Found this on a Miami board.
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I posted it in another thread, but check out Bill Connelly's advanced box score on the App State game. When I get a minute, I'll link it here, but it's on his Twitter. App State had a 22% postgame win expectancy. What they did is not any kind of sustainable blueprint, specifically their offense. And remember, this offense just torched UNC the week before. So I think anyone underestimating A&M's defense is incredibly misinformed. They're better up front than we are on the offensive line. We couldn't block Southern Miss last week, now here comes waves of 4 and 5 stars, who are pissed off and playing in front of the biggest crowd in the history of Kyle Field.
I still think we can absolutely win this game because we have the far superior quarterback, but if there are any of you out there saying "Well App State beat them, how good can they be?" I implore you to watch the game and check out the advanced metrics. App State averaged 3.8 yards per play, they had a 38% success rate (terrible) and a 3.7% explosive play rate (very terrible). Meaning, they got VERY lucky that they were able to sustain drives with such a low output per play and virtually no explosive plays. It was the literal definition of 3 yards and a cloud of dust. App State won the game because they were able to convert a lot of short 3rd and 4th downs, which again isn't incredibly sustainable, and the A&M offense is terrible. They also won the turnover battle, 2-0. So yes, if you can guarantee me that A&M will turn it over twice, we won't turn it over at all, and we'll be able to convert almost 50% of our 3rd downs and multiple 4th downs, then I'll agree with you that we can do what App State did on offense and win. But I don't think that's very realistic. Meaning our offense is going to need to be efficient against a very nasty defense, especially in the secondary (hello, receivers?). The total in this game is 48. That's very, very low for a college football game featuring ranked teams. I don't think we can sniff 30 points without help from the A&M offense, but if we do, I think we win going away. I just don't see that offense exploding. Expect a hard-fought, low scoring game. If we get through the 1st quarter and TVD is still upright and we have some decent rushing numbers, we're gonna win. If we see 2020 Clemson all over again, where the QB is on his ass before he hits his back foot and we can't open a crack, nevermind a hole, it's gonna be a long night.
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