The thread earlier this week about Arnaud getting more carries than A-Rob made me curious so I went back & rewatched the game while taking a few notes. Just a couple of observations I thought I would share. Of Arnaud's 17 carries, 11 came on designed running plays & 6 were pass plays where he tucked the ball & ran. Given that a majority of the 11 designed runs were zone read plays where he had the option of handing off to A-Rob, I think the concern about Arnaud carrying the ball too much is overstated. Next, red zone offense. We had 2 possessions that entered the red zone & scored TDs on both. We only ran 3 red zone plays: A-Rob's 18-yard TD run, A-Rob's 15-yard run, and Arnaud's 5-yard TD run. Yes, it was against NDSU. But considering the way our offense spluttered and stalled in the red zone last year, I'm not going to complain about the results so far. Finally, I don't necessarily think this factoid is all that significant, but I at least thought it was interesting. All 4 of our touchdowns were scored on 1st down plays. For the game we ran 36 total first down plays (15 pass, 21 run). I really, really like that ratio. It's nice to have an OC that is willing to be aggressive on first down instead of handing the ball off 80% of the time & hoping we get 3 yards. But it's also encouraging to note that when we did run the ball on first down we averaged 5.05 ypc. Overall, I think we would all agree that the offense was pretty inconsistent in the first game. 4 of the 14 offensive possessions in the game ended with a 3-and-out. So there's definitely room for improvement. But the offense did do some nice things last Thursday & so far I like the direction that Herman is taking this offense.
very good post, i think its a good thing we have a qb that is racking up the yards on the ground, its better then going backwards
Interesting read, Shag. Thanks for the leg work on those observations and facts. Herman is the man, no doubt about it
