Inside The Numbers: The Virginia Tech Jet Sweep, Part 1

Inside The Numbers: The Virginia Tech Jet Sweep, Part 2

I think that, in isolation at least, jet sweeps are demonstrably good plays. What remains to be seen are how jet sweeps impact overall offensive success. There are a handful of ways to investigate that. Today, we’ll look at how the number of jet sweeps used related to the outcome of the game, and we’ll also look at what the threat of the jet sweep did to defenses.

First is how jet sweeps broadly correlate to offensive success for the Hokies. I focused on the PFF offensive grade for each game, since it doesn’t reward teams much for lucky breaks or instances where either defense really helped the offense; total points scores is also there, but it doesn’t account for defensive scores and all the other things the PFF grade considers. (NB: I watched the full 2020 Clemson game, and there was a play in there that met my criteria for jet sweep, but didn’t make it into my stat sources; it’s included below.)

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