Taking national drive scoring averages, we can calculate the average expected offensive points that can be scored from every starting field position (for a graphic representation, see this post: http://www.bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?id=771). Then, we can calculate the ratio of the sum of each team's expected offensive points by the total sum of both team's expected offensive points in the game. In other words, which team controlled field position in the game and by how much, expressed as their share out of "100" percent of field position points to be had.

(To calculate Field Position Efficiency (FPE), I also take into account defensive and special teams scores as having already earned a full touchdown value of expected offensive points, even though the offense doesn't take the field -- this way, a return that is stopped just shy of the goalline doesn't artificially inflate the field position advantage).

In 2008, Notre Dame was 7-1 in games in which it held a FPE over 50. The Irish were 0-5 when playing at a field position deficit.

Nationally, teams that play with a field position advantage win 67% of the time. When they hold at least a 60-40 advantage in FPE, they win 90% of the time. ND played North Carolina and Boston College at a 37-63 deficit, and played Michigan and Washington at a 59-41 FPE advantage.

Syracuse was an outlier, with the Irish holding a 63-37 FPE advantage while losing the game. The Orange started every drive inside their own 40-yard line; Notre Dame, meanwhile, had two more offensive possessions (because of a special teams fumble by Syracuse and an odd number of first half possessions) and started four drives inside the Syracuse 25-yard line (netting 6 points).

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How extreme can FPE get? The biggest margins in 2008 nationally were about 70-30. An example: Georgia Tech vs. LSU in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. GaTech had the ball only seven times in non-garbage time, with an average starting field position inside its 20-yard line. LSU recovered an onside kick and a punt fumble by the Yellow Jackets, and had an average starting field position at the 50-yard line.

It was blatant, and nobody believed Blanton when he told the refs to challenge it. Not even the announcers gave him his due when the on screen evidence was there.

but I think UNC did have the patience, for the first time we'd seen that season, to stick with on particular tactic for beating ND: jumping routes and forcing JC to go to his second look. The first successful jump went for a TD INT return, the next "successful" jump caused JC to pause long enough to help with him getting stripped of the ball (If I recall that at all correctly).

I think you might be able to say that UNC shut down ND in the 2nd half. ND scored just once in the 2nd half, and that drive required a roughing the kicker penalty to stay alive after ND went 3 and out (JC threw an incomplete on 3rd and 2 from the ND 36). That drive went 72 yards for a TD, but after that, the Irish drove for 8, 51, 33, and 63 yards without a score to end the game. That's about 1/3rd of the yards gained by the Irish without a score, and only the 8 yard drive occurred with ND holding a lead in the 2nd half, meaning, in a way, that the other fairly "long" drives just ate up a lot of clock without any ultimate productivity (scores).

I'll still maintain that the real "template" for beating ND, and one that Butch Davis probably appreciated, was that you could wait for ND to screw themselves up (see also: red zone offense), so long as you could hold on and keep things from getting out of hand. But the entire notion of a "template" is really dumb. It's something that lets board posters think they have any clue what it's actually like trying to execute on a game plan at game speed. Speaking as a veteran board poster/blogger: I don't have a freaking clue, and the "template" term makes me nervous.

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