New Season’s Greetings, Gump Nation, and apologies for the late update this week. It’s just a good thing this post didn’t land on Gump Day, as the content isn’t appropriately optimistic.
The FSU opener is one of those games where advanced stats can provide a truly divergent story from what the scoreboard says. Despite the Tide winning a seemingly-decisive 24-7 victory —and with plenty of points left on the table, to boot— Florida State was technically the more efficient (“successful,” according to these metrics) team for almost the entire game. Let’s take a look.
Metric definitions
A "successful" play, as defined by Football Outsiders, is basically when a play gains enough yardage to keep the offense on track, i.