Who's saying we need to run the ball all game? I think we, at a minimum need to run the ball as effectively as Indiana did against them, and my hope is that we are able to run the ball as effectively as Oregon (game 1 last year) & Texas did this year. I simply don't think we can win the game without running the ball effectively (let's call that 120-150+ yards & 4+ ypc) against them. Most of the discussion after that has been about the best tactics and plays to use in the run game. If I have come off sounding like I think we need to play like '94 Nebraska against OSU, I apologize.
We all saw what Beck was like against a good back 7 when we couldn't run the ball at all with our backs against UL, and saw similar performances last year at UGA when their backs couldn't get things going. We 100% need to push the ball down the field through the air. Like you, I don't love our matchups outside of Toney (also am cautiously optimistic that CJ can win occasionally downfield against them). I like getting Toney vertical, especially down the seam like we did against VTech. TEs should have opportunities too, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.
I guess where we differ is I rate our chances to run the ball effectively against them a bit higher than an effective passing game (which, since we really haven't defined what that looks like I'll assume its like Mendoza against OSU: a couple of 30+ yard pass completions, some DPIs down the field, YPA closer to 10 than OSU's season average of 5.5, etc). We have at a minimum 3 pros on our OL. Fletcher is coming off the best game of his life and is fully healthy again. Who knows if Pringle can contribute against OSU, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I've seen fans posting that they hope Josh Moore, JoJo Trader, and Tony Johnson have big games catching the ball downfield against OSU. I hope so too, but it's pretty unlikely.
Lastly, I don't think a lot of folks appreciate how different our running back production has been since our second loss, and that was what I was mainly trying to express in response to your yearlong rushing efficiency posts from X. I think it's a pretty unique transformation of a RB room. I did a bit more digging with some comparisions to last year (both full year and after we got Rivers back against UL and Martinez got cooking). Granted, outside of Pitt we played bad rush defenses to end the year, but that's the same thing that happened last year from UL-ISU, and Pitt was #8 in EPA/rush allowed and #4 in YPC allowed, and our backs ran the ball effectively against them (28 for 128):
- 4.2 ypc Fletcher/Brown/Lyle through SMU
- 3.5 ypc brown & Lyle (45% of carries)
- 4.8 ypc Fletcher (55%)
- 5.7ypc Fletcher/Brown/Lyle/Pringle after SMU
- 6.4 ypc Fletcher/Pringle after SMU (71%)
- 3.8 ypc Brown/Lyle after SMU (29%)
- 4.6 ypc Fletcher/brown/Lyle/Pringle entire year
- 3.6 ypc Brown/Lyle entire year (39%)
- 5.4 ypc Fletcher/Pringle entire year (61%)
- 6.2 ypc top 4 backs last year
- Last year from Louisville to end:
- Martinez/Fletcher/Lyle/Allen avg 6.6 ypc
- Martinez/Fletcher: 6.5 ypc (86% of carries)
So, I stand by my take that we were a bad running team for most of the year, but we no longer are. Most teams don't hand the ball off nearly half the time over their first 7 FBS games to 2 RBs who were as ineffective and inefficient as Lyle and Brown were. We stopped doing that so much, then stopped giving them the ball at all againt A&M, and now we are night and day running the ball with our backs.
Go Canes; Beat Taint! We both want the same outcome, and if your way gets us there tomorrow night I'll be happy as can be.