Nota bene: Once again, lousy camerawork eliminated several potentially valuable videos, so this is going to be a little lighter than usual in terms of film to go over.
Offense
Overall it wasn’t a great night for the rushing offense, only 9 successful runs vs 13 failed, and as I’ve noted in the past this is a run-first offense that only hits its stride when they’re not constantly in 3rd & longs. The split in rushing effectiveness between first and second half is remarkable, however, particularly on 1st down runs:
- 1st half - 1/9 successes on 1st down runs, 3 TFLs, none of them even a short gain
- 2nd half - 6/10 successes on 1st down runs, 0 TFLs, and 3/4 failures still got a short gain
When it was working, some of these runs were among the best I’ve seen all year (reminder - you can right-click or long-press any of these videos to play them at ¼ or ½ speed):
The first play is a stretch with a great iso of the LB - #75 RG Warmack quickly gets inside the DE and seals him off while backup #66 RT Aiello pulls underneath and knocks out the backer to spring #34 RB Verdell for a chunk gain.