Offensive Three-And-Out Drives
October 20th, 2008Early in the broadcast of the Missouri – Texas game on Saturday night, ABC displayed the statistic that Missouri had only had two three-and-out drives this season with Chase Daniel at quarterback. Not long after they showed that statistic, Missouri and Daniel went three-and-out on three of their first four drives against Texas. Missouri rallied though, and did not have a three-and-out drive over their last seven drives of the game.
Such a low number of three-and-out drives is impressive, but I wondered how that compares to other teams in the FBS (Division I-A). Since I track every play and drive of every game involving an FBS team, I can answer the question. The caveat is that I don’t have a way to assign a drive to a particular quarterback since the play-by-play does not list the quarterback for every play. So I can only answer the question by looking at team totals rather than individual quarterbacks.
The following table shows the top-ten teams with the lowest percentage of three-and-out drives through week 8.
| Team | 3-And-Outs | Drives | 3-And-Out % | Total Off. Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulsa | 5 | 89 | 5.6% | 1 |
| Texas Tech | 6 | 85 | 7.1% | 2 |
| Missouri | 7 | 84 | 8.3% | 5 |
| South Carolina | 8 | 91 | 8.8% | 81 |
| Florida State | 8 | 78 | 10.3% | 30 |
| Houston | 10 | 94 | 10.6% | 3 |
| Illinois | 10 | 94 | 10.6% | 9 |
| Colorado State | 9 | 80 | 11.3% | 73 |
| Ball State | 9 | 78 | 11.5% | 15 |
| Ohio | 10 | 86 | 11.6% | 61 |
Tulsa – check, Texas Tech – check, Missouri – check, South Carolina – ch…oh, wait. South Carolina? Yeah, that one threw me when I saw it, so much so that I went back and manually checked every South Carolina drive. Sure enough, South Carolina, which is 81st in the FBS in Total Offense through week 8, has had only eight three-and-out drives this season. But South Carolina is not the only team in the top ten that seems out of place, Colorado State and Ohio rank 73rd and 61st respectively in the FBS in total offense.
On the flip side, here are the top-ten teams with the highest percentage of three-and-out drives through week 8.
| Team | 3-And-Outs | Drives | 3-And-Out % | Total Off. Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana-Monroe | 31 | 90 | 34.4% | 77 |
| Tennessee | 28 | 83 | 33.7% | 106 |
| Florida International | 31 | 93 | 33.3% | 116 |
| San Diego State | 32 | 97 | 33.0% | 114 |
| Utah State | 30 | 91 | 33.0% | 101 |
| Wyoming | 30 | 93 | 32.3% | 117 |
| Vanderbilt | 28 | 88 | 31.8% | 119 |
| Duke | 24 | 76 | 31.6% | 87 |
| Temple | 29 | 93 | 31.2% | 115 |
| Michigan | 31 | 100 | 31.0% | 108 |
No real surprises here, most of these teams are near the bottom in total offense. However, the team that has the highest percentage of three-and-out drives this season among 120 FBS teams, Louisiana-Monroe, ranks higher in total offense (77th) than the South Carolina, the team with the 4th lowest percentage!