Deep dive into the Spencer Rattler performance for South Carolina
It’s almost time to flip the page and preview the Furman Paladins and examine the week ahead, but for the time being, let’s talk about South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler.
A lot of the talk about the Gamecocks’ starter was about the step he took in the offseason. And–despite the result–it was easy to see why against North Carolina.
Before turning the page, let’s take a dive into some of the more advanced numbers from Saturday’s game.
For starters, let’s take a look at the raw numbers from Rattler’s performance Saturday night. He finished 30-for-39 (76.9 percent) for 353 yards, averaging 9.05 yards per attempt with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
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If he kept that pace for an entire regular season (12 games)–which will obviously be tough–he’d finish with 360 completions, 468 attempts and 4,236 yards.
That would rank as the most passing yards in a single season by a South Carolina quarterback and be by far and away the most completions and attempts as well.
He finished with a 70.5 overall grade with a 66.7 passing grade and a 70.6 rushing grade according to PFF.
Passing vs. pressure
One of the biggest bugaboos last year for Rattler was the drastic dip in his numbers when faced with pressure. But Rattler–despite being pressured in 21 of his 55 dropbacks–had some serviceable numbers.
He finished 4-for-10 for 71 yards (7.1 yards per attempt) but his adjusted completion percentage per PFF was 77.8 percent. South Carolina receivers dropped three of his passes when he was under pressure. His average depth of target under pressure was 12 yards.
Rattler was sacked nine times under pressure but did scramble four times for 43 yards on Saturday.
When kept clean, though, Rattler still had some really quality, efficient numbers. He completed 26 of his 30 attempts (86.7 percent) in a clean pocket for 282 yards and averaged 9.4 yards per attempt.
His average depth of target was just 5.9 yards, though, meaning he spent a lot of time hitting short routes in those clean pockets.
North Carolina blitzed on 30.9 percent of Rattler’s dropbacks trying to affect him, and it worked to a degree. Those blitzes resulted in eight pressures and four sacks while Rattler was able to get out of it just once with a scramble.
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He went 7-for-10 and averaged 7.3 yards per attempt. When North Carolina just rushed three or four, Rattler was 23-for-30 (76.7 percent) for 280 yards (9.3 yards/attempt).
One positive in everything was PFF had Rattler ad no turnover-worthy plays but he also didn’t have any big-time throws either.
Play action vs. straight dropback
South Carolina didn’t ask Rattler to utilize a ton of play action Saturday against North Carolina. According to PFF, only three of his dropbacks (5.5 percent) included play action. Rattler went 1-for-2 for 29 yards and scrambled once.
Some of the issues with using play action might have been because those plays typically take a little longer to develop and the Gamecocks weren’t giving Rattler much time to throw.
On straight dropbacks, he was 20-for-38 (76.3 percent) for 324 yards and averaged 8.5 yards per attempt.
South Carolina used screens on 14.5 percent of dropbacks where Rattler went 5-for-6 for 48 yards. Of those, three went for first downs.
Passing depth
South Carolina didn’t ask Rattler to push the ball a ton downfield during his outing with just 10 of his attempts 10-plus yards downfield. The majority of his attempts came in the short throw area zero to nine yards downfield.
On throws behind the line of scrimmage to nine yards downfield, Rattler finished 25-for-29 (86.2 percent) for 224 yards, averaging 7.7 yards per attempt.
On throws more than 10 yards downfield Rattler completed five of his 10 attempts for 129 yards (12.9 yards/attempt). It stands to reason he completed more of his attempts closer to the line of scrimmage given the higher percentage of throw while averaging more yards per attempt on throws downfield.
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Here’s how each level shook out:
Deep (20-plus): 2-for-5, 70 yards, 87.5 NFL rating
Medium (10-19 yards): 3-for-5, 59 yards, 101.3 NFL rating
Short (0-9 yards): 18-for-21, 152 yards, 96.8 NFL rating
Behind LOS: 7-for-8, 72 yards, 104.2 NFL rating
South Carolina really tried to target the middle of the field with 22 of Rattler’s attempts coming in the middle of the field at various depths. Most of those (10) came in the short area of the field where he was a perfect 10-for-10 for 97 yards. Seven also came behind the line of scrimmage.
Here’s how each side of the field went:
Left: 8-for-11, 104 yards, 102.1 NFL rating
Middle: 18-for-22, 200 yards, 104.6 NFL rating
Right: 4-for-6, 49 yards, 91.7 NFL rating
Passing per down, in short fields
Rattler was really good on first-down passing thanks to a few explosive plays and was relatively efficient on second downs as well. Where he struggled–for a few reasons– was on third and fourth down.
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When the Gamecocks were in third or fourth downs, the down and distances were longer, averaging 8.6 yards to go on third down and 4.8 yards on fourth.
On those downs, Rattler was 6-for-10 for 42 yards and was sacked six times.
Here are the down-by-down breakdowns (third and fourth lumped together):
First down: 13-for-17 (76.5 percent), 194 yards (11.4 yards per attempt), three sacks, 113.4 NFL rating
Second down: 10-for-12 (83.3 percent), 115 yards (9.6 yards per attempt), no sacks, 106.6 NFL rating
Third/Fourth downs: 6-for-10 (60 percent), 42 yards (4.2 yards per attempt), six sacks, 69.6 NFL rating
Rattler was also 10-for-12 for 63 yards and was sacked three times when South Carolina was inside the North Carolina 30-yard line Saturday night.
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