What a bizarre Monday morning of football that was. Just one quarterback threw for more than 300 yards, with the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers having no choice but to throw the ball after his team found themselves down 21-3 midway through the second half.
Conversely, every Monday game apart from one had at least one team rushing for more than a hundred yards and three teams who picked up more running yards than passing yards. This is unheard of in today’s passing league, where the quarterbacks are a protected species and wide receivers no longer fear running across the middle of the field.
But what caused such a bizarre day and is this a sign of things to come?
There is a common belief that tallying a large number of rushing attempts lays the platform for a big win, but as people familiar with Football-Outsiders would know, this is largely a misconception. It is not a matter of teams that run win, but rather a matter of teams that win run.
This was exactly the case in a number of matches on Sunday afternoon. The Patriots were leading 24-7 at halftime, they didn’t need to keep passing the football in the second half. As a result, they registered just 13 passing attempts in the second half and ran the ball 21 times. With former Patriot Matt Cassel throwing four interceptions and no Adrian Peterson to run the football, New England’s lead on the scoreboard was never challenged and this was reflected in their play calling.
This was also noticeable in the Dallas Cowboys’ win over the Titans. At face value, the first thought is, ‘wow, Tony Romo had some help from the rushing game for once’. This is seemingly backed up by the stats, there were just 29 passing plays called and 43 running plays called. But when you dig deeper, you find that 19 of those 43 running plays were called in the fourth quarter, while just four of Romo’s throws were in the final 15 minutes.
Yes, the Cowboys had a much more balanced running attack than usual, something they weren’t able to do a week ago when they trailed the entire match, but the statement holds true, you run when you win.
Unlike the Patriots, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were locked in an incredibly close game and lost in heartbreaking circumstances. While an injury prevented them from spiking the football in the final seconds, they still ran the ball for 157 yards. Clearly, the ‘you run when you win’ rule doesn’t hold true.
The reason the Bucs ran the ball nine times more than they threw it was because of smart coaching. Tampa Bay threw the ball more than double the amounts of time they ran in their week one loss, despite starting the match with a journeyman quarterback who looked exactly that. Josh McCown made some terrible decisions last weekend and his team ultimately paid the price, with a number of lengthy drives ending with turnovers.
Tampa’s offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford returned to his play calling duties after receiving clearances from his heart surgeon to return to fulltime work, and took over from quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo. He clearly learnt that the team can’t rely on McCown to win matches with his arm and adjusted accordingly. Even without injured starter Doug Martin, Tampa still torched the Rams for 157 yards on the ground, 144 of which were attributed to Bobby Rainey.
It’s now time to move on to the most intriguing of Sunday’s matches, the Cleveland Browns’ last gasp victory over the Saints. This was a very close match in which the lead changed several times and it was surprising to see New Orleans throw for just 223 yards, while picking up 174 on the ground.
This was not due to the Saints running down the clock, Drew Brees threw the ball 40 times compared to just 27 rushes. That’s a fairly standard split for the Saints, last week against the Falcons they threw the ball 42 times and ran it 28 times.
So what explains their high rushing low passing totals?
The fact is that despite a dreadful first half against the Steelers, the Browns’ pass defence is pretty good and their rush defence is not great. The secondary, led by Cornerback Joe Haden and pass rush, led by Karlos Dansby did an excellent job in containing the Saints’ passing attack, holding every receiver apart from Jimmy Graham, who is near impossible to contain, to under 40 yards.
The second Sunday of the NFL season seemed like a complete reversal of trends, a return to the power running game. But a deeper look at what happens reveals something different. It reveals that teams were running for a wide variety of reasons, to close out a game, to take advantage of opposition weaknesses or even to hide their own weaknesses.
While some may find the running game more boring than an all-out aerial attack, it is a sign of smart coaching. And that can only be a good thing for the NFL.
Twitter @fromthesheds
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