I looked at some stats to see what the numbers showed about our offensive line, and there were a couple of interesting tidbits in there. Granted, the sample size of 3 games vs. 12 is not that great, but at least in the three games, we have played a horrible defense, an average defense, and a very good to great defense. To the numbers!
1) Yards per rush. 2009 - 4.9, 2010 - 3.9. That's a pretty striking difference. Against the common opponents, we averaged 4.4 against Auburn and 3.3 against LSU in 2009, and 3.5 against both Auburn and LSU in 2010. I think both fronts improved, but I think a whole lot of that is Dixon. Draw your own conclusion.
2) Sacks. We gave up 18 in 2009, and we've given up 4 so far this year. 1.5 per game vs. 1.3 per game.
3) Overall yardage. We averaged 371 yards per game last year and we are averaging 361 per game this year.
Conclusions that I draw. First, Dixon was probably good for that extra ypc. He fell forward. He was hard to tackle. Over the course of the game, that's big. We definitely miss him. Second, despite our quarterback seeming to get a ton of pressure, our sack numbers are actually less. Having said that, Lee was really bad to take a horrible sack and both Relf and Russell are more elusive. The conclusion that I draw is that our offensive line does not and has never really excelled at pass blocking. We are more of a run blocking team. Finally, the ypg average will obviously trend down as we get further away form Memphis if something doesn't change. That said, at this point, it's close enough to call it a wash. We outgained LSU. We moved it on Auburn. Logically then, it falls back on the turnovers.
The statistics bear out what everybody is seeing. Throwing it too much is too risky and costly, we don't have the OL to protect (didn't last year either - we just ran it most of the time), and we are still fairly successful running the ball, though we do miss Dixon.
1) Yards per rush. 2009 - 4.9, 2010 - 3.9. That's a pretty striking difference. Against the common opponents, we averaged 4.4 against Auburn and 3.3 against LSU in 2009, and 3.5 against both Auburn and LSU in 2010. I think both fronts improved, but I think a whole lot of that is Dixon. Draw your own conclusion.
2) Sacks. We gave up 18 in 2009, and we've given up 4 so far this year. 1.5 per game vs. 1.3 per game.
3) Overall yardage. We averaged 371 yards per game last year and we are averaging 361 per game this year.
Conclusions that I draw. First, Dixon was probably good for that extra ypc. He fell forward. He was hard to tackle. Over the course of the game, that's big. We definitely miss him. Second, despite our quarterback seeming to get a ton of pressure, our sack numbers are actually less. Having said that, Lee was really bad to take a horrible sack and both Relf and Russell are more elusive. The conclusion that I draw is that our offensive line does not and has never really excelled at pass blocking. We are more of a run blocking team. Finally, the ypg average will obviously trend down as we get further away form Memphis if something doesn't change. That said, at this point, it's close enough to call it a wash. We outgained LSU. We moved it on Auburn. Logically then, it falls back on the turnovers.
The statistics bear out what everybody is seeing. Throwing it too much is too risky and costly, we don't have the OL to protect (didn't last year either - we just ran it most of the time), and we are still fairly successful running the ball, though we do miss Dixon.