From The Rumble Seat: Commitment To The Run Key For Georgia Tech

SB Nation’s Georgia Tech blog, From The Rumble Seats, offers their take on Tuesday night’s Orange Bowl against Iowa, with more preview-y goodness than you could imagine. But eventually, it will all come down to how well the Yellow Jackets can run the ball against the Hawkeye defense.

Iowa has struggled with teams that committed to the run. For all the accolades and awards won by the Iowa defense this season, they’ve faltered against teams that continued to pound the football. The three worst defensive efforts of the Hawkeyes were against Northwestern, Michigan, and Ohio State. The Hawkeyes gave up ~20 offensive points per game in those three games and had a 4 minute TOP disadvantage per game. The opposing offenses established the run and never stopped running as their OC’s called in at least 45 run plays. In fact, those three teams’ rush:pass ratio was 140:72 combined. The average yards/carry of the Buckeyes, Wolverines, and Wildcats was just short of 4 yards per carry.

If GT keeps up the season rate of ~4 rushing attempts per pass attempt and maintains the team average 5.32 yards/carry, I don’t see GT losing. GT is 19-3 under CPJ when they’ve attempted at least 45 rushes (1-3 when they’ve failed to do so). The Hawkeyes will have to severely limit the dive and rocket sweeps and that will probably be the focus of Norm Parker’s bowl practices. Another opponent of the Hawkeyes will be their incredibly inefficient offense with a stale QB at the helm.