Auburndawg
New Fish
Yesterday on Dawgman Yale raised one of my favorite subjects, is Sark balanced in his play calling? This caused me to go back and look at each game from last year closely.
Yes, if you just look at raw numbers we were balanced. 466 runs, 438 passes. But “runs” include sacks, QB scrambles, and kneel downs. When just look at passes vs handoffs to running backs, and when you look at the specifics of each game, you get the true picture:
San Diego State: 35 throws, 25 handoffs, and five of those handoffs were on the last drive when we were trying to kill the clock. 58% pass.
LSU: 36 throws, 19 handoffs, four of those on the final drive. 15 of the first 18 plays were passes.
Portland State: 46 handoffs, but 25 of those were in the second half after we were up 52-0. 12 of the first 20 plays were passes.
Stanford: 37 throws, 25 handoffs. 60% pass.
Oregon: 31 throws, 39 handoffs, but 16 of the handoffs were in the 4th quarter when the game was over. 13 of the first 20 plays were passes. We were not balanced when the game was still close.
USC: 28 throws, 17 handoffs. 61% pass.
Arizona: 52 throws, 22 handoffs. 15 of the first 20 plays were passes. The ugliest, least balanced game of the year.
But then it all changed. In our last 6 games we were virtually 50/50 pass vs handoff, and truly were balanced most of the time. (14 of the first 20 plays in the Apple Cup were passes, but overall we were pretty balanced that day.)
Clearly Sark changed his approach and got back to running the ball in the second half of the season, just as he did with Polk the year before.
We can’t afford long stretches where Sark gets away from the balanced approach he says he believes in. Hopefully this is a lesson he has fully and finally learned.
Yes, if you just look at raw numbers we were balanced. 466 runs, 438 passes. But “runs” include sacks, QB scrambles, and kneel downs. When just look at passes vs handoffs to running backs, and when you look at the specifics of each game, you get the true picture:
San Diego State: 35 throws, 25 handoffs, and five of those handoffs were on the last drive when we were trying to kill the clock. 58% pass.
LSU: 36 throws, 19 handoffs, four of those on the final drive. 15 of the first 18 plays were passes.
Portland State: 46 handoffs, but 25 of those were in the second half after we were up 52-0. 12 of the first 20 plays were passes.
Stanford: 37 throws, 25 handoffs. 60% pass.
Oregon: 31 throws, 39 handoffs, but 16 of the handoffs were in the 4th quarter when the game was over. 13 of the first 20 plays were passes. We were not balanced when the game was still close.
USC: 28 throws, 17 handoffs. 61% pass.
Arizona: 52 throws, 22 handoffs. 15 of the first 20 plays were passes. The ugliest, least balanced game of the year.
But then it all changed. In our last 6 games we were virtually 50/50 pass vs handoff, and truly were balanced most of the time. (14 of the first 20 plays in the Apple Cup were passes, but overall we were pretty balanced that day.)
Clearly Sark changed his approach and got back to running the ball in the second half of the season, just as he did with Polk the year before.
We can’t afford long stretches where Sark gets away from the balanced approach he says he believes in. Hopefully this is a lesson he has fully and finally learned.
