Was perusing ye olde intyrnete when I happende upon thys: http://www.nfl.com/photoessays/0ap1000000242738/mindblowing-stats-for-week-2-of-2013#photo=10 It got me to thinking. If our offense is similar to the Green Bay offense (since the above stat includes the years when Philbin was there), then should we adjust our expectations downward. I'm sure that between multiple backs, Green Bay had many 100 yard games, but it's a very telling stat. Even once this running game 'gets going' It may be one of the lower ranked team rushing attacks in the league. So if the running game is not strong, it may not be because we aren;t good enough along the O-line, but primarily because it isn't high priority enough to make sure we have a strong ground game. Then the Oline being not amazing at run blocking is a RESULT of that philosophy, with personnel decisions biased towards pass pro, not run blocking linemen, practice time biased towards pass blocking not run blocking drills, etc... culminating in what will be a so-so rushing attack. Thoughts?
Yah - Thats it. You have solved it. Could it be that Green Bay hasn't found a decent RB since Ryan Grant went down, or that they have been running on sub-standard offensive lines?? Nooo Even Aaron Rodgers has said over and over again, that not being able to run the football is killing them. Thus Eddie Lacy in the draft. They have a back this year and aside from San Francisco, who nobody will put up 100 yards on, Eddie Lacy will end that stretch. Thats even with Bulaga missing the season with an ACL. Which is a shame, because they had finally put together a semblance of an O-line again. Even so, Lacy will pop 100 this season, Bakhtiari has looked good for them this preseason and they can shift Newhouse back to left tackle.
In Sherman's PC, he makes a sorta joke that Philbin thinks we can throw almost 100% of the time and that he's not convinced..yet.
It's a factor, but IMO the biggest factors against Cleveland were the quality of Cleveland's front and the rule changes regarding practices in the new CBA. I noticed that very few teams had effective run games in week 1. I think the rules limiting full pad practices gave OLs fewer opportunities get their run blocking in sync.
That's two very good points. I really believe the fuss about our inability to run the ball gets put to bed Sunday at Lucas Oil.
looking at last years stats, teams with great running backs like Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Denver averaged 114 yards per game; Miami was right behind them at 112 yards per game. Green Bay was at 106. Atlanta was scraping the bottom at 87. surprisingly Buffalo and New England has same amount as Houston, 136 yards per game. To me it says, you don't need a great running game to be successful. 1/2 of the top teams had mediocre or worse rushing stats and still won playoff games. But those teams have the ability to turn up the passing attack almost at will (Denver, Atlanta, Green Bay). We're not in their league yet, so we need better balance until Tannehill reaches the next level.
I agree with you, but lets not call it a "fuss". It's a legit concern right now. 20 yards rushing is bad.
I agree, 20yds rushing is alarming. I wouldn't be surprised to see them start to look for a veteran back to help out.
I think many of you are overlooking Clevelands defense. Their defense is easily a top ten defense in the NFL in my opinion.
By the way, lest anyone get it twisted, I am not suggesting our philosophy is to run for 20 yards a game. I AM suggesting that our expectations that lamar would have a big year, may have been incongruous with the approach of this head coach. Maybe...
Let's not make this about the anomaly, outlier stat versus Cleveland. No one on earth expects that pace to continue for rushing. The chemstry and practice reps with pads will improve blocking, we will face less stalwart D's that don't align in ways we are unprepared for (Dolphins players said as much in interviews this week, that we prepared for Cleveland by practicing blocking one way based on the Arizona film from last year and then Clevenad lined up different and we couldn't overcome the lack of reps seeing that alignment). So it's not all about explaining what happened i Cleveland. But in terms of what this ground attack will look like this year, seeing the stat: 44 games WITHOUT a 100 yard rusher in Green Bay. Clearly not a fluke. More a system thing. And it's probably very similar if not the same as the system we have here.
That's exactly the mistake many are making. It was a horrible rushing day. Nobody is saying it wasn't. But it's silly to act as if 20 yards or .9 average are the team's likely season averages. It's a small sample from the first game against what will likely be a very good run D. I'll wait a bit longer before I draw any definitive conclusions. And my expectations for the run game weren't that high to begin with. I think our OL is built to primarily be a pass blocking line. I think that's in line with what Philbin wants. I had Miller rated as a flex RB in my fantasy draft (think RB3). I posted before the Cleveland game that I felt we would probably need to use the read option to help open up the run. I didn't believe we'd be able to just line up and run over people.
Remember how worried we were last year about Tannehill's throwing motion after the Texans game? Then we soon discovered that JJ Watt was just doing that to every passer that year. My point is that Week 1's running woes will prove to be an aberration if anything. And if not we can bump this thread to call me stoopid.
I'm of the mindset they NEED to fix it, so I'm somewhat counting on it. That BS from Sherman about being an all passing team was just joking around in my view. They're focusing on run blocking heavy this week from the practice reports. Tidbit: We play the NFC South this year...all 4 teams allowed less than 90 yards rushing, but gave up over 300 yards in the air in week 1 (granted 1 game was Atlanta and New Orleans).
Could care less about 100 yrds rushing that is stat garbage. More into making plays out of the running game.
I'd agree. I'll take consistent 4 yd runs over something like AP's 77 yarder and averaging 1 ypc thereafter. I sorta expect it against the Colts.
Production from the running back position would be a big breath of fresh air. Don't get me wrong. We haven't seen it yet. Pop one and be consistent.
Watching Alex Gibbs videos all day today (thanks KB, my job is suffering) and noticed his two main running game tenets in the zone scheme are: 1) No negative plays 2) 20+ yard big plays. He isn't about necessarily grinding out first downs with the run over and over. Now, our zone run scheme isn't coached by him, obviously, but if you think of those two as the tenets of a zone system: Elminate negative plays Get the big play. You see how it is the perfect compliment to a pass-heavy offense. Never put yourself in the hole on a ru play (keeps downs and distances manageable) and occasionally rip a huge gainer, big play. It's about minimizing the downside, and maximizing the upside. Judging an attack like this by YPC is almost useless until we get a very high sample pool of runs, since the variance could be so great, imo, in a small data sample. Translation: over time, our run game will look very good. Even if we have fewer 'successful' runs, the ones that ARE successful will be bigger ones.
