QUICK THREAD

The Irish are off this Saturday, but we still have some good stats to get you ready for the stretch run to the CFP! (1/11) #GoIrish

The Irish went through a phase of extremely high play action usage in the middle of the season, but non-play action plays usually outpaced play action plays in EPA/play in these games. The Irish have since used less play action and play action's efficiency has rebounded. (2/11)

Our theory is L'ville and Pitt blitzing heavily blew up long developing play action plays, but Clemson blitzed heavily as well and play action worked against them so it is hard to say. Play action is generally more efficient, so we want the Irish to not give up on it yet. (3/11)

This chart shows play choice by game but it can be misleading to focus on this because the scores of games impact play calling. For example, the Irish ran more than they passed against BC, but actually threw 60% of the time in the first half when the game was in reach. (4/11)

This is not to say the chart is useless (several of these games were close) but whenever anyone breaks down a team's run-pass split always consider that that has as much to do with how much they win and lose as it does with their offensive tendencies. (5/11)

The Irish used to come out under center all over the field, but now mostly reserve this for goal line sets. The pistol is coming off of two weeks out of three with over a 20% usage rate. (6/11)

Data is lacking for NCAA, but motion almost universally makes NFL offenses more efficient and we think the same is likely true in college. The sample sizes are small, but motion has been mostly good for the Irish offense as of late and we would like to see more if it. (7/11)

The number of plays where the Irish come out with two receivers or less on the field has tracked downward pretty consistently since the blowout against USF, reaching a new low last weekend against BC. This is good. Keep Davis, McKinley, and Skowronek on the field please! (8/11)

As Avery Davis has established himself two tight end set usage has dropped, with no tight end sets increasing from a season long average near 20% up to around 40% in each of the last two contests. (9/11)

For each of those last two charts it is worth noting that we track personnel based on where players line up, not who is on the field. For example, if Tommy Tremble lines up two yards off the tackle in a staggered stance, he would be considered a WR on that play. (10/11)

That's it for this thread! Thanks for reading and be sure to keep an eye out for our UNC preview thread and podcast dropping Tuesday or Wednesday before Friday's matchup with Sam Howell and the UNC Tar Heels. (11/11) #NDUNC #NDFootball #IanBook