Given the YPC and “run the damn ball!” talk all over the sub, I thought I’d put yesterday’s run game into a log so we can all see how it actually went and emphasize why YPC is not a valuable piece of information.

-5 (penalty)
Fumble lost (sneak on 4th)*
Fumble lost (end around)*
0 (fumble, recovered)
1
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
3 (DTR designed run)
3 (DTR designed run)
4
4
6
7 (wildcat)*
9 (DTR designed run)
11
13
19

17 of 23 running plays went for less than 4 yards. Those 17 plays netted 32 yards. Only 3 of 23 total rush attempts went for more than 10 yards, with 2 of them happening when we were down 14 points and got favorable looks early in the game.

Of the “real” running plays (no sneak, end-around, or wildcat), 15 of 20 went for 4 or less. Only 4 of 20 went for more than 6 yards, one being a DTR designed run. Half of them came within a few plays of each other. We also fumbled.

So yeah, we ran for 4.5 YPC overall, 17 plays for net 82 by RBs (with the penalty). But it doesn’t matter, its irrelevant. A significant majority of these runs were essentially lost plays. 17 plays for 32 yards. You can’t just pound the square peg into the circle whole and expect it to work. Granted, there were a few situations where we would’ve loved to see DTR check into a run early on, but that’s a different conversation. Stefanski identifying their fronts and our lack of rushing success relatively early was the only reason we were even within a score before DTR got taken out, as DTR passing was far more successful for the offense overall.