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you here this repeated time and time again - the way to beat Manning is to keep him off the field - you do that by running the football, and winning the time of possession. This is the blue-print that SD used in week 15, right?
I don't understand why this is supposed to be the key to victory. All you are doing by eating clock is eating possessions both teams will have. Neglecting turnovers, both teams will have possession an equal amount of times - or pretty close anyways. As soon as your drive ends, you give the ball back.
limiting the number of possessions means that you are counting on your guys doing more with the ball than your opponent - each possession is more important (because there are fewer of them), so you better be producing points.
SD won in week 15 because they were more efficient with their drives than we were. Den had 9 possessions, SD had 8 (not counting end of half kneel-downs). SD scored on 5 of those, Broncos scored on 4. SD had 3 TD's, Broncos had 2. SD punted 3x, Denver punted 4x. SD had 0 turnovers, Denver had 1. That's why SD won, it had nothing to do with time of possession.
consider the week 10 game. Here, SD had 10 possessions, Denver 11. SC scored on 4 drives with 2 TDs. Denver also scored on 4 drives, 4 TD's. SD punted 5x, Denver also punted 5x. SD had 0 turnovers, Denver had 1. Denver won this game despite a 22:38 TOP disadvantage.
To win this way, SD has got to score TD's, not FG's. That seems to be the difference between the two games.
Now, it could be very easy for Denver to blow SD out of the water if they try to play like this - it's simple - convert 3rd downs. It's that easy. Denver was 3-8 in the first game and 2-9 in the second. That's what killed us. it really had nothing to do with SD's running game, it had everything to do with not converting on 3rd down.
To do that, we need to do a better job of staying on schedule early and keeping 3rd down manageable. The average distance we converted in the two previous games was 4.2, the average distance we failed to convert was 7.25. We do this with the running game. in week 15 we had only 11 rushes the whole game, only 20 in week 10. That's not going to get it done. That's not playoff football. SD has given up 4.6 yards per attempt this season (granted, they have had some injuries); there is no reason we should not be feeding Moreno and Ball on 1st and 2nd down.
I don't understand why this is supposed to be the key to victory. All you are doing by eating clock is eating possessions both teams will have. Neglecting turnovers, both teams will have possession an equal amount of times - or pretty close anyways. As soon as your drive ends, you give the ball back.
limiting the number of possessions means that you are counting on your guys doing more with the ball than your opponent - each possession is more important (because there are fewer of them), so you better be producing points.
SD won in week 15 because they were more efficient with their drives than we were. Den had 9 possessions, SD had 8 (not counting end of half kneel-downs). SD scored on 5 of those, Broncos scored on 4. SD had 3 TD's, Broncos had 2. SD punted 3x, Denver punted 4x. SD had 0 turnovers, Denver had 1. That's why SD won, it had nothing to do with time of possession.
consider the week 10 game. Here, SD had 10 possessions, Denver 11. SC scored on 4 drives with 2 TDs. Denver also scored on 4 drives, 4 TD's. SD punted 5x, Denver also punted 5x. SD had 0 turnovers, Denver had 1. Denver won this game despite a 22:38 TOP disadvantage.
To win this way, SD has got to score TD's, not FG's. That seems to be the difference between the two games.
Now, it could be very easy for Denver to blow SD out of the water if they try to play like this - it's simple - convert 3rd downs. It's that easy. Denver was 3-8 in the first game and 2-9 in the second. That's what killed us. it really had nothing to do with SD's running game, it had everything to do with not converting on 3rd down.
To do that, we need to do a better job of staying on schedule early and keeping 3rd down manageable. The average distance we converted in the two previous games was 4.2, the average distance we failed to convert was 7.25. We do this with the running game. in week 15 we had only 11 rushes the whole game, only 20 in week 10. That's not going to get it done. That's not playoff football. SD has given up 4.6 yards per attempt this season (granted, they have had some injuries); there is no reason we should not be feeding Moreno and Ball on 1st and 2nd down.
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