Besides the more obvious ways in which Shea Patterson’s debut in College Station was so special, Saturday night marked a stark change in the mid-game trajectory of the offense in 2016. For the first time all year, the ever-volatile Rebel attack saved its best moments for the final quarter, doing so against an intimidatingly loaded, albeit banged up, defense. It goes without saying that it all started with Patterson.
Collapsing late in games had been a problem for this offense all season, and the numbers back it up. By quarterly Offensive S&P+, they had been 11th or better through three quarters and 82nd in the fourth.