A ”successful” play, as defined by Football Outsiders, is when a play gains enough yardage to keep the offense on track, i.e., 50% of needed yardage on 1st down, 70% on 2nd, or 100% on 3rd/4th. A ”big play” (aka “explosive play”) is any play that gains ≥15 yards (run OR pass).
Success by Quarters
Note: Oklahoma’s colors are really similar to Alabama’s, so I replaced theirs with a “this baby smells” brown. This is the color that most of the state of Oklahoma is anyway, right?
A lot of Tide fans came out of this game saying that it wasn’t as close as it looked.