Nice pod. It's been a while.
As noted during the pods, it seems our running game sometimes has difficulty up front and this is backed up by the data.
I've pulled up some analytics in anticipation of the ASU game (With UW and ASU as their respective colors). The offensive scores are scaled relative to other FBS teams, where 1 is above all teams, 0 is below all other teams.
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Clearly UW is top in several relevant offensive categories, but their "power success" (definition below) is quite low, which was quite frustrating to watch. The passing game can mask what might otherwise be deficiencies on offense - getting McMillan back will help this offense immensely.
"Power Success measures the percentage of running plays on 3rd or 4th down from 2 yards or less in which an offense either converted into a 1st down or scored a TD. 1st and 2nd down and goal plays within the 2 yard line are also included."
If we take a look at the defenses, in particular success rate of offenses against ASU in short yardage situations, we can see that they are worse than UW ("Power Success", far right, lower scores are better). We can also see from a high level that both defenses are more of a bend-but-don't-break style, routinely giving up yardage (high offense success rate) but with limited big plays (low explosiveness)
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Hopefully this game will provide a good opportunity for UW to improve short yardage running attack.
