The Myth of Abandoning the Run While Losing

[ChargingBolts]

What I'm saying is if there is 30 seconds left and the pass is caught in the middle of the field and say Keenan see's he will be tackled soon he winds up and throws the ball out of bounds 25 yards laterally or just throw the ball forwards and take a penalty for illegal forward second pass to stop the clock, pick up 30 yards upfield and take a 10 yard penalty to stop the clock? make sense? no teams do this, is it against the rules to "fumble" the ball out of bounds to stop the clock?

[Caslon]

After a fumble inside two minutes, only the same player can recover the ball. If he can't because it went out of bounds, tough luck. The refs would spot the ball at the catch and signal the clock to keep running. This rule was put in after the infamous holy roller play in the game between the Chargers and Raiders from 1978.

[ChargingBolts]

After a fumble inside two minutes, only the same player can recover the ball. If he can't because it went out of bounds, tough luck. The refs would spot the ball at the catch and signal the clock to keep running. This rule was put in after the infamous holy roller play in the game between the Chargers and Raiders from 1978.

Okay, thank you ... cannot stop the clock if you fumble out of bounds or throw the ball out of bounds ... wonder if we could throw the ball forward if the clock would still run or if it would be a 10 second run off or a flag or all the above

Probably not or Bellicheat would of had his teams doing this (although pretty rare they're down in the score with time running out)

[IA chargers]

Okay, thank you ... cannot stop the clock if you fumble out of bounds or throw the ball out of bounds ... wonder if we could throw the ball forward if the clock would still run or if it would be a 10 second run off or a flag or all the above

Probably not or Bellicheat would of had his teams doing this (although pretty rare they're down in the score with time running out)

I would think it would be a 10 second runoff for the penalty. Clock might start before ball is snapped too.

[Steve]

It takes about 6:00 minutes to score with a balanced run/pass attack. The time can be reduced to 4:00 minutes going up-tempo, still with a balanced attack.

So if a team is down by 21 points at any point in the first half, and even early or in the middle of the 3rd quarter, there is no reason to stop running the ball. It's simple math. The defense is going to have to get stops obviously to mount a comeback, so it's not so much how long it takes the offense to score as it is whether they do score.

Play-callers across the league for decades have for some reason thought differently. Maybe they weren't so good at math, I don't know. A classic example was when the Panthers were down by 17 points in the 1st quarter against the Cardinals in the divisional round of the 2008 season playoffs. The Panthers had a great running game in Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams, yet turned the game over to Jake Delhomme who was, predictably but unnecessarily, throwing the ball constantly.

The Chargers of course have been guilty of insisting they have to throw the ball when down, even early. Rivers as much said so in his press conference yesterday and the play-calling proves it. The question is though, is it because they have bought into the longstanding myth or, perhaps more likely, they know they can't run the ball effectively?

What does this have to do with giving up on the running game?

First, you completely ignore that passing gets more yards on average than running. Passing plays (on average) are about 2x as effective as running plays on a per play average. NFL average is about 4 ypc for running and modern passing is about 8 yard per attempt. So, if you are trying to catch up, it takes half as many plays (on average) to move the same distance.

All it proves is that generically, you CAN still run when behind. The example used with Panthers had a good OL, and the matchups worked in their favor. Does that in ANY way describe our OL?

The 2 biggest issues with our running game is the injuries to TE and the INCONSISTENCY in our running game.

TE are important because of the influence they have over S in pass coverage and their alignment and their ability to block edge players (OLB and DE) giving the RB a lane to the outside and oft-tackle holes. With the injuries we have faced, especially with the loss of Culkin, it has hurt our ability to get RB outside, which allows the D to compress and not defend the whole field. Green is a much better blocker straight ahead. Henry might have been a bit tentative coming back, although we really didn't run the ball enough to tell how his power and footwork are doing after the injury.

The inconsistency is the biggest problem with our running game. If we want to keep running the ball, we need to get positive yardage. If you go back and look through the running game attempts from games going back to the McCoy years (current offensive staff), when we can keep getting positive yardage in the running game, we will tend to mix in runs. However, when we keep having plays get blown up in the backfield, we give up. That is just common sense for play calling. We cannot get behind on down and distance, and teams like Denver and Pitt, who both have outstanding pass rushes, we are even more vulnerable. You do not want to get behind in down and distance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If we can turn those negative run plays into 1 and 2 yard carries, I think you see us keep running. 2nd/3rd and 8 is a lot easier to convert than 2nd/3rd and 12-15, and that has a HUGE influence on what we call on 2nd and 3rd down. Too many of Wishenhunt's play calls are about getting some yards after a bad run, or an incomplete pass (sack). The offense will open up dramatically if we can cut down on the negative run plays and then Wiz can open up the play calling.

As far as Gordon coming back, that is temporary. Yes he is not doing that well. But that is the usual rust. If he gets enough carries, that comes off and he can do his job. Of course the OL has to do their job, and they aren't doing a good job right now. That is the deal with the running game, EVERYONE has to do their job for the run game to work. The OL have to WIN their matchups, or the RB get hit at the line (or worse). In the passing game, OL only have to pull a stalemate, so then you don't need everyone dominating to get yards.

You cannot run plays and be effective unless you can BLOCK them. Every play call in every game is about blocking first. Until our line plays better, we are fighting an uphill battle. The flip side is that until our young DT start playing better, we are making it easier for our opponents to do the same to us. We have to control the line on both sides of the ball and those are the players who are letting us down.