The Run Game

[grizeyes]

Remember back in 95, we couldn't run for two yards, hell we took penalties to back us up from the goal line,still scored.

Yes I do! It was funny when we got to the goal line, would get a penalty, and everyone would say oh well, or that's ok, more room for the offense to operate. :thumb:

 

[Buttegrizzle]

AZ much of the runs were by Chalich. I'm all in favor of his running but that was a big addition to the overall ground game. I do like the use of multiple backs and all looked productive.

 

[Griz2k]

Well, according to an article on gogriz.com, we are running the ball good enough to be better than Cal Poly......

The Griz are ranked just above Cal Poly at the bottom of the conference in total rushing offense

:lol:

 

[AZGrizFan]

42 rushing attempts, 39 ACTUAL attempts for 203 yards (net of the kneeldowns). 14 of those for 2 yards or less (including both sacks). 10 for 9 yards or more. 20 for 5 yards or more. THAT, to me, is a running game working.

I agree, AZ.

But I also don't know a soul who, prior to the end of the 3rd quarter, said, "Damn, our running game is firing on all cylinders today". Yes, there was improvement. Was it a great day running the football? Meh.

Then what DOES "firing on all cylinders" look like to those souls? Is the expectation that every single run will yield 5 yards or more? I mean, that's why they calculate AVERAGE yards per carry...you get to count the long runs AND the short ones.

Here's Cal Poly's running play production against us:

1st Drive: 2,7,3,-2,5,5,1
2nd Drive: 3,1,3
3rd Drive: 5,4,2,1,2
4th Drive: 60
5th Drive: 2,1
6th Drive: 4,4,5,5,2
7th Drive: 5,10,3,28
8th Drive: 5,6,3,1
9th Drive: 0
10th Drive: 5,8,7,-7,10,6,3,2,4,5,0,2,2,-5,0
11th Drive: 4,5,3,4,13,4,-1,3
12th Drive: 0,9,2,0,3,4
13th Drive: 5,3,0,1
14th Drive: 9,4,5,5,3,0
15th Drive: None
16th Drive: 5,2,2,6,4

76 rushing attempts. 28 (36%!) of those were 2 yards or less. THIRTY NINE (51%) were for 3 yards or less. Just SEVEN (9%) were of 9 yards or more. 27 were of 5 yards or more. YPC average of 4.3. Our YPC average against NAU was 4.4. 35.5% of CP's runs against us were for 5 yards or more. 47.6% of OUR runs against NAU were for 5 yards or more.

Honestly, I'm not sure what else a fan could ask of our running game than they got on Saturday. It compared favorably with arguably the best running game in the conference.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Well, according to an article on gogriz.com, we are running the ball good enough to be better than Cal Poly......

The Griz are ranked just above Cal Poly at the bottom of the conference in total rushing offense

:lol:

That's comical. Me thinks they meant UCD.

 

[oGriz]

AZGrizFan
Come ON. When you run for almost 200 yards in a game, there's gonna be some long ones. You can't NOT count the long ones and say "the run game isn't working"....

42 rushing attempts, 39 ACTUAL attempts for 203 yards (net of the kneeldowns). 14 of those for 2 yards or less (including both sacks). 10 for 9 yards or more. 20 for 5 yards or more. THAT, to me, is a running game working.

:thumb:

The Big Sky stats show our net rushing yardage as 79 yards per game before NAU (110 v. NDSU, 106 v. Cal Poly, and 21 v. Liberty). We had almost two and a half times our average net rushing yards and it's a 'meh' rushing game? Seriously?

The average yards per carry for each ball carrier versus NAU:
Nguyen 10.1 (his longest was 22 yards, our longest single run)
Joey Counts 6.2
Treshawn Favors 3.7
Chad Chalich 3.6
L. Longwood 3.3