[BostonCard]

The data doesn't support your hypothesis.  There have only been two games this year where we ran more often than we passed; USC and ASU, both games in which we led into the second half and were running to eat up clock.  Among the first seven games of the season, we passed 60% of the time against Utah, which is a greater proportion than we passed against UCLA or Oregon State.  Out of our first seven games, we passed more than we ran in five of them.

In contrast, last year, we had three games all year where we passed more than we rushed.  Generally, yes, we have passed more of late, but the difference pails in comparison to the difference between last year and this year.

BC

---

I don't think that is a particularly good description of what happened.

Given your reference, I started this count with the Oregon game. It  covers the tough 5 game stretch where we had our four losses. The ASU win was sprinkled into the middle of those. Here are the first half pass/run breakdowns.*

opponent     run    pass   %pass
UO              14       16       53
und             13       19       59
Utah            14       25       64
ASU            19       24       56
WSU           12       28       70
UW               7       26       79

What you may have been thinking about was that there was some effort to keep running the ball through the first two series vs. und, Utah, and UW; but after those first two series we pretty much quit trying to run at all.
[ASU was a little more complicated. We sprinkled the run game throughout - with some success, then ran the ball poorly while trying to close out the game.]


* These are not quite official numbers. I counted sacks and scrambles as pass plays, because that was what was called. I also counted plays with penalties - as something like a PI penalty significantly affects the course of a drive, even if that is not an official play.

I should just delete my own post, as this is more comprehensive than the data I compiled, and more pertinent since it doesn't take the effect of playing with the lead or playing from behind.

BC

[BostonCard]

The data doesn't support your hypothesis.  There have only been two games this year where we ran more often than we passed; USC and ASU, both games in which we led into the second half and were running to eat up clock.  Among the first seven games of the season, we passed 60% of the time against Utah, which is a greater proportion than we passed against UCLA or Oregon State.  Out of our first seven games, we passed more than we ran in five of them.

In contrast, last year, we had three games all year where we passed more than we rushed.  Generally, yes, we have passed more of late, but the difference pails in comparison to the difference between last year and this year.

BC

---

I don't think that is a particularly good description of what happened.

Given your reference, I started this count with the Oregon game. It  covers the tough 5 game stretch where we had our four losses. The ASU win was sprinkled into the middle of those. Here are the first half pass/run breakdowns.*

opponent     run    pass   %pass
UO              14       16       53
und             13       19       59
Utah            14       25       64
ASU            19       24       56
WSU           12       28       70
UW               7       26       79

What you may have been thinking about was that there was some effort to keep running the ball through the first two series vs. und, Utah, and UW; but after those first two series we pretty much quit trying to run at all.
[ASU was a little more complicated. We sprinkled the run game throughout - with some success, then ran the ball poorly while trying to close out the game.]


* These are not quite official numbers. I counted sacks and scrambles as pass plays, because that was what was called. I also counted plays with penalties - as something like a PI penalty significantly affects the course of a drive, even if that is not an official play.

I should just delete my own post, as this is more comprehensive than the data I compiled, and more pertinent since it doesn't take the effect of playing with the lead or playing from behind.

BC