Michigan Rushing Attack After 3 Games - No. 22 in Nation - 242 YPG & 6.3 YPC
For all of the questions along the OL this fall, things could be considerably worse.
242 YPG and 6.3 YPC.
I'll take it.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/team/_/stat/rushing/sort/rushingYardsPerGame
Michigan rushing attack is currently ranked in the Top 25, and incidently tied with Oregon and in good company with some other notable offenses in college football:
September 14th, 2014 at 6:24 PM ^
At CFB Stats, UM is 30th in YPG and 14th in YPC. However this is against one real opponent. But I will say the OL does look like it improved even against ND
September 14th, 2014 at 6:39 PM ^
What teams, exactly, have played multiple "real opponents" to date this year? Our rivals certainly are not:
Ohio State: Navy, Virginia Tech, Kent State
Notre Dame: Rice, Michigan, Purdue
Sparty: Jacksonville State, Oregon, Eastern Michigan
Not really buying your argument. If or when Michigan maintains top 30 or 40 stats rushing will you then criticize their diminished passing stats?
/smh
September 14th, 2014 at 6:49 PM ^
has played two of the worst 5 teams in the FBS, bank on that.
September 14th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
This is the most annoying sort of emo Michigan fan comment; apparently our cupcakes are far worse than their cupcakes.
Yeah, Jacksonville State and Kent State are a huge step up from Appalachian State and Miami (NTM).
/smh
September 14th, 2014 at 8:05 PM ^
I think everyone who has played SOLELY non conf games has similar types of cupcakes...generally by now you've played 2 cupcakes and 1 team with a pulse if you go by the old fashion scheduling. Some in fact have only played 3 cupcakes.
But increasingly conference games are being played very early. As for what teams have played real teams - quite a few have. The entire SEC and Pac12 already have conference games under their belts. Closer to home, PSU for example has played UCF (a top 10 team last year who admittedly lost Bortles) and Rutgers. Georgia has already played Clemson and South Carolina. Texas A&M has played S.C. USC has played Stanford, etc.
It's now how it used to be where everyone starts the season with 3(4) non conf games and 3 baby seals. The SEC has done the in conf games early for over a decade I believe and I am noticing the Pac 12 started real early this year.
With all that said we have a running attack this year which does not include 40%+ reliance on hero ball QB. It was not very good vs ND. It has been very good versus 2 bad teams. Let us hope we can get to "average" vs the bad Big 10.
September 14th, 2014 at 8:07 PM ^
other than I think Michigan has played two of the 5 worst teams in FBS. But thanks for puttin me in a nice little ball you can understand.
Personally I think most stats are useless to look at until about half win into the season.
September 14th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
I don't disagree with that last point at all.
That said, last season Michigan couldn't run against cupcakes or quality opposition.
September 15th, 2014 at 9:21 AM ^
I wouldn't really consider them a "cupcake." They win nine games a year and would probably win the Big Ten West this season.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:32 PM ^
Rankings at this point are very shaky because not only is the sample size small (3 games for each team), but almost every team in FBS has played at least 2 cupcake. It's not a Michigan-exclusive thing. But go ahead and keep believing that.
September 14th, 2014 at 8:42 PM ^
Compare this OL to last years performance against Akron and UConn. Would you say they are improved? The answer is yes. 5.5 YPC against Akron, 3.9 YPC against UConn. If you reserved all judgement until the end of the year, then just ban all MGoBoard discussion.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:06 PM ^
Moreover, we were very dependent on Gardner to get that yardage last year, whereas this year we're getting it from our tailbacks.
September 14th, 2014 at 8:44 PM ^
Sagarin ratings for each of these:
- Ohio State (18): Navy 63, Virginia Tech 33, Kent State 171
- Notre Dame (12): Rice 79, Michigan 49, Purdue 118
- Sparty (8): Jacksonville State 83, Oregon 1
- Michigan (49): App State 140, ND 12, Miami OH 177
FBS teams between App State and Miami (NTM)
- Buffalo 143
- Air Force 145
- Tulsa 146
- New Mexico 148
- UTEP 151
- So Mississippi 154
- Troy 156
- FIU 157
- Idaho 170
- Kent Read Kent Write 171
FBS teams worse than Miami (NTM)
- New Mexico State 187
- UMass 189
- Georgia State 196
- EMU 197
Massey has App State at 121, Miami (NTM) at 127, and EMU last at 128.
Massey Composite has App State 116 and Miami (NTM) last at 128.
Both bad, both bottom 15. One is not bottom 5 yet.
Small sample size, YMMV, etc.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:25 PM ^
I agree with you, clarkie, though a quick correction that MSU has only played two games thus far (JSU & Oregon), as they had a bye this week.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:34 PM ^
Well played. I think frustration caused me to include Eastern re: Sparty.
Maybe Eastern proves me wrong on the weekend...but I doubt it.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:01 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 9:03 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 9:32 PM ^
Sparty plays Eastern next week.
September 14th, 2014 at 6:39 PM ^
That's an apples to apples comparison for most of the country. Very few teams have played more than one halfway decent opponent.
Also, we haven't averaged that kind of yardage without Denard since what, Tim Biakabatuka was around? The improvement relative to last year at this time, against similar opposition, is huge and Gardner isn't having to play hero ball to get there.
September 14th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 6:25 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^
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September 14th, 2014 at 8:38 PM ^
The fact that I can't really tell if you're serious or not says a lot about this place recently.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:01 PM ^
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September 14th, 2014 at 9:48 PM ^
For the not enough data points crowd, I would suggest the chest beating is held to a minimum until more data points are available. The line and rushing has looked better than last year. Keeping the opponents in mind, Michigan has a significant talent gap between Miami and App St. I would fully expect the #1 RB recruit in the country and a 5 Star 5th Year Senior QB to be able to rack up yards against said cupcakes.
In fact we don't know how good is good for any of the teams ranked at this point. Michigan has a positive start and need to keep building on it. If that happens the season will probably shape up well. If it is fools gold the season will go poorly. Next week will tell us a lot in my opinion.
September 14th, 2014 at 6:34 PM ^
This is weird, but without Funchess on the field it feels like the O line is the surest thing on our offense.
FTR let's also note that OSU is #34.
September 14th, 2014 at 8:07 PM ^
My though as well. If Butt was healthy I've have that as the "one sure thing" in last Saturday's contest but with him still working his way in, the OL was the most "sure thing". And Norfleet. How things have changed!
September 14th, 2014 at 6:42 PM ^
I'm not buying the competition argument right now.
We've played two weak teams so far, but Michigan played weak teams last year and they already have more 100 yard rushing games from their RB's than they had all of last season.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:52 PM ^
It is true that Akron and UConn were not good last year and this does appear to be progress. Akron had 5 wins and UConn had 2...
September 14th, 2014 at 6:42 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
cmu, nd, akron > app st, nd, miami(ntm)
September 14th, 2014 at 8:18 PM ^
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September 15th, 2014 at 7:55 AM ^
It isn't clear how well they'll run the ball this year. What is very clear is that they've already run the ball significantly better than last year. Using 3 60-yard runs as a "negative" is proof enough of that.
September 15th, 2014 at 8:00 AM ^
Even if you take out the three long runs equaling roughly 180 yards...
(which I don't know why you would, since every other major team has played at least one patsy so far and has presumably made big plays against inferior opponents)
...Michigan has run the ball 113 times for 546 yards. That's an average of 4.83 yards/carry, which would be good enough for #51 nationally.
So...I guess the moral of the story is...you're wrong.
September 15th, 2014 at 8:40 AM ^
UM RBs tackled for loss:
2014 ASU=4, ND=2, MOH=2.
2013 CMU=4, ND=5, Akr=7, UConn=4
Small sample but, that is significant improvement on RB TFLs. The non-QB running game has obviously made a jump. More jumps are needed of course.
(And thank you. My eyes are bleeding from looking 2013 stats up)
September 14th, 2014 at 6:43 PM ^
I'd imagine that our defense's rushing yards allowed has a loftier ranking, especially if you remove sacks (since we have relatively few). It doesn't look like ESPN has updated the defensive team stats yet, though.
September 14th, 2014 at 6:55 PM ^
Wonder where michigan ranks for negative plays? I saw something about they had 8 of them against ND. Just curious how we rank compared to the rest of the FBS teams.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:07 PM ^
tied for #66 with 17 total over 3 games.
September 14th, 2014 at 8:41 PM ^
Not that it makes much difference since they're both OL related, but a lot of those against ND were more like sacks where Gardner scrambled and got tackled for loss. There were also those blown up bubble screens.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:38 PM ^
Does the team ranked #1 have the fewest negative plays or the most ?
September 14th, 2014 at 6:56 PM ^
Anyone know what it was after the first 3 games of last season? That would be a more valuable comparison than where we are in relation to other teams right now IMO.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
Not sure about rankings but after 3 games last year (CMU, ND and Akron) they were
YPC: 4.95
YPG: 195
Stats were as follows
CMU: 47 att 242 yards 5.15 ypc
ND: 39 atts 166 yards 4.26 ypc
Akron: 32 atts 177 yards 5.53 ypc
September 14th, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^
Smith and Green - 20 carries for 55 yards against ND. That's the best snapshot we have of where this run game is at.
Purdue's top 2 backs (Hunt & Mostert) had 19 carries for 79 yards against ND. Rices guys got 20 carries for 62 yards. So, we didn't have any more success than middling Rice and Purdue.
As for Miami, Marshall's backs ran 28 times for 182 yards. 31 for 181 was Smith/Green's numbers yesterday. So we matched Marshall.
However, using the transitive property, I can confidently say our run game is better than Eastern Kentucky. So - there is indeed some reason to think optimistically.
Another comparison (to ourselves): Against ND, our RBs had 23 carries for 70 yards last year, this year 22 for 75.
Takeaway:
The run game appears to have improved from last year. The amateur eye can see that there are holes, sometimes they are even large. But if you think our run game is actually GOOD, you either have to believe ND has an extraordinary defense or also think that Rice and Purdue have good running games. Reading too much into Miami or App State seems foolish.
There's a long way to go from how awful the run game was last year to being an actual area of strength.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:15 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 7:40 PM ^
Its surprising they aren't manhandling ranked teams yet.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:14 PM ^
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September 14th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
It should also be noted, we are 22 in total rushing yards. We're 45th in RYPG.
We're 86 in Passing Yards Per Game.
OSU have 25 more sacked yards lost than we do. That's on 2 more sacks than us.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:17 PM ^
Total yards is stupid for comparison. Some teams have had BYES already (MSU) and if you're up a lot, you're going to run it more. Better to look at YPA.
Now that makes more sense. We are #14! MSU #82, haha.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:56 PM ^
Wow, Penn State bottom feeding that list!
September 14th, 2014 at 8:10 PM ^
really impacts PSU