PFF Curiosities - BYU vs SUU

-- Week 2 numbers of note from PFF

Do Linebackers Like Rushing the Passer?
I assume so? I can tell you Jay Hill likes it. Last year Tooley rushed the passer 8 times over the whole season. This year he's already at 11. Last year Bywater rushed the passer 26 times over the whole season. This year he's already at 19.

But the real question - is it helping? In general, is our pass rush improved this year? According to the PFF numbers, maybe not. We averaged about 12 pressures per game last season and this year we're averaging ... 12 pressures per game. We're averaging more quarterback hits, but fewer sacks. 

Not all pressures are created equal of course. The pressure that leads to the interception is worth much more than the pressure that leads to a scramble for a first down. I'd say the eye test suggests things are improving, but we've also played two jabronis. And what about the psychological impact? Does the thought of attacking instead of backpedaling get some blood pumping for our defensive players? It does for me and I'm not even on the field.

RIP Go Fast Go Hard
Our average number of snaps per game on offense has been on a downward trend.

  

2021 - average 69 snaps per game

2022 - average 66 snaps per game

2023 - average 64 snaps per game

This year is influenced by the clock rules of course, but in general I'd like to see more tempo from our offense.

Please Don't Give Up on the Jet Sweep ... but Please Switch The Direction

BYU's gone to the jet sweep three times this year and whoa has it been bad. Deion Smith has one attempt which netted two yards and Parker Kingston has two attempts that gained a total three yards. So yeah it doesn't look good early. But since 2018 BYU has averaged 5.2 yards per jet sweep (4.8 per jet sweep if you take out Puka's outlier 75-yard gain in the USF game last year). It's a good play that forces the defense to prepare for one more thing. 

We keep using it less and less -- it made up 8% of our runs in 2020, then dropped to 7% in 2021 and 5% in 2022 -- but so far this year it's at a 5% usage rate (3 attempts of 57 total rushes). Anywhere in the 5 to 10% range seems fine to me, but here's what I think needs to be changed. During the Grimes era we ran 50% of sweeps to the left and 50% to the right. We were balanced, unpredictable. But during the Arod era we are tilted to the right: 65% of sweeps go to the right, with only 35% going to the left. This is a tendency that needs to be corrected.  

BYU's Not Yet Helping Slovis Like I Thought They Would
In the spring I assumed Slovis would be helped in two areas by joining BYU's offense. 

#1) He'd be pressured less often. 

Jaren Hall was pressured on about 23% of his dropbacks over the course of his career. Meanwhile Slovis prior to BYU was pressured on about 28% of his dropbacks. That math is easy -- come to BYU and you'll be pressured 5% less, yahoo! Well, I was wrong on that one. Instead of seeing an improvement Slovis has been pressured on a whopping 32% of his dropbacks through two games. He's thrown the 14th most passes under pressure of anyone in the country. 

#2) He'd get to cash in on play-action passes more often. 

Jaren Hall used some form of play-action on 41% of his passing snaps during his career. Meanwhile Slovis pre-BYU faked a run on only 27% of his passes. I figured Slovis would cash in on the play-action benefit significantly in Provo. Yet in a surprise to me, Slovis has only used play-action on 23% of his passes through two games at BYU. Perhaps that 41% number for Jaren Hall was heavily influenced by RPOs or other QB keeper type plays. But even a less mobile QB like Baylor Romney used play-action on 45% of his dropbacks over 2020 and 2021. And yes, I understand our run game has been a trash can, but still I'm surprised to see the number go from that high to this low. 


Some Red Flags with Our Offensive and Defensive Lines
Red Flag #1 - we can't run on SUU. No further explanation required.

Red Flag #2 - we pressured Sam Houston on 35% of their dropbacks. Wait, isn't that kind of good you might think? Yes actually. But it's not good compared to Air Force, who pressured Sam Houston on 63% of their dropbacks. And that's with Air Force blitzing seven times fewer than we did. 


Arod Enjoys a Short Pass
If it feels like BYU is throwing a lot of screens, well we are. About one in five dropbacks is a screen pass, which places BYU as the 29th most screen-heavy team in college football. That 20% rate would've been 16th nationally last season, and is 5% more than what Jaren Hall did in 2022. The good news is that we're pretty successful on those plays, averaging 8.8 yards per attempt, good for 24th in the country. The bad news is that those numbers have come against the dregs of our schedule.


An Update on the Middle of the Field
Last week we found teams throw to the "middle of the field" on about 12% of their throws. We also learned that more skilled QBs target this area more than average. We also learned that BYU -- despite the criticism of avoiding this area -- has been about average, throwing to the middle 10% of the time in 2021, and 12% in 2022.

After week one Slovis had only thrown one pass attempt to this sector. He threw there 5 times against SUU bringing his target percentage to 9%.

Early season conclusion? It's true, BYU is throwing to the middle less than the average team, but not by an insane margin.