Advanced Stat: Havoc Rate
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The Havoc Rate statistic is also brought to you by Football Outsiders. It measures a defense’s ability to generate negative plays or ability to make plays. It is an analytic that adds up a team’s total tackles for loss, passes defended, and forced fumbles and divides that number by the total plays.
Miami: No. 1 (24.7%)
Alabama: No. 2 (22.6%)
Clemson: No. 9 (21.1%)
Michigan: No. 56 (19%)
With the rules now favoring offenses so much with the RPOs and those spread offenses having the ability to create advantages by creating tough match-ups to defend, the answer for a defense is to impose their will on a game by generating negative plays for the opposing offense and change the chance that an offense has at efficiently getting first downs. If a defense is able to generate a negative play during first or second down, it starts to swing the advantage from the offense to the defense. Third and long situations are difficult for most college offenses to overcome.
Advanced Stat: Standard Downs Sack Rate
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This is another statistic brought to you by Football Outsiders that demonstrates Miami’s ability to generate pressure with their front seven. This is the sack rate on standard downs (which would mean a sack on first-and-10, second-and-seven or fewer, and third-and-four or fewer). When a defense can generate sacks on standard downs, it shows that they don’t have to depend on obvious pass downs to rack up sacks.
Miami: No. 1 (10.6%)
Alabama: No. 2 (10.1%)
Clemson: No. 20 (7%)
Michigan: No. 32 (6.6%)
You could argue that this statistic shows that Miami was the best pass rushing defense in the country during the 2018 regular season. Between defensive linemen Gerald Willis, Joe Jackson, and Jonathan Garvin, the Hurricanes had personnel that did an excellent job of getting to the quarterback on a consistent basis--and not just on obvious passing downs. Miami's defensive line was more productive than Alabama in this regard.
Advanced Stat: Stuff Rate
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This is an advanced stat by Football Outsiders that is relatively simple to understand: it measures the percentage of carries by an opposing running back that are stopped at or before the line of scrimmage.
Miami: No. 2 (27.4%)
Alabama: No. 22 (23.1%)
Clemson: No. 3 (26.7%)
Michigan: No. 16 (23.9%)
This is a stat that shows a defense's ability to stuff the run in a meaningful way. If a run goes for zero yardage or even a negative yardage, that is a big blow to what the offense is trying to do in terms of setting up manageable downs and distances. The Hurricanes were one of the best run defenses in the country in this regard.
The Havoc Rate statistic is also brought to you by Football Outsiders. It measures a defense’s ability to generate negative plays or ability to make plays. It is an analytic that adds up a team’s total tackles for loss, passes defended, and forced fumbles and divides that number by the total plays.
Miami: No. 1 (24.7%)
Alabama: No. 2 (22.6%)
Clemson: No. 9 (21.1%)
Michigan: No. 56 (19%)
With the rules now favoring offenses so much with the RPOs and those spread offenses having the ability to create advantages by creating tough match-ups to defend, the answer for a defense is to impose their will on a game by generating negative plays for the opposing offense and change the chance that an offense has at efficiently getting first downs. If a defense is able to generate a negative play during first or second down, it starts to swing the advantage from the offense to the defense. Third and long situations are difficult for most college offenses to overcome.
Advanced Stat: Standard Downs Sack Rate
This is another statistic brought to you by Football Outsiders that demonstrates Miami’s ability to generate pressure with their front seven. This is the sack rate on standard downs (which would mean a sack on first-and-10, second-and-seven or fewer, and third-and-four or fewer). When a defense can generate sacks on standard downs, it shows that they don’t have to depend on obvious pass downs to rack up sacks.
Miami: No. 1 (10.6%)
Alabama: No. 2 (10.1%)
Clemson: No. 20 (7%)
Michigan: No. 32 (6.6%)
You could argue that this statistic shows that Miami was the best pass rushing defense in the country during the 2018 regular season. Between defensive linemen Gerald Willis, Joe Jackson, and Jonathan Garvin, the Hurricanes had personnel that did an excellent job of getting to the quarterback on a consistent basis--and not just on obvious passing downs. Miami's defensive line was more productive than Alabama in this regard.
Advanced Stat: Stuff Rate
This is an advanced stat by Football Outsiders that is relatively simple to understand: it measures the percentage of carries by an opposing running back that are stopped at or before the line of scrimmage.
Miami: No. 2 (27.4%)
Alabama: No. 22 (23.1%)
Clemson: No. 3 (26.7%)
Michigan: No. 16 (23.9%)
This is a stat that shows a defense's ability to stuff the run in a meaningful way. If a run goes for zero yardage or even a negative yardage, that is a big blow to what the offense is trying to do in terms of setting up manageable downs and distances. The Hurricanes were one of the best run defenses in the country in this regard.
