Explosive plays
This was a weird game in many ways, especially when it comes to measuring explosive plays.
If you measure explosiveness from an EPA standpoint, a stat that measures how much an offense improves its chances of scoring on each play, LSU was good, finishing the game in the 99th percentile.
If you look at it from a raw play count standpoint, LSU was not good. LSU gained more than 10 yards on just 19.7% of its plays and had just three plays of 20 or more yards.
Too many of LSU’s big plays came on a Jayden Daniels scramble as LSU was not able to scheme anything up or open up space for running backs.
On defense, allowing big plays was a problem. LSU allowed Florida State to gain 20 or more yards on six plays. On third downs, there were far too many times where LSU allowed chunks of yardage, keeping the FSU drive alive.
Efficiency
There are a few ways you can measure efficiency. We’ll use success rate, which just measures how often an offense was successful in staying on schedule and not getting behind the chains. It doesn’t consider if the play went for five yards or fifty; we’re just looking for a baseline.
Different systems have different ways of measuring success rates, so there might be a slight variation from site to site. LSU’s offense was successful on 50% of its plays according to collegefootballdata.com and 52% according to gameonpaper.com.
That’s a solid number, especially against a Power Five opponent. The problem was LSU didn’t do it consistently throughout the game.LSU’s defense struggled in this department, allowing FSU a success rate of 48%.
Jayden Daniels and LSU’s passing game, Daniels provided a mixed bag on Sunday night.
His ability to run is what kept LSU in the game the first three quarters and in the fourth, he started to find some success through the air as well. According to PFF, Daniels took 2.95 seconds to throw, longer than any other QB in the SEC.
He’ll need to get the ball out quicker going forward and get more comfortable with these wide receivers. The receivers also let Daniels down, dropping three passes on the night. Daniels did a good job protecting the football.
ESPN’s QBR rating ranks Daniels 24th in college football, which isn’t bad for a QB making his first start with a new team.
EPA/PPA
It’s how much a team improves their chances of scoring on a given play relative to the down and where they are on the field. LSU’s EPA numbers on the night were good and better than one would think.
According to collegefootballdata.com, LSU had an average PPA of .52 per play. That would put the Tigers at 11th in the FBS. Per gameonpaper.com, LSU was in the 100th percentile in EPA/play.
It’s hard to complain about those figures, but you’d like to see more consistency. LSU’s defense did not have a good night in this case. They were near the bottom in EPA, no matter where you looked.
EPA rewards situation, so LSU not getting off the field on third down played a major role there.
