.2 YPG)
Points per game: 20th (33.1 PPG)
Passing yards per game: 24th (269.6 YPG)
Passing completion percentage: 2nd (72.9%)
Passing yards per attempt: 16th (8.6 YPA)
Passer rating: 8th (163.74)
Passing TDs: 10th (25 TDs)
Interceptions: 83rd (10 INTs)
Rushing yards per game: 74th (145.6 YPG)
Rushing yards per attempt: 88th (4.00 YPA)
Rushing TDs: 53rd (19)
Sacks given up per game: 6th (0.82 per game)
First Downs per game: 32nd (22.2 per game)
3rd down conversion %: 21st (46.32%)
4th down conversion %: 18th (66.7%, 12 for 18 on the season)
TFLs allowed per game: 7th (3.55 per game)
Red Zone TD %: 22nd (71.4% TD rate, 33 TDs in 47 chances)
Red Zone Scoring %: 14th (43 scores in 47 chances)
Field goal %: 17th (15 for 17)
PAT %: 1st (44 for 44)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 55th (153)
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 63rd (48)
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 49th (23)
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 82nd (9)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 86th (4)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 84th (2)
70+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 103rd (0)
Defense:
Yards per play allowed: 8th (4.57 YPP)
Yards per game allowed: 11th (285.6 YPG)
Points per game allowed: 6th (14.8 PPG) *Gave up 26.7 last year. A 12 point per game improvement*
Passing yards per game allowed: 29th (199.3 YPG)
Passing completion percentage allowed: 30th (58.6%)
Passing yards per attempt: 13th (6.1 YPA)
Passer rating allowed: 15th (113.37)
Rushing yards per game allowed: 5th (86.36 YPG) (Remember all off-season when we heard we didn't have the bodies to stop the run?)
Rushing yards per attempt allowed: 7th (2.91 YPA)
Sacks per game: 7th (3.0 sacks per game)
3rd down % allowed: 11th (31.1% allowed)
4th down % allowed: 44th (50%, opponents 12/24 on 4th down)
Red Zone td % allowed: 93rd (65.2% allowed -- 15 TDs in 23 chances) 22 Red Zone attempts is 4th fewest in the country (IND, OSU, Texas Tech)
Red Zone Scoring % allowed: 97th (86% allowed -- 20 scores in 23 chances)
Punting: 42nd (44.35 Yard average)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 13th (107) Pitt only had 6 all game
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 19th (34) Pitt had 3
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 31st (17)
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 3rd (5)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 5th (2)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 7th (1)
Team Stats:
Penalties: 130th (7.9 penalties per game) Tied for our season low with 5 against Pitt
Penalty yards: 115th (63.8 Yards per game) Season-low 28 penalty yards against Pitt
Turnover margin: 23rd (+0.64 per game -- 18 takeaways, 11 giveaways)
Time of possession: 3rd (34:13 per game) Army and James Madison the only teams better
Seconds per play: 129th (30.0 seconds between plays, only 7 teams slower, 3 of them being Army, Navy, and Iowa. But also Ohio State)
Takeaways:
I can't believe this is the last one of these for the season. Where the **** does time go? But if this is the last game of the year, what a way to go out. Starting on offense, as I've said in this space for weeks, I was skeptical of the recent success. Syracuse, NC State, and VT are inarguably 3 of the worst defenses in the entire country. Running it up on them did nothing for me, expect I do think it showed both the players and staff that you can "let it rip" (please, go easy on me) and have success. Everything doesn't have to be slow and methodical and with the only goal to be to set up short yardage 3rd downs. So I was very interested to see how we'd play on the road, in the cold, against a real team. Pitt isn't Ohio State on defense, but they're sure as **** not Syracuse or NC State, either. And what we got what a thorough beat-down. Not the most incredibly impressive statistical game, but we were efficient (5.86 YPP, which is a Top 40 number nationally), and more importantly, 38 points on only 9 possessions. Yet another game with very limited possessions, only 9 after having only 8 last week. But, much like last week, we scored when we had the ball, which is the name of the game. 38 points on 9 drives is 4.22 points per drive. North Texas is #1 in the country, at 3.93 points per drive. Miami's #1 offense last year averaged 3.83 points per drive. So, it's pretty safe to say that 4.22 points every time you get the ball is literally as good as it gets.
I rarely go into the gameday thread but I made a point in there this week at the half that it really is incredible how many of our games are almost the exact same. We get somewhere around 5.75 yards per play, we hold the ball a long time (3rd in the country in TOP), we don't take sacks, we don't take negative plays, our QB completes a high percentage of his passes, we don't hit a lot of explosives, and, because of that, if we do have negative plays (penalties included), we torpedo drives because we cannot make up for it with explosive plays. Almost every single game was like this. In the 8 ACC games, FIVE of them we averaged between 5.46 and 5.86 yards per play. The last 3 were the only 3 better than that (against the aforementioned atrocious defenses). But, when you put all this into the over and bake the pie, you get out a Top 30 offense, which is what we were all pretty much looking for as a decent target, with hopes we'd be better. We just happened to play the majority of our cupcakes late in the year, so the numbers have steadily increased. And, we're not getting as many back-breaking penalties, nor turnovers. Beck threw 1 pick in the last 4 games combined, and it was in garbage time on Saturday. We only lost 1 fumble the entire season (only 5 programs can say the same). So, when we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, we can score points. We lost the Louisville game because we turned it over 4 times. We lost the SMU game because we turned it over twice, but more importantly we had seven offensive penalties just in the first half. This offense, at the end of the day, is very good, but the lack of explosives limit the ceiling. Top 20 in scoring, Top 30 in yards per play. I think statistically, this is probably going to be one of the 10 best offenses we've had in the last 40 years. Maybe even better. But we just weren't quite consistent enough, and it bit us twice (20 against SMU, 21 against Louisville).
The other side of the ball, I mean Jesus Herbert Walker Christ, give Corey Heatherman the Congressional Medal of Honor. I'm honestly out of superlatives. In my wildest, orange and green hued, most homeristic mushroom-infused dreams, I would have never imagined THIS turnaround on that side of the ball. Pitt is the #30 team in the current Sagarin rankings. They came into the game 8-3, at home, with a QB who had only lost once as a starter. Since Heintschel became the starter, here are their point totals: 48, 34, 30, 53, 35, 15, 42. Against Miami? Seven. Pitt is STILL the #21 scoring offense in the country, even after facroring in the 7 they got against us. The last time they were held to 7 points or fewer was 2023, against FSU, and I think we know how good that defense was with Fiske, Verse, etc. Here is their drive chart for the game:
3-and-out
3-and-out
TD
Missed FG
Punt
3-and-out
Turnover on Downs
Punt
Punt
Interception
The way Mario and all the defensive guys completely flipped this side of the ball needs to be studied. Just look at those numbers. 14.8 points per game? We gave up 14.8 points in some QUARTERS last year. 8th in yards per play. 11th in 3rd down percentage allowed. We are good in literally every single metric, except the one we're not (red-zone defense), well, we never let teams get into the **** redzone. The only 3 teams who allowed fewer total redzone trips are in the Top 5 in the country. Pitt had absolutely no chance. They got completely swallowed on the first snap of the game, their first 6 plays on offense resulted in NEGATIVE 12 yards, and it was off to the races. They only had one drive the entire game, and they were doing a **** highwire act the entire drive. A 4th and 1 they converted by about an inch, a fumble inside their five that they happened to fall on, the TD catch, Jakobe Thomas made a great hit on the ball and knocked it loose, but Holmes was luckily able to control it and get in. And that's literally it. We won the first down battle 28 to 11. We held the ball for almost 36 minutes. We had almost 200 more yards of offense. We held them to 4/13 on 3rd down. Four sacks. We only had 5 penalties, for 28 yards (season low). Just a completely thorough *** kicking, on their home field, in front of 50,000 horrified onlookers.
All in all, this is the statistical profile of one of the very best teams in America. I've been critical of the offense, and I'm sure we'll go more into this in the months ahead, but at the end of the day, if you're 20th in scoring offense and 6th in scoring defense, you should be in the playoffs. I thought, based off our metrics, we were one of the ~15 best teams in the country last year. We are better in 2025, full-stop. This is one of the 10 best teams in the country, and that might be selling it short. This is a numbers thread, not a playoff thread, but I *REALLY* hope we get to see this team play again, because I'm so intrigued to see how this offense can do going forward against elite teams. Is the way we're playing now really sustainable against good teams? Or is it more a byproduct of the talent discrepancy? I'd love to find out. But all I know is, you look up and down these numbers, these kids deserve to match up against the very best in America, because they are, indisputably, among that group.
Go Canes.
