Mad Bomber
05-09-2009, 08:15 AM
First, their overall offensive line run blocking totals were abysmal. Three of the Bills’ regular starters had a Point of Attack (POA) run block win percentage of less than 80 percent. As I’ve detailed in previous posts, the 80 percent mark is the low-end acceptable total in this area, and Buffalo had only two linemen who were able to vault this bar. If that wasn’t enough, one of those linemen (Derrick Dockery) barely topped that total with an 81.4 percent POA win showing.
The other reason Buffalo is a good fit for this study is that they have not one but two superb running backs in Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson. One would expect that this twosome could gain yards on runs where none of their blockers were beaten at the POA, and the numbers bear this out:
Runs without a POA run block loss
Jackson – 81 attempts, 489 yards, 6.0 YPA
Lynch – 166 attempts, 858 yards, 5.2 YPA
Now let’s take a look at how they fared when at least one blocker was beaten at the POA.
Runs with at least one POA run block loss
Jackson – 49 attempts, 82 yards, 1.7 YPA
Lynch – 84 attempts, 178 yards, 2.1 YPA
Here's the link:
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNGeJZOvlqDUmd9rVbjXMNtBu6XUmw&cid=0&ei=on8FSpCPFYu88wSI8I3lAQ&rt=SEARCH&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com%2F2009%2F05%2F07%2Fbills-prove-rule-its-the-blocking-not-the-back%2F
The other reason Buffalo is a good fit for this study is that they have not one but two superb running backs in Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson. One would expect that this twosome could gain yards on runs where none of their blockers were beaten at the POA, and the numbers bear this out:
Runs without a POA run block loss
Jackson – 81 attempts, 489 yards, 6.0 YPA
Lynch – 166 attempts, 858 yards, 5.2 YPA
Now let’s take a look at how they fared when at least one blocker was beaten at the POA.
Runs with at least one POA run block loss
Jackson – 49 attempts, 82 yards, 1.7 YPA
Lynch – 84 attempts, 178 yards, 2.1 YPA
Here's the link:
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNGeJZOvlqDUmd9rVbjXMNtBu6XUmw&cid=0&ei=on8FSpCPFYu88wSI8I3lAQ&rt=SEARCH&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com%2F2009%2F05%2F07%2Fbills-prove-rule-its-the-blocking-not-the-back%2F