I know the NFL is a "passing" league, but when you look at the 12 playoff teams, 7 of them have the run as a vital part of their offense. I believe the trend will continue into next season as offfenses begin to balance back out. here is a table of the 12 playoff teams and how they rank in the running game. [table="head"]Team|Att Rank|Yards Rank|Rush TD’s Rank Broncos | 9 | 16 | 13 Patriots | 2 | 7 | 1 Ravens | 12 | 11 | 6 Texans | 4 | 8 | 4 Colts | 14 | 22 | 18 Bengals | 17 | 18 | 18 Falcons | 26 | 29 | 13 49ers | 7 | 4 | 6 Packers | 16 | 20 | 25 Redskins | 3 | 1 | 2 Seahawks | 1 | 3 | 9 Vikings | 8 | 2 | 9 Total Top 10 | 7 | 6 | 7 [/table]
It was only a matter of time before the league became balanced again. You can't win just throwing the football, look what happened to the Lions this season. Defenses have done an excellent job stopping those high flying pass offenses.
It makes sense. Patriots and Packers both made concerted efforts to get back to running the ball more this year.
Well, maybe. I suspect that a good deal of this is that most teams that are ahead in the 4th quarter will run the ball to keep the clock moving. A much better statistic would be rushing versus passing attempts for teams in the first half and in the second half when the score margin is no more than 7 or 10 points.
Things will balance out if not for the "Pistol" formation alone. The Niners, Skins, and Seahawks all run some element of an option that is able to effectively make a stud pass rusher obsolete without even blocking him. This type of system is going to change how offenses function going forward.
And I think Flacco benefited a lot from this. He is average at most and he is riding on Ray Rice most of the time. Without Ray Rice, he is exposed big time.
25th in Rush Att but 19th in YPC, 8th in Rush TD's and several injuries at the position. What happened to the Lions? I do concur, however, that a one-sided offense is insufficient to win the SB.
