How Does One Achieve a Narrow Win from Domination?

I have to ask this question because both options were available to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets upon playing the Clemson Tigers on Thursday night. Normally this is not the case as most games will fall into one of those categories early but are confirmed going into the later stages of the fourth quarter. However, this game seemed to have both the spectacle of a complete domination and the dramatic come from behind victory. I don't think my heart could take another one like this.

Oh sure, there are times when I truly love the close games. The battle of wills, the narrow misses and close plays causes one to get caught up in the moment and to become one with the game. Who doesn't love a come from behind victory? To snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and to celebrate the win where only tears of defeat were once inevitable. Most of the time, I like the dominating. To see the team in total control in all phases of the game: Offense, Defense and Special Teams. I enjoy seeing a team working like a machine, the defense controlling the line of scrimmage while the offense keeps the other team in confusion with precision plays and aggressive athleticism.

So now we come to the rare but thoroughly draining combination of both. The complete domination at first, followed by the slow and painful fall from grace culminating in a last ditch effort at the end that results in victory. This was the Clemson game in a nutshell.

Before I go any further, I was not able to attend this game due to a scheduling conflict but I was able to watch it at my local sports watching business (the one with orange shorts, but this time they were wearing all black). I was not able to be there in person to see the drama. However, my friend was attending the game and we exchanged texts during the game. Afterward, I read his texts in sequence and it really told the story of the game. Here are a couple of examples, “Woodshed”, “They got happy with the big lead and now it's gone” and my favorite “They might wanna think about playing ball now”.

So what creates this type of football anomaly? Essentially has to take place to allow for a complete domination to shift towards the come from behind victory. Now I am not going to go into the area of game review and play analysis. There are a ton of highly qualified individuals that excel in that forum and I tend to let the people who are good at something do it. If you want to read recaps, I am sure a quick scan of the Internet will provide you with plenty of reading material.

OK, back to my point. How does a team allow for both the elation of domination and the energy sucking spectacle of the come from behind win? I give you the following formula:

Four Quarters x Three Areas of Game (Offense, Defense, Special Teams) = 12 Phases
Number of Phases the Team Dominates/12 Phases = Expected End Result

I am sure that there are better equations our there but I am awful at math, but stick with me here. The above equation is based on the simple idea that in each quarter (4) a team (usually) can play the phases of the game (3). This totals to 12 total phases that a team plays per game. This does not mean 12 plays but the expected number of phases that a team will use in a game. The goal here is for us to determine the overall percentage of the game in which your team dominates. Let's use the Georgia Tech vs. Clemson game as our reference.

Georgia Tech
Won Offense, Defense and Special Teams in First Quarter = 3
Played Poorly in Offense, Defense and Specialist Teams in Second/Third Quarter = 0
Won Offense, Defense in Fourth Quarter = 2
Follow me here: 3 + 2 = 5/12 = 42%

So, in essence, Georgia Tech only won 5 phases out of 12 for the entire game. That comes out to be 42% of the game in which Georgia Tech dominated or controlled the game. So for less than half the game, Tech was achieving. So what happened with the remaining 58%? Well, that goes to Clemson. That is what makes the game so amazing is that Tech was able to fall BELOW average achievement (which aids in the Narrow Win category), but also was able to control things enough early on (which aids in the Domination category) and ended up with playing only 42% of a full quality game.

It is still very early in the season and I am sure that there will be tons of speculation about the team's ability to maintain consistency over the course of an entire game. Heck, I may even right about it myself.