Shotgun vs. Under Center and our effectiveness

[Whatever]

(12-11-2023, 03:38 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: The running game issues are partially due to overuse of shotgun, yes, but also partially due to personnel. Mixon is the lead back and while he has some things he is good at, he isn't a good enough runner to be the guy. He's not dynamic enough. He doesn't have the speed, quickness or "bag" to make people miss consistently. It's not a coincidence that the running game is coming to life with contributions from Chase Brown. When we try to talk about a guy who is dynamic, Brown fits that bill. You combine that with Cincinnati involving more under center looks and boom, you have a more productive run game. Still not great, but more productive. 

Also, to your last point, ZT and JB do incorporate something other than all shotgun all the time. That was strictly this year, and largely due to Joe's injury. I already provided the splits for the previous two years. Joe has been in shotgun between 62% and 78% of the time in 2021 and 2022. It wasn't until this year that it was shotgun only. 

The run game honestly underwhelmed in this one.  Mixon only averaged 3.8 ypc and Brown 3.1.  

Folks are also looking at the total number of carries and not looking at situations.  We ran the ball 12 times after taking a 28-14 lead late in the third.  Well, that makes sense.  We're trying to chew clock late with a multi-possession lead.  Before that point, 8 of our runs came inside the Colts' 10.  Mixon literally got stuffed on 3 out of 4 attempts from inside the Colts' 2 yard line.  So we ran 8 times trying to punch it in in goal to go situations and the only reason we ran it that much was our goal line package struggled.