Tequilla Study: How BAD was UW's 3rd Down Offense Last Year

It's been talked about dating back to last year regarding how pathetic the UW offense was on 3rd down ranging from Browning's play to Babushka's play calling. There's a very relevant NFL Films segment tied to Bart Starr and the Packers dating back to either Super Bowl I or II where it talks about the worth of a QB is how they perform on 3rd down … I think that that is particularly true. And in this regard, the data below becomes quite telling with respect to Browning. How bad was it? Let's take a look (note, I plan on doing a similar study on the Defense before the season):

METHODOLOGY

• Includes all 3rd downs for drives started during first 3 quarters of games
  
• Includes any drive in the 4th quarter where the drive started with a margin of 3 scores or less
  
• The play call type is defined as what was actually called on a play (sacks and scrambles are considered passes)
  
• In the event that the 3rd down conversion was picked up via penalty, the original result of the play (sans penalty) was included in ALL stats (the penalties will be called out separately)
  

SUMMARY

• UW had 138 3rd down attempts last year fitting the above criteria and converted 60 of them (before penalties) for a conversion rate of 43.5% (an additional 6 1st downs were picked up by penalty bringing the effective conversion rate up to 47.8%)
  
• The average 3rd down distance for UW was 6.69 yards; on average UW gained 4.96 yards on 3rd down
  
• Of the 138 attempts on 3rd down, UW called a pass play on 104 of those attempts, or 75.4% of the time
  
• Of those 104 pass attempts on 3rd down, UW converted at a 35.6% clip
  
• Of the 34 times UW ran the ball on 3rd down, the conversion rate was at a 67.6% clip
  
• Of the 67 times UW did not pick up a 1st down via throwing, 14 of those attempts resulted in sacks
  
• In total, UW allowed 20 sacks last year
  

GAME BY GAME DETAIL

Rutgers

• 3 of 11 on 3rd down for a 27% conversion rate
  
• 3 of 9 conversion via pass
  
• 0 for 2 conversions via run (run attempts were early in the game on a 3rd and 19 and towards the end of the game when running out the clock)
  
• Average 3rd down distance needed was 8.91 yards
  
• Average yards gained on 3rd down was 3.18 yards
  

Montana

• 2 for 4 on 3rd down for a 50% conversion rate
  
• All 4 attempts came via pass
  
• Average 3rd down distance needed was 6.25 yards
  
• Average yards gained on 3rd down was 10.0 yards
  

Fresno St

• 4 for 7 on 3rd down for a 57% conversion rate
  
• 6 of 7 attempts came via pass; converted 3 of those 6
  
• Average 3rd down distance needed was 7.43 yards
  
• Average yards gained on 3rd down was 4.43 yards
  

Colorado

• 5 of 10 on 3rd down for a 50% conversion rate
  
• 2 of 6 in conversions via pass
  
• 3 of 4 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed was 5.20 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained was 3.30 yards
  

Oregon St

• 5 of 12 on 3rd down for a 42% conversion rate
  
• 4 of 10 in conversions via pass
  
• 1 of 2 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed was 7.00 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained was 4.83 yards
  

Cal

• 12 of 18 on 3rd down for a 67% conversion rate
  
• 8 of 14 in conversions via pass
  
• 4 of 4 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed was 6.33 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained was 5.39 yards
  

Arizona St

• 3 of 14 on 3rd down for a 21% conversion rate
  
• 2 of 11 in conversions via pass
  
• 1 of 3 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed was 8.21 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained was 1.21 yards
  

UCLA

• 3 of 9 on 3rd down for a 33% conversion rate
  
• 1 of 5 in conversions via pass
  
• 2 of 4 in conversions via run (includes a very piss poor decision by Browning to keep it on a 3rd and short read option)
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed was 4.33 yards (by far the lowest number of the season - should convert at a far higher % than 3 of 9 if average conversion in this range)
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained was 3.89 yards
  

Oregon

• 5 of 9 on 3rd down for a 56% conversion rate
  
• 4 of 8 in conversions via pass
  
• 1 of 1 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed was 9.00 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained was 16.22 yards
  

Stanford

• 2 of 8 on 3rd down for a 25% conversion rate
  
• 1 of 6 in conversions via pass
  
• 1 of 2 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed of 6.50 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained of 2.50 yards
  

Utah

• 6 of 12 on 3rd down for a 50% conversion rate
  
• 3 of 8 in conversions via pass
  
• 3 of 4 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed of 5.17 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained of 2.42 yards
  

Washington St

• 2 of 9 on 3rd down for a 22% conversion rate
  
• 0 of 7 in conversions via pass
  
• 2 of 2 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed of 6.44 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained of 0.78 yards (that's comically bad)
  

Penn St

• 8 of 15 on 3rd down for a 53% conversion rate
  
• 4 of 10 in conversions via pass
  
• 4 of 5 in conversions via run
  
• Average 3rd down yardage needed of 6.07 yards
  
• Average 3rd down yards gained of 9.07 yards (includes the long Gaskin TD run and TD pass to Fuller)