1) When did I say anything about "believing" Bamas rushing and passing stats over ours? This isn't about us vs them in regards to stats being accurate...it's about not all stats being created equal. Some stats (like rush attempts) can have other things (like kneeling to run out the clock or QB sacks) skew them to make it look like you attempted to run more than you did, or reduce the appearance of the amount of times you tried to throw it (ie a QB drops back to throw 40 times but gets sacked 20 times and only gets the pass off 20 times, it will look like you only attempted 20 passes in the stat line, and also tried to run it 20 times, thus a balanced offense, but that just isn't accurate).
However, with pass attempts there is no other offensive action that feeds into them, to boost them up so when comparing Book (103-of-137) vs Tagovailoa (88-of-123) those are cold hard individual stats. The only room for amplifying those would be to look at how many times each QB was sacked while attempting a pass and reflect that towards their attempts and look at how many good passes they had dropped and reflect that towards their completions. When putting this into the context of who is trying to throw more, Book having that many more attempt in 3 less games (especially when considering Book has been sacked more which masks some of the times we tried to have him throw) is a pretty good indicator that we are probably attempting to throw the ball at a much higher rate than Bama is.
2) I haven't watched enough of Bama ball to know if they are trying to throw a lot or a little, or if they are using a lot of true running plays with backs and receivers, or if they are using a lot of QB runs to offset what they aren't doing with those guys, or if they are taking a lot of sacks which is masking some of their pass attempts, so I can't speak definitively on what they are doing. But I've watched all of our games in entirety and I can say without a doubt we are trying to throw the ball too much.
3) While I haven't watched much Bama ball, a comparison of some key areas paints a pretty good picture of whats going on in my opinion.
-Bama's 3 QBs combined are credited with 53 rush attempts, with an average per attempt of 4.7, 4.3, and -3.0. The QB with -3.0 has two attempts for -6 yds, so its fair to assume those were likely sacks on pass attempts. Based on this, the other two QBs averages per attempt, and the fact Bama has only given up 5 sacks on the season I would say its a good bet that a large portion of those 53 combined attempts were designed QB runs (which I'm good with if done smartly), but since I haven't watched them and don't plan to just to see how many designed QB runs they attempted, I'm going to pull those 53 out so we can see how many true running plays they attempted with backs and receivers. That leaves them with 237 rushing attempts from their backs and receivers out of 470 total offensive plays run (or in other words, 50% of their total offensive plays on the season were true running plays using their backs or receivers)
-ND's 3 QBs combined are credited with 101 rush attempts, with an average per attempt of 2.8, 2.3, and 7. The QB with 7 was the freshman on only one rush attempt, so it is the anomaly much like the -3.0 for the one Bama QB, so its fair to assume this was a designed rush attempt not a designed pass play. Based on this, having actually watched us play, the other two QBs averages per attempt, and the fact ND has given up 14 sacks on the season I would say its better than a good bet that a large portion of those 101 combined attempts were designed pass plays where the QB was either sacked or tucked it because no one was open to avoid the sack (I would still be a little displeased even if these were mostly designed QB runs, because with that high of a number you are just exposing your QB too much and adding to the risk of injury..but that would be better than what we are dealing with where a large number of attempted passing plays are being hidden in the stats because the ball isn't released which makes it look like we are running a nice balanced offense, which you'll see we aren't). When you remove these 101 QB attempts from the total, it leaves you with only 200 rush attempts by backs or receivers out of 516 total offensive plays run (or in other words, 38% of our total offensive plays on the season were true running plays using backs or receivers).
4) When you put the previous information into the following context, it really paints a clear picture of just how differently ND and Bama are approaching the offensive side of the ball, almost exact opposites actually.
Bama's Off. balance breaks down like this (470 total plays):
Pass attempts (ball thrown) = 38% / Rush attempts (backs/WRs) = 50% / QB rush attempts (sacked/designed) = 12%
ND's Off. balance breaks down like this.... (516 total plays):
Pass attempts (ball thrown) = 42% / Rush attempts (backs/WRs) = 38% / QB rush attempts (sacked/designed) = 20%
***reminder, they've given up 5 sacks and we've given up 14 sacks