Moreno & the running game

by fotodog on Sep 23, 2008 11:04 PM EDT

16, 2, -2, 2, 3, 8TD, 4, 0, 3, -2, 5, 3TD, 2, 10, 27, 4, 11, 0, 2, -9, 1, 1, 0, 30, 21

Those are the yards for each carry that Moreno had against ASU. A lot of people have been talking about what a great game Moreno had and when you look at 149 yards and 2 TDs, it certainly looks impressive. However, when I was watching the game I felt underwhelmed... not so much by Moreno, but by our running game in general. If you take out the 51 yards at the end which weren't exactly "junk yards", but were after ASU had pretty much conceded, you are looking at a sub-100 yard game with quite a few stuffs.
3 runs for negative yardage
3 runs for no gain
8 runs for 3 or less yards
= 14 runs that were for little or no gain

Yes, he had the spectacular leap into the endzone, which reminds me of the insane body control Moreno has. Yes, he did have flashes of great moves, a few of which that were only ended because of facemasks to bring him down. And yes, Moreno should have had a 3rd TD (against 12 defenders), which the refs blew... But I thought ASU did a pretty good job of slowing down Moreno until the last 5 minutes of the game.

I don't think it was Moreno's fault, I think most of the blame is on the OL. Running up the middle was tough. And 24 had defenders on him before he got to the line of scrimmage several times. I just think that it wasn't as good of a day as it will look on paper 2 weeks from now.

Did anyone else see it that way or just me?

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As I watched the game unfold I had a similar feeling. However in hindsight I look at the options ASU had. Stop the run or stop the pass. They obviously could not do both so they focused on stopping the run and appear to have been semi successful but at great cost.

by JRL on Sep 24, 2008 8:17 AM EDT reply actions

all year long

I think people are going to stack the box and take their chances on getting beat by Stafford. Maybe someone like Bama, LSU or UF might play a base 4-2 or 3-4 and just try and man up athlete to athlete to try and stop him and not get burned so much by the pass. AJ’s emergence might change the thought of stacking the box, but I would guess that most coaches agree that Moreno is the engine of the offense.

I agree that looking at his stats are underwhelming and I bet they look a little similar to the SC game. I believe the “hidden” stat for Knowshon might be the yards after contact. He might have only gained 3 yards, but a lot of times, he’s being bottled up at the line to start.

I think what makes him special is something like the 4 yd TD against SC. He just made a play out of nothing and seems to do that a lot.

Yes, that is my son. Yes, that is a bottle of Crown.

by BCDawg97 on Sep 24, 2008 10:35 AM EDT reply actions