Last week, we’d mentioned that the Syracuse Orange’s Ervin Philips was a pretty dangerous third- and fourth-down option last year, converting over 55 percent of attempts on 38 opportunities.
Digging around CFBStats a little this week, I wanted to see if there was any way to get more information on why that was the case.
While I may not have found the “why,” some searching did yield something pretty interesting: Syracuse was the most effective third-and-short passing team in the country, from a yardage standpoint.
A look at the numbers on third-and-three-or-less:
- 269 passing yards (1st in FBS)
- 20-for-25 when passing (80 percent; seventh in FBS)
- 20 completions (fourth in FBS)
- Two passing TDs (17th in FBS)
- 196.