The Wake Forest Demon Deacons dominated the North Carolina Tar Heels in time of possession, and also won the turnover battle. Why then did the Deacs lose the game by 36 points? Explosiveness is the most important predictor in football. Wake had some explosiveness, but the Carolina offense was unbelievably explosive.
I examined the play-by-play of the Wake Forest vs. North Carolina game, and then charted the yardage gained on each play. Fortunately, the yardages of each play were already calculated for me. Below you will see the distribution of outcomes for each team.
One-third of UNC's plays went for 11 or more yards.