FSU Football: How Good Was 2015 Defense?
By Kelvin Hunt
From Football Outsiders:
- DFD: First Down Rate, the percentage of opponent drives that result in at least one first down or touchdown.
The FSU defense allowed teams to get at least one first down or touchdown almost 72 percent of the time (.719) which was good for No. 66 nationally.
The FSU defense didn’t allow many touchdowns in 2015, so that means they gave up a lot of first downs. In fact, they gave up 246 first downs total. They gave up 107 first downs by rushing, 122 by passing and 17 first downs by penalty.
Remember Treon Harris and the Florida Gators? That offense was absolutely terrible, yet they were able to garner 19 first downs.
What about a good offense like Clemson? The FSU defense allowed 29 first downs against the Tigers.
The bowl game against Houston? The FSU defense allowed 25 first downs.
The balanced way that FSU gave up first downs, translates into the FSU defense not doing a good enough job of getting stops on first or second down. If opponents had way more first downs converted via the pass, that would tell us teams were probably converting a third downs of six or more yards.
However, since it’s pretty balanced, that tells us that the FSU defense gave up a lot of third down and three/four yards where opponents had the option to run or pass.
This will be an area to improve upon in 2016.
Next: Available Yards Percentage