The Sports Arsenal

I have basically semi-retired this blog, but I decided to throw in a few stats and comments after last night’s victory. This won’t be a regular thing, but it’s a long weekend and I had a few minutes, so…

Advanced stats of note from The Citadel’s 22-21 victory over Charleston Southern in North Charleston:

Apologies for the formatting. WordPress is not ideal for that sort of thing, or perhaps any sort of thing…

Some notes on the above:

• These statistics do not include the final drive of the first half for Charleston Southern (three plays, ending in a kneel-down) and the final drive of the second half for The Citadel (one play, a kneel-down).
• The ‘Finishing Drives’ category does not include Charleston Southern’s final possession of the second half (which I decided fell under “desperation mode”).
• Trying to compile “advanced” statistics has become more difficult thanks to the SoCon changing its statistical formatting. It is now considerably worse. (Actually, the league website as a whole is considerably worse than it was, thanks to a recent update.)
• The play-by-play for the game was fairly clean — not bad for a first game of the season. I did spot a discrepancy, which was part of a sequence midway through the second quarter. I’ve corrected a yardage error which involved a sack, but I believe there was another yardage mistake on a prior play. (It was only 2 yards, though, and didn’t really affect the averages, so let’s not tell anyone else about it.)
• The Citadel won the starting field position battle, which was a key to the game. Even if you take out the fumble exchange in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs would have had an edge of over five yards in starting field position. Even in a game with limited possessions, that adds up.
• Yes, Charleston Southern averaged exactly 10 yards per play on first down, mostly due to several big plays in the passing game. The Bulldogs’ defense definitely needs to improve in that area.
• The Citadel might want to throw the ball on first down a little more often itself. The Bulldogs were very effective doing so in limited attempts.

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Miscellaneous observations:

– I thought the Bulldogs were the stronger, more well-conditioned team as the game progressed, a major reason The Citadel was able to come back from an 18-point second-half deficit to win. That is a credit to the work done in the offseason. 

– The offensive play-calling for The Citadel seemed to be more dynamic in the second half. Part of that can be attributed to trailing by multiple scores, to be sure, but I also thought there was an increase in confidence in the offense’s execution as the night wore on. I hope that assurance continues throughout the season.

– Not included in the advanced stats: the field goal story, which obviously went The Citadel’s way. The Bulldogs got a much-needed three points at the end of the first half, and the Buccaneers’ two attempts both went awry (the first being deflected, and the second altered if not tipped by an onrushing defender).

The special teams advantage for The Citadel was critical.

– A lot of times, you will see a team try for a big play on offense (often involving some trickery) after forcing a turnover — a quick strike while the iron is hot, taking advantage of momentum and the other team’s defense possibly not being ready for action after the sudden possession change.

That said, I’m not sure it was a great idea for Charleston Southern to call a relatively slow-developing play-action pass after recovering a fumble, particularly inside its own 25 with less than five minutes to play and nursing a six-point lead.

That decision didn’t work out, to say the least.

– According to the online participation report, The Citadel had 58 players see action on Saturday night. Five of them were “true” freshmen — Lee Alexander Jr., Caleb Davis, Will Hall, Braylon Knauth, and Nikolas Mirabella. Five redshirt freshmen also played, as did eight “true” sophomores.

Charleston Southern had 46 players see the field.

One note of caution: the online participation report is not always 100% accurate.

– Twelve players who started for the Bulldogs in last season’s final game at East Tennessee State also started against Charleston Southern — seven on offense (including four of the offensive linemen), and five on defense. The Citadel debuted a new placekicker and long snapper, while returning its punter and holder.

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Next week: South Carolina State, noon ET, Johnson Hagood Stadium. That should be a hot ticket, figuratively and literally.

The Citadel is undefeated. That sounds good, doesn’t it?

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Charleston Southern, SoCon, The Citadel |