2012 Detroit Preview: Special Teams

For this portion of your preview, I’m mostly going to focus on the possession game: faceoffs, ride, and clear. Since it’s not really enough for its own section, I’m going to lump in penalties and man-up/man-down at the end.

Faceoffs were often a struggle for UDM in 2011

We’ve already seen the Detroit offense and defense in detail, so let’s take a look at the various parts of the game that determine which unit is on the field at a given time. That would be the possession game, encompassing faceoffs, rides, and clears.

As you can see, the Titan’s weren’t super-great in the possession game. They won only .412 of faceoffs (No. 54 of 61 Division-1 teams), and cleared only .728 of the time on offense (No. 60). The one thing that they were good at – no surprise given their proclivity for causing turnovers – was riding the opposition into failed clears. Opponents only cleared .809 of the time, the No. 16 ride in the country.

Overall, the Titans had 552 offensive possessions on the year, while opponents had 626. That means only .469 of available possessions went to the good guys, No. 53 in the country. The pace was still fast (No. 9 in the country), thanks in part to the style of play.

Other than improving either offensive or defensive efficiency, the only way to improve team performance is in the possession game. If the Titans can improve – particularly at the X – they’ll be in line for a much better season than in 2011.

Unfortunately, I looked over the summer at individual faceoff improvement, and it seems that there is no reason to expect the same personnel to take a major leap forward. That’s not to say it isn’t possible (because it definitely is), just that the data doesn’t point us toward expecting it.

As for the ride/clear game, the offensive personnel (a.k.a. the ride game – yes, this can be a bit confusing if you’re not involved in the game of lacrosse, I had a tough time with it as well) did well on the ride last year, with an above-average performance. If they can repeat that, the Titans should be in good shape. The clearing game, on the other hand, was a mess last year, and hopefully keeping the same unit on the field (and not needing them to improve that much) will allow the clearing game to go more smoothly.

Penalties

The Titans committed 98 penalties while opponents committed 85 last year. That’s not good, but it comes with the territory of being an aggressive defensive team. Detroit can live with this downside, thanks to the benefits their aggression provides.

What the Titans did do was convert on their opportunities while preventing opponents from doing so. They converted .317 of their man-up attempts, while allowing opponents to convert only .289. Given that they got much less in-game practice (hardy har har), that’s a good split.

Outlook

Faceoffs faceoffs faceoffs. Whether it’s Brandon Davenport, Joe MacLean, Tyler Corcoran, or somebody new (such as miniscule (5-7, 170) freshman Tyler Harper), the performance has to be better on faceoffs for the team to take the next step. Wing play, personal improvement, and pure dumb luck will have to combine for the Titans, but something needs to make things break their way in 2012.

There is reason to believe that everything else will improve with experience, leaving faceoffs the only question mark in the possession phases of the game.