So it was a slow work day and looked up some stats. I grabbed a few teams to compare against Pitt so far this year for some perspective. LSU, WVU, Cal, Duke, VT, UNC, and UVA. I am only talking about the Slovis plays and not the Yarnell or Patti. I also compared it to Pickett's 2020 season (marked with a P) because last year wouldn't really help.
A few things that stood out.
1. Teams have figured out that blitzing is the way to beat Pitt. I'd be surprised if any team is being blitzed more often than Pitt. Pitt has seen a blitz on 40% of passing plays. UVA and LSU were the only other schools over 30%.
1P. Pickett 2020 34.2% blitzed.
2. Pitt runs an extraordinary number of play-action plays. 39%! Nearly 40% of our pass plays are play action...that's ridiculous. Slovis' time to throw is significantly shorter on play-action plays, making me believe that his instructions are to throw it to a set receiver.
2a. Pitt has 0 TDs on play action passes.
2b. 10% of play-action passes either result in a scramble or a ball batted at the line.
2P. Pitt ran 12.8% of passes as Play Action.
3. Slovis is pretty good when not facing pressure. His rating and ypa were near the top and his adjusted completion rate (completions + drops) was the 2nd highest of the group at 77.9% behind Jayden Daniels at LSU with 80.4%.
3P. Better than Pickett's ACC-leading 75.8% in 2020.
4. Slovis is terrible under pressure. His rating drops from an 80 to a 48.5, 2nd lowest above only JT Daniels among the group. But JT only faces pressure on 23.3% of plays compared to Slovis' 36.6%.
4P. Pickett had a horrible 41 rating when throwing under pressure. Was under pressure 30.6% of the passing plays.
5. Slovis' turnover worthy plays (passes that have a high percentage chance to be intercepted or a poor job of taking care of the ball and fumbling) goes from the 2nd best (1.6%) when without pressure, to the worst when facing pressure (7.9%).
5P. Pickett 1.4% to 7.6% when under pressure.
6. Pitt's drop % is pretty good at 6.1%. Brennan Armstrong's receivers are dropping 15.8% of on target balls.
6P. Pickett's receivers dropped 12.5% of on target throws.
7. 16.8 % of Pitt's passes have been behind the line of scrimmage. 87% of those were between the hashes. Pitt was the 2nd highest behind Duke with 19.8%.
7P. Pickett 2020 was 18.6%.
So there you have it. I mostly used comparable passing offenses and ACC teams for this. I started using Wisconsin and some other great passing teams to compare but those QBs were so clearly above Slovis' numbers that it's just pointing out the obvious.
A few things that stood out.
1. Teams have figured out that blitzing is the way to beat Pitt. I'd be surprised if any team is being blitzed more often than Pitt. Pitt has seen a blitz on 40% of passing plays. UVA and LSU were the only other schools over 30%.
1P. Pickett 2020 34.2% blitzed.
2. Pitt runs an extraordinary number of play-action plays. 39%! Nearly 40% of our pass plays are play action...that's ridiculous. Slovis' time to throw is significantly shorter on play-action plays, making me believe that his instructions are to throw it to a set receiver.
2a. Pitt has 0 TDs on play action passes.
2b. 10% of play-action passes either result in a scramble or a ball batted at the line.
2P. Pitt ran 12.8% of passes as Play Action.
3. Slovis is pretty good when not facing pressure. His rating and ypa were near the top and his adjusted completion rate (completions + drops) was the 2nd highest of the group at 77.9% behind Jayden Daniels at LSU with 80.4%.
3P. Better than Pickett's ACC-leading 75.8% in 2020.
4. Slovis is terrible under pressure. His rating drops from an 80 to a 48.5, 2nd lowest above only JT Daniels among the group. But JT only faces pressure on 23.3% of plays compared to Slovis' 36.6%.
4P. Pickett had a horrible 41 rating when throwing under pressure. Was under pressure 30.6% of the passing plays.
5. Slovis' turnover worthy plays (passes that have a high percentage chance to be intercepted or a poor job of taking care of the ball and fumbling) goes from the 2nd best (1.6%) when without pressure, to the worst when facing pressure (7.9%).
5P. Pickett 1.4% to 7.6% when under pressure.
6. Pitt's drop % is pretty good at 6.1%. Brennan Armstrong's receivers are dropping 15.8% of on target balls.
6P. Pickett's receivers dropped 12.5% of on target throws.
7. 16.8 % of Pitt's passes have been behind the line of scrimmage. 87% of those were between the hashes. Pitt was the 2nd highest behind Duke with 19.8%.
7P. Pickett 2020 was 18.6%.
So there you have it. I mostly used comparable passing offenses and ACC teams for this. I started using Wisconsin and some other great passing teams to compare but those QBs were so clearly above Slovis' numbers that it's just pointing out the obvious.