Third downs can serve as a proxy measure for a team’s overall efficiency. TCU’s 2017 offense, ranked 39th in overall S&P+ last year, but ranked 23rd in overall efficiency, and an impressive 18th on 3rd down S&P+. The TCU offense converted 91 of 199 third down attempts last year (45.7%), good enough for tenth in the nation.

This week, I’m asking and answering two questions:

1. How did TCU attack third downs?

2. Are all third downs created equal?

TCU Third Down Strategy by the Numbers:

Total Opportunities: 198

(This number involves filtering out all penalties or timeouts, and so we lose one attempt where the opposing team committed a penalty, resulting in 198 instead of 199).