Sooner Rather Than Later: The ND/OU Breakdown

What a game!  There’s not a lot more to say than that…or is there?  So many good things could be said about this game that trying to do so in any given post seems almost crazy.  When you’re evaluating a game where a team beats the Vegas spread (as an underdog) by 29 points, pretty much any proponent of the team who won will have likely hit on the “key” to success.  For instance, beyond my little spot in the webosphere, other often cited “keys” to game included:

1.  Everett Golson performs well:  I get the importance of this one.  I doubt the level of intellect it takes to suggest that if the redshirt freshman quarterback who’s shown a propensity to turn the ball over plays above his normal level that it’s probably a good idea.  That said, Golson played the best game to this point in his young career.  It wasn’t the absolute numbers that matter. Young Golson’s athletic ability and potential are not underestimated, but his ability to come up on the big stage had been.  It was Golson’s maturity in this game that mattered most.  I clapped just as loudly for his numerous throw aways as I did for the amazing play action pass to Chris Brown.  It displayed a greater maturity and recognition to make those throw aways.  A buddy of mine pointed out that Golson’s now (3) best games have all followed a week where he got additional prep time:  Navy to begin the season, following the bye week versus Miami, and following his concussion versus Oklahoma.  I’ve seen some point to the difference between home and away, but for a young quarterback, my guess is the difference in prep time mattered even more.

2.  Win the turnover battle:  This relates to Golson’s performance, but also, it seems fairly obvious.  Tell me one team in the history of college football that didn’t benefit from a positive turnover differential, and then we can re-address the importance of forcing the Landry Jones (Manti-eisman moment) interception.

For my look at this game, I wanted to do the same game diagnostic that I did last Thursday and then compare it to my analysis of ND’s keys to victory that I noted from last Tuesday.  Let’s first go to the game data regarding each of Oklahoma's offensive drives:

FIRST QUARTER:

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 12	1		12
Own 24	1		6
Own 30	2		12
Own 42	1		7
Own 49	2	5
Opp. 46	1	-19
Own 35	2		0
Own 35	3		0
Own 35	4				Punt

Total Yards Gained:  23

Efficient Plays:  5/8 (63%)

Inefficient Plays:  3/8 (37%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 18	1		17
Own 35	1		8
Own 43	2	0
Own 43	3		18
Opp. 39	1		21
Opp. 18	1	-1
Opp. 19	2		8
Opp. 11	3		0
Opp. 11	4				FG – 3 pts.

Total Yards Gained:  71

Efficient Plays:  5/8 (63%)

Inefficient Plays:  3/8 (37%)

Points:  3

Red Zone?:  Yes 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 25	1		7
Own 32	2		8
Own 40	1		0
Own 40	2	1
Own 41	3		0
Own 41	4				Punt

Total Yards Gained:  16

Efficient Plays:  2/5 (40%)

Inefficient Plays:  3/5 (60%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 32	1	3
Own 35	2	4
Own 39	3		14
Opp. 47	1		0
Opp. 47	2	3
Opp. 44	3		-3
Opp. 47	4				Punt

Total Yards Gained:  21

Efficient Plays:  2/6 (33%)

Inefficient Plays:  4/6 (67%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

FIRST QUARTER TOTALS:

Plays:  27

Efficient:  52% (14/27)

Inefficient:  48% (13/27)

Points:  3

Red Zone Attempts:  1

Red Zone TD’s:  0

SECOND QUARTER:

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 31	1	4
Own 35	2	0
Own 35	3	-9
Own 26	4			-5
Own 21	4				Punt

Total Yards Gained:  -10

Efficient Plays:  0/4 (0%)

Inefficient Plays:  4/4 (100%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 21	1	3
Own 24	2		15
Own 39	1	2
Own 41	2		12
Opp. 47	1		18
Opp. 29	1		0
Opp. 29	2			5
Opp. 29	2		7
Opp. 17	1	5
Opp. 12	2		7
Opp. 5	1	1
Opp. 4	2	1		-10
Opp. 13	2		0
Opp. 13	3		0
Opp. 13					FG – 3 pts.

Total Yards Gained:  66

Efficient Plays:  7/15 (47%)

Inefficient Plays:  8/15 (53%)

Points:  3

Red Zone?:  Yes 

Red Zone TD?:  No

SECOND QUARTER TOTALS:

Plays:  19

Efficient:  37% (7/19)

Inefficient:  63% (12/19)

Points:  3

Red Zone Attempts:  1

Red Zone TD’s:  0

THIRD QUARTER:

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 20	1	7
Own 27	2		6
Own 33	1		5
Own 38	2		8
Own 46	1		16
Opp. 38	1		0
Opp. 38	2	-2
Opp. 40	3		4
Opp. 36	4				Punt

Total Yards Gained:  44

Efficient Plays:  5/8 (63%)

Inefficient Plays:  3/8 (37%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

THIRD QUARTER TOTALS:

Plays:  8

Efficient:  63% (5/8)

Inefficient:  37% (3/7)

Points:  0

Red Zone Attempts:  0

Red Zone TD’s:  0

FOURTH QUARTER:

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 25	1		19
Own 44	1	5
Own 49	2		0
Own 49	3		0
Own 49	4				Punt

Total Yards Gained:  24

Efficient Plays:  2/4 (50%)

Inefficient Plays:  2/4 (50%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 48	1		0
Own 48	2		35
Opp. 17	1	4
Opp. 13	2	3
Opp. 10	3	1
Opp. 9	4		8
Opp. 1	1	1			TD – 7 pts.

Total Yards Gained:  52

Efficient Plays:  5/7 (71%)

Inefficient Plays:  2/7 (29%)

Points:  7

Red Zone?:  Yes

Red Zone TD?:  Yes

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 25	1		7
Own 32	2		0
Own 32	3		9
Own 41	1		0		Interception

Total Yards Gained:  16

Efficient Plays:  2/4 (50%)

Inefficient Plays:  2/4 (50%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 18	1		-9
Own 9	2		11
Own 20	3		0
Own 20	4		0

Total Yards Gained:  2

Efficient Plays:  1/4 (25%)

Inefficient Plays:  3/4 (75%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  No 

Red Zone TD?:  No

Yard Line:	Down:	Run:	Pass:	Penalty:	Other:
Own 48	1		8
Opp. 44	2		7
Opp. 37	1		5
Opp. 32	2		-1
Opp. 34	3		33
Opp. 1	1			-14
Opp. 15	2	-7

Total Yards Gained:  37

Efficient Plays:  4/7 (57%)

Inefficient Plays:  3/7 (43%)

Points:  0

Red Zone?:  Yes

Red Zone TD?:  No

FOURTH QUARTER TOTALS:

Plays:  26

Efficient:  50% (13/26)

Inefficient:  50% (13/26)

Points:  7

Red Zone Attempts:  2

Red Zone TD’s:  1

GAME TOTALS:

Plays:  80

Efficient:  50%  (40/80)

Inefficient:  50%  (40/80)

Points:  13

Efficiency Passing:  60% (31/52)

Efficiency Running:  32% (8/25)

Efficiency 1^st Down:  65%

Efficiency 2^nd Down:  62%

Efficiency 3^rd Down:  29%

Penalties:  3

Red Zone Attempts:  4

Red Zone Scoring Percentage:  75%

Red Zone TD Percentage:  25%

Turnover Differential:  -1

Longest Pass Play:  35

Longest Rush Play:  7

Plays From Scrimmage 25+:  2 (pass, 35, 33)

Observations:

Much to the chagrin of a few unfortunate friends of mine who had to listen to it, I could not be happier with my dissection of the game.  On Tuesday, I noted two (2) areas I thought were important:

1.  Big Plays:

Just as suggested, Notre Dame continued to limit plays of 25+ yards.  Diaco’s game plan (much as it has been this entire season) was to force everything in front of the defense and make teams work for each and every yard.  Notre Dame permitted only 2 plays of 25+ yards, and one of those was a pass to Kenny Stills during garbage time when Bob Stoops continued to stay aggressive just trying to reduce the scoring deficit after the game was decided.  My major premise was that OU was not as explosive as people pretended they were, and that held true.  Yes, there’s no question that OU’s up-tempo at times worked against Notre Dame.  However, this was almost by design for ND.  ND’s secondary was content allowing short (and even medium) yard plays to the Sooners so long as there were no quick strikes.  Watching the game, it was quite apparent that OU just had no clue what to do once a drive stalled for any period.  Their third down conversion rate of 29% was horrible.

Additionally, the game featured exactly two plays of 40+ yards, and each of those belonged to the Irish.  Oklahoma might have run up-tempo and picked up yardage faster.  However, it was Notre Dame who: A) controlled the clock (32:28-to-27:32), and B) did better on third down (7/15-to-4/14).  Kelly took his shots, connecting on the long play to Brown.  They did a better job of rushing effectively, and they didn’t make mistakes.  The figures when judged against the KSU game are impressive and almost exclusively in Notre Dame’s favor:  Notre Dame passed for more yards, they ran for more yards, and they were even more effective than KSU at getting the Sooners off the field on third down. 

The third down conversion percentage is important.  KSU was better on both first and second down than Notre Dame in terms of limiting OU’s efficiency.  However, on third downs, Notre Dame did much, much better.  Just as important, Notre Dame made Oklahoma even more one-dimensional than Kansas State. 

The running numbers:

Kansas State:  Yards Allowed:  88; Longest Run:  11; % of run plays efficient:  56%

Notre Dame:  Yards Allowed:  15; Longest Run: 7; % of run plays efficient:  32%

For “by far the most balanced team” that Notre Dame had faced offensively, we sure did a good job of eliminating that balance. 

Additionally, much like Kansas State, the only time Oklahoma was able to breakthrough for a touchdown occurred on a drive where at least 70% of their plays were deemed efficient.  Much like KSU as well, this was not because of a quick strike.  For teams trying to extend an advantage, forcing a formidable offense like Oklahoma’s to run additional plays and time off the clock is never a negative.

2.  Red Zone Efficiency:

I just drooled as I watched this game unfold.  This cannot be overstated:  Notre Dame limited OU’s red zone efficiency in every category.  Here are our game stats compared to their season averages (in parentheses):

Red Zone Attempts:  4 (5.5)

Red Zone Scoring Percentage:  75% (97%)

Red Zone TD Percentage:  25% (76%)

Okay, I know I’m embellishing a bit because the only time we stopped them from scoring altogether was the garbage time Kenny Stills special, but given that Big Game Bob took it there, I’m fine counting in that final possession.  Were I to be fair and take it out, we’re left with:

Red Zone Attempts: 3 (5.5)

Red Zone Scoring Percentage:  100% (97%)

Red Zone TD Percentage:  33% (76%)

Either way, the Irish need to be incredibly proud.  Despite giving up a season high 364 yards of passing to Landry Jones, the Irish decreased the number of times the Sooners made the red zone by 1 (or 2) possessions by limiting third down efficiency and deciding that Oklahoma could not run on them. 

Additionally, it was the Notre Dame defense that stayed truer to form on red zone touchdown efficiency over the Sooner offense.  In the battle of the unstoppable force versus the immoveable object, the immoveable object had a decided victory.  It took a nearly desperate 4^th down conversion and the Bell-Dozer to finally break into the Irish end zone on the ground.  I’m happy with that result any day of the week.

I feel like I could go on …and on….and on about this game if I really wanted to.  For now I wanted to get the game drive data out there and simply say:  Go Irish!