500 Yards per game

[SWC75]

This used to be a rather exclusive achievement, (no one in college football history averaged gaining that much until Houston broke the barrier in 1968). It's not all that exclusive now:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/team/_/stat/total

We are the second lowest scoring team of the 19 teams that are averaging over 500 yards per game. It's interesting that the two lowest scoring of those teams are the ones with thew worst rushing numbers. That may be why Marrone and Hackett are still trying to establish our running game. Perhaps with Pugh coming back and the young runners coming along, we will be able to improve that. Some of the things we have done to ourselves in terms of field position, when to take a chance, settling for field goals and missing a couple are factors, as well. The scoring average for the nineteen 500 yard/game teams is 43.5, more than 10 points a game more than ours.

We are doing a good job of moving up and down the field but we've got to be more consistent with the running attack, (and if we can't be we've got to go to the passing attack earlier), and more effiicient when we have a scoring opportunity.

 

[orangenauburn]

we seem to be doing our damage in the last 3 quarters ... imagine what our numbers would look like if we did it the whole game?

 

[upperdeck]

it wouldnt take much to get closet to those teams.. we have had at least 6 red zone chances and gotten 6 pts in the NW/SB games. just getting FGs would have almost cut the scoring in half. make it 3 Fg , two TDs and a miss and 6 pts turns in 22. we need that production going forward..

 

[SWC75]

it wouldnt take much to get closet to those teams.. we have had at least 6 red zone chances and gotten 6 pts in the NW/SB games. just getting FGs would have almost cut the scoring in half. make it 3 Fg , two TDs and a miss and 6 pts turns in 22. we need that production going forward..

That's what we have to do- limit the mistakes and miscalculations and take advatnage of the opportunities all those yards create for us.

 

[chakka3421]

Not sure about your point. We haven't learn yet how to finish. I would rather we have the opportunities and be in this discussion about not getting enough points rather than talking about not getting enough yardage.

 

[baggerbob]

I think the great part about this team is players like Ashton,Clark,Kobena when he gets back ,have the ability to make big plays. Add in PTG for big plays , then you have dependable people Sales,Lemon,West, Smith and the tight ends. The defenses in the Big East will not be able to shut us down, just pick their poison, and hope not to get burned. If the defense can play close to the 2nd half, and start to shut people down, this could be a fun ride.

 

[retro44]

yup...we left 20 points on the field against S.B.

 

[dollarbill44]

I thought that the problem in the redzone yesterday was due to the formations we ran. For example, the last time we got stopped on 4th down, the first 3 plays were run out of a 2 back set with 2 TEs and one WR in close. Obviously, we aren't going to look at a pass to the outside. We run a spread offense the rest of the time and it forces the D to spread out and cover the outsides. When we're bunched up like that, they can put 10 guys in the box and stuff the run up the gut, which we ran 3 straight plays. We finally went to a spread on 4th down only to run up the gut again. I was screaming for a corner fade to West or Sales every down because it didn't look like they had anyone who could shut that down.

To summarize, I think we should be using our normal spread formation even inside the 5 yard line.