sc85sis
Well-known member
I was curious about the part of your post that I bolded, so I did some research using the stats on NFL.com and Excel (gotta love pivot tables). I looked at the time period in which both Marshawn and Russell have been on the team--2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons, including post-season games. Here's what I found.SonicHawk":29ornw1a said:Rob12":29ornw1a said:SonicHawk":29ornw1a said:RW hasn't been a good QB all year.
Explain. He had a terrible game yesterday, but you need to quantify that statement some how.
I do agree that he seems way more skittish and unwilling to take shots down the field, which is depressing.
I do put a bit of the blame on the WRs. I don't think Russ has any confidence in them.
RW has no pocket presence. He's indecisive on when to run and he gets out of the pocket as quickly as possible and our WRs just aren't good enough to improvise every single play. He's also missed a lot of wide open receivers.
Think of the last drive against San Diego, or now against Dallas. Did you have any confidence that we would at least get a first down? No, because there was no run threat, there was no 'triple-option' to get RW on his horse. He has no confidence throwing into coverage and when he does, it gets intercepted (that last INT hurt bad. Real bad).
Marshawn Lynch was a non-factor and RW has led us to exactly 0 wins when Lynch doesn't accumulate 100 yards from LoS. And it's bothersome because Lynch had a 6 yard per carry average in each loss, but had a total of 17 carries.
2012
Average rush yards: 98.2
Average rush yards in losses: 83.8
Average rush yards in wins: 105.4
Differential: 21.6 yards more on average in wins
2013
Average rush yards: 81.3
Average rush yards in losses: 81.7
Average rush yards in wins: 81.3
Differential: .4 yards less on average in wins
2014
Average rush yards: 73.4
Average rush yards in losses: 48.5
Average rush yards in wins: 90
Differential: 41.5 yards more on average in wins
On a raw numbers basis, 13 of 31 wins have come when 'Shawn has rushed 100 yards or more (17 of the 31 wins if you look for games with 97 yards or more). On the other hand, only 4 of our 11 losses were in games in which he ran for 100+ yards. So he definitely makes a difference overall, but he's not the only one winning games for the team.
Your statement was somewhat true on an average basis for the 2012 season and so far this year. Interestingly, it was not the case last season. Marshawn had fractionally fewer yards rushing per game when we won versus when we lost.
Clearly we need Marshawn to rush more this season. TOP does play a part in that, as there have been two games now in which the offense didn't see the field all that much. Still, we need to get the ball in his hands more so that his rush average is balanced out over the season. Pete loves balance of run and pass anyway, so I'm sure he'll be looking to get that adjustment made.
On the bright side, there are still 11 games to play.
Oh, in case you're interested, Marshawn's average rush yards for the entire period of 2012 to present is 87.6.
(Edited several times to add the raw numbers paragraph and to fix typos--a bunch of typos, dammit)