[Hank 91]

I wrote a piece about this over at Cardinal Report. It's behind the pay wall, but here's something I found kind of interesting:

Stanford ran the ball sixteen times when three yards or less were necessary for either a touchdown or a first down. Taylor got six of those carries and was successful half the time, and Wilkerson was oh for four. Fullback Ryan Hewitt was three for three, and Luck was one for one. Backups Jeremy Stewart and Tyler Gaffney each converted an opportunity in the fourth quarter, but that only helped to make the overall success rate look a bit better. It makes no sense for a team that prides itself on its power running game to have its top two running backs convert only three of ten short yardage situations.

If you watched the game that's probably just confirmation of what your eyes told you, but I was still surprised. I expect they'll be a bit more successful in similar situations this week.

Here's the link to the full piece:
http://stanford.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1262839

[Hank 91]

I wrote a piece about this over at Cardinal Report. It's behind the pay wall, but here's something I found kind of interesting:

Stanford ran the ball sixteen times when three yards or less were necessary for either a touchdown or a first down. Taylor got six of those carries and was successful half the time, and Wilkerson was oh for four. Fullback Ryan Hewitt was three for three, and Luck was one for one. Backups Jeremy Stewart and Tyler Gaffney each converted an opportunity in the fourth quarter, but that only helped to make the overall success rate look a bit better. It makes no sense for a team that prides itself on its power running game to have its top two running backs convert only three of ten short yardage situations.

If you watched the game that's probably just confirmation of what your eyes told you, but I was still surprised. I expect they'll be a bit more successful in similar situations this week.

Here's the link to the full piece:
http://stanford.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1262839