Panthers 2016 Season - Game at a Glance Drive Charts

[KB_fan]

Last season I started producing original "game at a glance" drive charts to try and capture the flow and turning points of each game.   I only got about half-way through the season before I ran out of steam.... it took more work than I expected!

I'm hoping though to get through the full season this year.

Below are my drive charts for the Week 1 game against Denver.   Later today I'll post the drive charts for the week 2 win against San Fran.

Whenever I add a new drive chart, I'll bump this thread, that way there will be one thread for the entire season of drive charts and commentary.   At least that's the current plan  ;-)

[KB_fan]

Here are the week 1 Drive Charts for the Panthers 20-21 loss against Denver:

I hope these are clear, shout if you have questions. 

Note, the score will always be shown with the Panthers score first.

Big plays are:   Runs: 10+ yards;  Passes 25+ yards;  Returns 20+ yards.  I've also noted any passes of 15+ yards just FYI, even though they are not calculated in the "big play" totals.  The goal is to show how the teams moved the ball on a given drive.

Comments & Suggestions welcomed!

 

 

[KB_fan]

And because I often find it really helpful to look at the drive charts side by side - here are condensed week 1 charts side by side:

Week 1 2016:  Panthers at Denver.   Panthers lose 20-21.

(Click on the image for a larger version)

[arbnranger]

Great stuff as always KBF!

 

[KB_fan]

WEEK 2:  San Francisco at Carolina.   Panthers win 46 - 27

Here are the condensed Week 2 Drive Charts Side by Side.  (I'll have the more detailed drive charts including the big play data later tonight or in the morning).

(click on image for larger version).

A couple of things stand out to me that weren't obvious from merely reviewing the gamebook.  It took actually doing the data entry for me to notice some of these trends.

31 total drives between the 2 teams.  Yowsa.  Had to be exhausting in that heat....  No wonder it too so long.   And Graham Gano's leg must have been ready to fall off.  I mean 10 kickoffs and 4 field goals!!!  Give the guy a raise :)

What really shocks me though is the number of drives of less than 1 minute duration.

San Francisco 7 of 16 drives (excluding kneel down drives).  The Panthers 5 of 14, for 12 total!  That figure is high enough that it makes me want to query PFR to see if it's anywhere near a record.  But seriously, talk about sudden change offense / defense.  It really really impresses me to see that the Panthers offense stayed so focus in spite of basically being yo-yoed on and off the field in the final 5 drives or so...  They'd get off the field for 10 - 30 seconds of game time, and then be back on the field.  They clearly handled it better than San Francisco whose defense must have been utterly and totally exhausted in the 4th quarter with their offense unable to give them a break.

Another thing I notice:  The field position fascinates me.   The Panthers did not score on any drive that started from inside their own 22 yard line.  (0/6 drives).   They scored on ALL 8 drives where they started at the 22 or better.

Similarly:  San Francisco went 0/5 in scoring on drives started inside their own 25 yard line; and 5 of 11 when they started at their own 25 or better.   Seriously, the trade for Andy Lee is seeming like another #Gettlemagic move right now.

Ok, I'm sure I'll find much more to comment on....  but for now, hope these game at a glance drive charts are helpful!

[KB_fan]

A quick note.... the side by side drive charts above and for future weeks will ALWAYS read left to right, so the team that starts first on offense will be on the left....  Hope that's not confusing for folks. 

Please feel free to ask questions if something is unclear in terms of how I've marked / annotated things.

Colors used in various cells indicate scoring and turnovers, as well as field position... You can instantly see all Red Zone drives, or drives inside the opponent's 40...

I welcome any suggestions for ways to improve the presentation if something seems unclear or inconsistent or if some important information is lacking.

[arbnranger]

I like how you have the info organized and side by side for comparison.

I normally pay attention to the total TOP after the game is over but with these stats you can see how the two drives right after half time totaled almost 13 minutes. Both of those resulting in a TD with a quick turnaround on possession. The following drive really could have been a back breaker for their defense. It was already over 3 minutes before the fumble. 

 

[KB_fan]

There's a guy I follow on Twitter, who produces graphical game maps for every game.  They're pretty interesting. 

Here are Panthers game maps for weeks 1 and  2 of 2016:

 

That week 2 game map - WOW.  Just crazy with the ups & downs and the huge # of scores in the 2nd half....

If you go to the Q5 website, there's a nice tutorial in how to read those game maps.   Frankly, I still like doing my own more numerical "game at a glance" drive chart tables in Excel, but it's nice to see the work other analysts are doing to try and capture key information about drives and games and momentum shifts....

[KB_fan]

I just realized I never posted the more detailed Drive Charts for Week 2 with details on "Big Plays".  Here they are.

Panthers Week 2 (vs. San Francisco). 

Panthers had big plays (including long returns) on 9 consecutive drives, scoring on 6 of those.  Nice.  This week I included info on a few big plays negated by penalties, just as a bit more information.  As before, I also included some info on passes in the 15 - 24 yard range, but those are not counted in the "big play" totals at the bottom of the tables.

 

 

[KB_fan]

Here is the drive chart for week 2 for San Francisco.   They only had rushing / passing big plays on two of their drives, both of which ended with their scoring a touchdown.  Their third touchdown was set up by Ted Ginn's K/O return muff on the 1 yard line.

[the butch]

On September 21, 2016 at 4:34 PM, KB_fan said:

Another thing I notice:  The field position fascinates me.   The Panthers did not score on any drive that started from inside their own 22 yard line.  (0/6 drives).   They scored on ALL 8 drives where they started at the 22 or better.

That's very interesting.  I imagine a lot of that can be attributed to play calling and Cam's discretion.  Instead of chipping away to gain some extra grass, we try and get it all at once.

[KB_fan]

I've not yet finished my full week 3 drive chart tables, but earlier today I spent a bit of time beginning to analyze starting field position and drive outcome - it's something I want to dig into more deeply.   As part of that, I started a new spreadsheet page where I'm doing a very very simple drive chart tracking table showing each drive, starting field position, and drive outcome. 

Here are weeks 1 - 3 of 2016.  These are PANTHERS drives only.
 

Notes: 

1) Starting field position is incremented from 0 - 99, with anything over 50 being opponent's territory.  For figures over 50, subtract from 100, e.g. 65 is the opponents 35 yard line.

2) I know safeties aren't technically turnovers, but I included it as a turnover in this calculation since it equates to points for the opponent.

-----------

Using that very simple data above, I then grouped drives by starting field position and looked at outcome - % of drives with a score (TD or FG);  % of drives with a Turnover.

 

Right now it's hard to draw many conclusions from the raw data.  I need to take some more time to compare these data for 2016 weeks 1 - 3 to other seasons and other teams....  but just wanted to post this "work in progress" here, and invite peoples' comments & feedback.