[BostonCard]

Our opponent's run defense in the latter half of the year is frequently cited as a reason that the stats for last year "lie".  However, it is worth noting that every year we face some good run defenses and some bad ones.  The breakdown between "first half" and "second half" is not usually as stark, so it is not noticeable, but it's not like the Orange bowl team was always facing top-25 run defenses.  Indeed, was Sacramento State that much better of a run defense than Rice?  Here are the rest of the opponents:

team - run defense
Washington State 5.61 ypc
UCLA 5.21 ypc
Virginia Tech 4.69 ypc
UW 4.67 ypc
Wake Forrest 4.67 ypc
OSU 4.26 ypc
Notre Dame 4.02 ypc
USC 4.39 ypc
Cal 3.66 ypc
Arizona 3.56 ypc
Oregon 3.51 ypc
ASU 3.27 ypc

So that year, we had easy games and hard games too.

BC

[BostonCard]

Our opponent's run defense in the latter half of the year is frequently cited as a reason that the stats for last year "lie".  However, it is worth noting that every year we face some good run defenses and some bad ones.  The breakdown between "first half" and "second half" is not usually as stark, so it is not noticeable, but it's not like the Orange bowl team was always facing top-25 run defenses.  Indeed, was Sacramento State that much better of a run defense than Rice?  Here are the rest of the opponents:

team - run defense
Washington State 5.61 ypc
UCLA 5.21 ypc
Virginia Tech 4.69 ypc
UW 4.67 ypc
Wake Forrest 4.67 ypc
OSU 4.26 ypc
Notre Dame 4.02 ypc
USC 4.39 ypc
Cal 3.66 ypc
Arizona 3.56 ypc
Oregon 3.51 ypc
ASU 3.27 ypc

So that year, we had easy games and hard games too.

BC