Year2’s observation that Georgia had a higher yards per play average than its opponents in the two losses to Auburn and Missouri got me wondering how that stat looked for the entire season, so off I went to Marty’s site to get the answer.
- Clemson: +1.65
- South Carolina: -.39
- North Texas: +4.95
- LSU: +.89
- Tennessee: +.52
- Missouri: +.48
- Vanderbilt: -1.11
- Florida: +2.23
- Appy State: +4.23
- Auburn: +.45
- Kentucky: +2.85
- Georgia Tech: -.05
- Season: +1.38
So Georgia lost three games this season in which it was more efficient gaining yardage than the opponent. I get Missouri – a minus-4 turnover margin against a good team is awfully hard to overcome – and I sort of get Auburn, but what in the world explains Clemson? Yes, the Dawgs were minus-1 in turnover margin, and, yes, they had one drive that resulted in no points when the field goal attempt was botched, but, still, that net ypp figure is well above the season average. And the Tigers only ran six more plays on the night than Georgia did.
On the other hand, Georgia was 2-1 in games when it was in the red on ypp, and could have won the Vanderbilt game with a break (or, more accurately, without Vandy getting more than its share of breaks from the officiating crew).
(By the way, in case you were wondering, the ypp average for the 2012 season was +1.91. The drop off in 2013 came slightly more on the offensive side of the ball (-.28) than on defense (-.25), which makes sense when you consider the injury situation.)
Anyway, there’s more to consider here to try to explain where the season went south. Missouri, again, is the obvious one when turnover margin hurt, but if you look at the rest of the season, Georgia never had another game when the turnover margin was greater than minus-1. That no doubt leads to a discussion about the special teams, but that’s a subject that’s worth a post of its own.
Or maybe the lesson is that it’s been a weird year and it’s going to be a futile effort to try to make sense of it. We’ll see.