Why Didn't We Give Hill The Ball At The 5??

[BFritz21]

(11-04-2015, 01:37 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: How does those three plays have anything to do with that?

Or did you forget that they got 1st & Goal from the 5 because Gio ran the ball straight up the middle for 12 yards? That's big boy power football right there. Didn't have to put Hill in there, you just had to give the ball to either of the RBs. I'd personally choose the one who just ripped off a 12 yard run. The problem has nothing to do with Gio, it has to do with not running it at all.

I think it's time to stop the whole narrative that Gio can't run it up the middle and Hill can....
-Hill has a career 3.56 YPC while running directly up the middle. (3.7 YPC in 2014, 3.4 YPC in 2015)
-Gio has a career 4.10 YPC while running directly up the middle. (3.4 YPC in 2013, 4.0 YPC in 2014, 6,0 YPC in 2015)

If you want to play big boy power football and run it up the middle, the stats say you need to hand the ball to Gio. Just like Ray Rice (2.4 YPC up the middle in 2008, 5.5 YPC in 2009), he wasn't good up the middle his rookie year because he needed to grow into an NFL body. He's done that now.

That's because the defense is expecting pass when Gio is in the game, and also because Gio has a different running style where he works better with room to run.

On Gio's run to get us to the 5, both safeties were also playing 15 yards off the ball so no one was there to come up in run support and it was just an all-around bad play by Pitt's D because they all just got fanned out, the backside backer didn't stay home, Gio cut-back, and ran through untouched.  I could have rolled through that hole.  If teams are going to play us like that, then, by all means, run Gio, but it's normally not going to be like that.

I'd also like to see how many of those runs were down inside the 5 or 10 (up the middle).

Hill can lower his shoulder and plow for extra yards better than Gio and can also break tackles with force better.