For as long as i can remember, people have been blaming a tired defense on passing too much and running too little.
I'm curious whether anyone has any evidence that running plays give the defense more rest than passing plays. Sure, the game clock stops after incomplete passes, but do passing plays really take any less real time than running plays?
What really gives the defense a chance to rest are stopping the other team's offense, and long, sustained drive by the team's own offense. If the other team's defense is playing to stop the run, it may very well be the case that more passing gives a better chance of sustaining a drive. In fact, based on Kolb's quote, when he got to the line of scrimmage he felt that changing some of the running plays that were called to passes would be successful.
You can second-guess the play-calling based on what you think would've been more successful, but not based on what would've given the defense more rest. If you think the team should deliberately gain fewer yards per play in order to stretch out the length of a drive, then you probably think the 73-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald was a mistake.
(Now if the team is trying to run out the game clock, that's a whole other argument.)
...dave
I'm curious whether anyone has any evidence that running plays give the defense more rest than passing plays. Sure, the game clock stops after incomplete passes, but do passing plays really take any less real time than running plays?
What really gives the defense a chance to rest are stopping the other team's offense, and long, sustained drive by the team's own offense. If the other team's defense is playing to stop the run, it may very well be the case that more passing gives a better chance of sustaining a drive. In fact, based on Kolb's quote, when he got to the line of scrimmage he felt that changing some of the running plays that were called to passes would be successful.
You can second-guess the play-calling based on what you think would've been more successful, but not based on what would've given the defense more rest. If you think the team should deliberately gain fewer yards per play in order to stretch out the length of a drive, then you probably think the 73-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald was a mistake.
(Now if the team is trying to run out the game clock, that's a whole other argument.)
...dave