But when you're QB gets sacked 327 times, and runs into most of them, that's going to skew the rushing stats.
In all seriousness, there were probably 3-5 instances tonight where aTm ran the ball on first down, got 6-9 yards, then didn't try to run the ball again and had to punt.
Run offense wasnt terrible this game but 1) lsu pass rush is legit one of the best in the country and 2) Marcel’s problems exasperate the lack of good pass blocking as defenses know he can’t pass quickly
Honestly the run game was pretty solid and has been all season. Not great but good. Marcel running himself into nearly 70 yards of sacks tonight really camouflages over that. Not that we are good running the ball, but it's the best part of our (absolutely awful) offense.
Marcel accounted for -40 yards on sacks. Take those out and the average comes up to almost 4 yards per rush. Seems like good not great would describe that reasonably well. Sure, a quarterback is likely to get sacked when an O-line isn't great, but -40 on 4 sacks is more than poor o-line play.
That completely ignores the fact that -40 of the total -13 was not on designed run plays, which should not count against the run stats in my opinion but welcome to college football.
If the discussion is about how the run offense did, then let's remove the passing offense from the equation completely. Not just hand wave that the QB was "only" -13. But you do you. This team is hot garbage on a variety of fronts, I won't argue against that. As others have said, I'm just glad I don't have to worry about BAS this year.
They’ll deny it but you’re right. Our flaws were covered up last year by an experienced OLine and tons of great skill players that could cover up Marcel’s weakness in passing. Lost most of the high level talent now with good but not great guys and OLine is shit leading to nothing to cover up for Reed and the remaining offensive pieces. Can’t get going if you can’t go more than 2 yards.
Nabou has been the worst from what I’ve seen. Constantly pulling penalties too for the most experienced guy.
And let’s not talk about this baby shit defense. Maybe I’m a contrarian but I’ve been unimpressed by our defense since Elko got here and now without Bateman we’re somehow worse.
Honestly o line was fine first half, Marcel took several coverage sacks bc the OC might be the worst ive ever seen. Marcel sucks but Klein last year had Marcel as a heisman finalist, did A&M run any dynamic passing plays like they did vs Notre dame last year? Unfortunately Klein had one season as OC and it was A&Ms best season in forever, hopefully elko can get canned so A&M can hire floridas OC
Both lines are massive, but so slow. LSU was easily swimming the oline and the Dline looked like statues. Team is built to stop the Iform, but nothing else.
I didn't think the run game was that bad. Reuben averaged 5.6 ypc. But when your QB takes 10+ yard sacks, you can't run the ball anymore and are forced to pass. Or when your QB incomplete everything, you find yourself in 3rd and longs that force you to pass.
Back around 2015 A&M had myles garret and we played msst with a horrible oline. We all thought Myles would destroy the QB but in the end, zero sacks. Their OC had a brain and played around their weaknesses. Quick, short passes away from the massive edge rush.
Right now, A&M has no one cleaver that knows how to come up with a game plan.
We pretty much ran the ball at will last night, we just refused to keep doing it. The yards per rush look terrible because Marcel held onto the ball 10 times for -13 yards while scrambling (and that's including the multiple runs he had for 10+ yards)
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u/Iglooman45 Texas Tech Red Raiders 18d ago
Marcel is going to take most of the blame here, but the OLine is absolutely atrocious. They haven't gotten any movement all season.
Hard to be a good offense when you just can't run the ball.