Bless you for not saying "begs"
- No text -
Raises a question.
What needs to be done to get the 2009 list to have more rushing plays? I would have to think the overall number would grow if there was a "home run" running game to keep defenses honest.
And...
Harrison Smith had 2 of the top 3 longest runs, with the other coming from Tate. Yikes.
At least Weis openly recognizes that he will never have a championship level team with the kind of running game he has been responsible for so far. Let's hope Weis truly means it, and that Verducci can make it much better.
The numbers 2 and 5 teams in Total Defense.
Both on the road.
Who, between, will probably have something like 6 first round draft picks. I'm not saying that we couldn't or shouldn't have played better but at least the numbers were in part due to the excellence of both units.
SC tap danced on Oregon's head at home, not to mention Ohio State and others.
I had less of a problem with struggling mightily against defenses of that caliber than I did with stepping on our own dicks against Pitt and (shudder) Syracuse.
and on a sobering note...
We had one play longer than 20 against BC (32-yard pass to Floyd).
Our longest pass against USC was 11 yards. Our longest play, period, against the Trojans was a 16-yard run by Aldridge.
big plays were back in vogue in 2008
50 plays went for 20 or more yards this year.
For comparison...
2008: 50
2007: 27
2006: 51
2005: 59
Thank you, Michael Floyd and Golden Tate.
Before looking at the table, do you know who had our longest run on the year?
game down dist player play comp receiver yards turnover TD
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 69 TD
MICH 2 8 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 60
UW 2 8 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 51 TD
MICH 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 48 TD
STAN 3 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 48 TD
UNC 2 9 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 47
PITT 3 12 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 47
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 41
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp ALLEN 41
SYR 4 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 40
HAWAII 3 20 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 40 TD
SDSU 2 5 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 38 TD
PU 3 8 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 38
PU 3 7 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 38
SYR 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 36 TD
UW 4 13 SMITH rush 35
SYR 2 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 35 TD
UW 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 33
UNC 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 32
UW 2 11 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 32
BC 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 32
PITT 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 31
SYR 3 5 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 31
MSU 3 8 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 30
PU 4 7 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 30 TD
UNC 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 30
HAWAII 4 1 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 29
SDSU 3 2 CLAUSEN pass comp KAMARA 28
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 28
HAWAII 2 12 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 27
MSU 3 11 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 26 TD
UNC 4 13 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 26 fum
MSU 1 10 TATE rush 24
PU 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 24
STAN 3 5 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 24
UNC 2 8 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 24
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 24
PU 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 23
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 23
STAN 4 8 SMITH rush 23
SDSU 3 11 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 22 TD
MSU 3 17 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 22
PU 2 2 ALLEN rush 21
PU 2 10 ALLEN rush 21
PU 2 10 ALLEN rush 21
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp ALLEN 21 TD
UW 3 7 TATE rush 21 TD
PITT 2 25 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 21
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp ALLEN 20
PITT 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp KAMARA 20