[needle]

Stanford had only 32 yards rushing at half (12 atempts). Can't say I feel like the night was a good performance, though credit to Ford for his long gainer (did not know he had the wheels).

OTOH, with Mattingly in the game the longest run for Elon was 17 yards. Is that great? No. But it's definitely not embarassing. NC State is not a great rushing team, so I have hope that Friday won't be embarassing, either.

Yeah, the running game was a bit distorted by the 81 yard TD run, which dramatically brings up the average.  Without it, we have 141 yards on 32 carries, which is a much more pedestrian 4.4 ypc.  Now, of course, that 81 yard TD run did happen, so it is not entirely fair to just erase it off the books, but looking at the median run might be more instructive than looking at the mean in terms of establishing how dominant the running game was, and, let's face it, in most runs, we weren't picking up chunks of yards.

BC

As you note, the biggest run of a game counts….it’s the most meaningful run of a game! It’s always some sleight of hand to try to subtract that out. And having 4.4 carries without it hardly seems pedestrian, as that’s continual non-big play dependent moving of the chains. Here are Ford’s runs judged by success rate:

2nd and 9 - 1 yard FAIL

1st and 10 - 10 yard first down SUCCESS (double success)

2nd and 10 - 2 yard FAIL

1st and 10 - 2 yard FAIL

3rd and goal from the 1 - 1 yard touchdown SUCCESS (if you’re going to exclude the outlier biggest success you certainly shouldn’t include high leverage plays stopped by the end zone in lowering the average)

1st and 10 - 5 yards SUCCESS

1st and 10 - 4 yards pretty neutral but can call it FAILURE

2nd and 3 - 7 yards touchdown SUCCESS (again, stopped by the goal line)

1st and 10 - 10 yards first down SUCCESS (double success)

1st and 10 - 12 yards first down SUCCESS (double success)

1st and 10 - 0 yards FAILURE

3rd and 1 - 3 yards first down SUCCESS

1st and 10 - 7 yards SUCCESS

2nd and 3 - 13 yards first down SUCCESS (double success and then some)

1st and 10 - 3 yards FAILURE

3rd and 3 - 4 yards SUCCESS

1st and 10 - 4 yards pretty neutral but we can call it FAILURE

1st and 5 - 5 yards touchdown SUCCESS (again, stopped by the goal line)

1st and 10 - 81 yards touchdown SUCCESS (again, stopped by the goal line)

That’s so much success. We dictated the game, did it more through the ground than through the air, and did it against one of the best run defenses in FCS. This was a successful day on the ground.

You ignored first-half runs by Chris Davis (-2 yards), Irvin (1 yard) and Butler (no gain). 

I don't believe you should just wipe away a whole first half when nearly a full quarter of the game is garbage time, but that's just me.

[needle]

Stanford had only 32 yards rushing at half (12 atempts). Can't say I feel like the night was a good performance, though credit to Ford for his long gainer (did not know he had the wheels).

OTOH, with Mattingly in the game the longest run for Elon was 17 yards. Is that great? No. But it's definitely not embarassing. NC State is not a great rushing team, so I have hope that Friday won't be embarassing, either.

Yeah, the running game was a bit distorted by the 81 yard TD run, which dramatically brings up the average.  Without it, we have 141 yards on 32 carries, which is a much more pedestrian 4.4 ypc.  Now, of course, that 81 yard TD run did happen, so it is not entirely fair to just erase it off the books, but looking at the median run might be more instructive than looking at the mean in terms of establishing how dominant the running game was, and, let's face it, in most runs, we weren't picking up chunks of yards.

BC

As you note, the biggest run of a game counts….it’s the most meaningful run of a game! It’s always some sleight of hand to try to subtract that out. And having 4.4 carries without it hardly seems pedestrian, as that’s continual non-big play dependent moving of the chains. Here are Ford’s runs judged by success rate:

2nd and 9 - 1 yard FAIL

1st and 10 - 10 yard first down SUCCESS (double success)

2nd and 10 - 2 yard FAIL

1st and 10 - 2 yard FAIL

3rd and goal from the 1 - 1 yard touchdown SUCCESS (if you’re going to exclude the outlier biggest success you certainly shouldn’t include high leverage plays stopped by the end zone in lowering the average)

1st and 10 - 5 yards SUCCESS

1st and 10 - 4 yards pretty neutral but can call it FAILURE

2nd and 3 - 7 yards touchdown SUCCESS (again, stopped by the goal line)

1st and 10 - 10 yards first down SUCCESS (double success)

1st and 10 - 12 yards first down SUCCESS (double success)

1st and 10 - 0 yards FAILURE

3rd and 1 - 3 yards first down SUCCESS

1st and 10 - 7 yards SUCCESS

2nd and 3 - 13 yards first down SUCCESS (double success and then some)

1st and 10 - 3 yards FAILURE

3rd and 3 - 4 yards SUCCESS

1st and 10 - 4 yards pretty neutral but we can call it FAILURE

1st and 5 - 5 yards touchdown SUCCESS (again, stopped by the goal line)

1st and 10 - 81 yards touchdown SUCCESS (again, stopped by the goal line)

That’s so much success. We dictated the game, did it more through the ground than through the air, and did it against one of the best run defenses in FCS. This was a successful day on the ground.

You ignored first-half runs by Chris Davis (-2 yards), Irvin (1 yard) and Butler (no gain). 

I don't believe you should just wipe away a whole first half when nearly a full quarter of the game is garbage time, but that's just me.