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Hey there RBR faithful: we’ve got a few “guest graphs” from some of the other big games last weekend. This time, we’re taking a peek at the Georgia Bulldogs’ unusual (and hilarious) loss to the South Caroline Gamecocks. The commentary will be light, but the stats aplenty.
Georgia (17) vs. South Carolina (20), Oct 12th
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Team Success Rates (cumulative)
If you read this weeks’ graphing review of the Alabama vs. Texas A&M game, you may recall that—despite coming out of the game with a 19-point win—this chart was a bit more complicated for us Bammers. Strangely, the Dawgs are the ones who had the efficiency advantage from the first play and through the last... and they lost.
As we’ve discussed after some big games, efficiency doesn’t necessarily lead to victory, but it’s real strange to see such a start departure in points vs. successful plays.
Success and Explosiveness by Quarter
Yep, 4 for 4 quarters of efficiency wins, ‘Dawgs. Too bad those explosiveness numbers were so low... oh, and too bad there were two overtimes at the end, too—next time, try to tally more than zero successful plays in overtime. Keys to victory, all that.
Play Map: Yards and Result by Play
One team: lots of dots. The other team: less dots. Guess which one won?
It is a good point that the ‘Dawgs did not get much, uh, burst from their explosive plays: they only tallied 6 explosive play all day (to South Carolina’s 4, which is really awful), and the only one that went longer than 19 yards went... 33 yards. Not many big plays to be had in this SEC daytime tilt.
Success and Explosiveness by Play Type
Success and Explosiveness by Down
Ah, well that makes sense: the Gamecocks managing 100% on 4th down—one conversion in the third quarter, and one in second overtime—probably had something to do with this mess. To their credit, Georgia also converted one of two. Oh, and they were better on every other down, but that apparently doesn’t matter.
Rushing rate (cumulative), Georgia
Rushing and Passing Success (cumulative), Georgia
Rushing rate (cumulative), South Carolina
South Carolina crept into a rush-first offense by the end of overtime, but incredibly they held on for as long as they can no matter how many QBs they lost in the process.
Rushing and Passing Success (cumulative), South Carolina
Top Runners, Georgia
Top Passers, Georgia
On most days, this isn’t a bad QB chart. But this chart also doesn’t show interceptions. So, there’s that.
Top Receivers, Georgia
Top Tacklers, Georgia
Top Runners, South Carolina
Top Passers, South Carolina
Two notable QB lines? Something bad must’ve happened.
(Something bad did happen).
Top Receivers, South Carolina
Despite the fact that Bama already played them, I don’t know much about wideout Chavis Dawkins and tight end Nick Muse; but these two were surprisingly efficient outlets for the Gamecocks on Saturday.
Top Tacklers, South Carolina
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Takeaways
This is a weird one, but after digging in, it’s the usual culprits that make the scoreboard act all weird:
- Efficiency is fantastic, but explosiveness is its also-important, strange n’ ugly sibling. It reared up on this day, demonstrating that even a strong, favored, highly efficient team can fall if it doesn’t put up explosive plays (combined with other mistakes...)
- Turnovers are a $)@#(U. Jake Fromm has been reminded. For those many monthsof Tide fans complaining about Jalen Hurts’ ball conservatism back when: yes, we got a loss or two in that process, but never one like this.
- Timing is key. It wasn’t outright dramatic in this game, but it was important that the little success the Gamecocks generated happened on 3rd downs and overtime.