Mid Season Dawg Stats

Well, I am back with some stats after a busy couple of weeks at my real job. Now that teams have played at least half of their schedule and put up half a season of data points we can start to see less fluctuation in the week-to-week stats. Georgia looks to be an average team running the ball but look elite passing it. The defense is absolutely ridiculous even after a small regression after 5 SEC opponents. Georgia is beating the league average in a lot of stats. My favorite stat, Net Yards Per Play, only has 10 teams above 2.0 YPP.

Georgia is definitely elite on defense, and they may be second to none on that side of ball. But, the solid and steady production from the Stetson Bennett can no longer be ignored by this stat head. If, you’ll let me track the offense through the prism of Bama and the SEC Average, you will see a positive trend. First let’s look at that Net YPP.

The Bulldogs are have overtaken Alabama in offensive success rate (49.6% to 48.8%) and with a strong finish will likely be above 50% for season. Currently Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Kentucky are only teams above 50% in SEC. Coastal Carolina (57.9%), Western Kentucky (55.2%), and Ohio State (52,8%) lead nation in this stat.

While the defensive success rate is inching up, it’s hardly a concern as it tracks with the league and is phenomenally better than the SEC and the country for that matter

Ok, with the next one on offense, I took liberty to include a few other offenses to highlight how UGA is better the regression. EPA is an average of each offensive play based on down, distance, and field position.

What is remarkable in my eyes is that the solid to really really good offensive output is happening with an average rushing offense. Even more proof that an offense doesn’t have to establish the run for play action and a passing offense to work. Graham Coffey highlighted Stetson Bennett’s play action numbers this week.

Here are some rushing metrics tracked over the season. The success rate of the Bulldogs offense is good, above league average. But, overall rush efficiency is lacking. Yards per carry, EPA, and rush explosiveness are below league average.

OK, now for some good stuff. The Georgia passing offense is legitimately great. If this offense is a “pass to set up run” - sign this blogger up for that. By all metrics, the passing offense in tracking towards elite.

The passing offense is only chart which doesn’t show a clear upward trajectory. Keep in mind that explosiveness is average of the successful pass plays. With an increase of pass success rate and more plays are averaged, the metric is more stable but may show a regression. Regardless, the UGA passing offense is really good.

I hope that you get a clear picture of how Georgia is doing this season by these metrics. Even I as a stat head can’t look past the most important stat of all. 7 wins. 0 Losses. Hit me up on twitter if you want to ask any questions or leave some comments. Go Dawgs!!