Husky Football: Victory in Numbers
It is late, and I am about to head off to bed, but while I was looking over the stats of the victory over Utah, I figured I’d pass along a few statistics that I thought told the story of this win.
36:40
Washington’s time of possession, as opposed to 23:20 for Utah. Anytime your feature back manages to carry the ball 36 times while averaged 4.5 yards per carry, winning the time of possession is almost a given.
6.5
Average yards per carry for John White IV, the starting running back for the Utes. I understand that White is an NFL-caliber talent, but allowing him to break off two long touchdown runs, one of 46 yards and one of 20, is just unacceptable. If you take those two plays away and Utah has 122 total yards in this game. While holding an opponent to 188 yards is definitely impressive, if Washington stops those two long runs from happening, this goes from being a good win to a dominant one. If, in the future, the offense can’t score so efficiently, that sort of thing could make the difference between a close win and a close loss.
Nov 10, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; Washington Huskies running back Bishop Sankey (25) carries the ball and scores a touchdown against the Utah Utes during the 2nd half at CenturyLink Field. Washington defeated Utah 34-15. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-US PRESSWIRE
7.69
Utah’s third down conversion percentage. Out of thirteen attempts, the Utes only managed to convert once. While it is definitely possible, I think it’s pretty much safe to say that a team is not going to win a game while converting 7.69% of third down attempts.
2.4
The average yards per attempt of Travis Wilson, the result of only 55 yards passing in 23 attempts. Wilson had a ton of time to make his throws. Washington’s defensive front rarely pressured him at all, and I believe he was only sacked once the entire game, so this is a coverage victory for the Huskies. Wilson couldn’t help that a few of his receivers had issues catching decently thrown footballs, but that wouldn’t have saved his statline much. Similar to the stat before this one, a team just isn’t going to win with such an inefficient yards per passing attempt number.
8-72
The number of penalties, and the yardage of those penalties, charged to Washington tonight. Pretty unacceptable, especially considering that penalties have been a problem all year. The three personal fouls that either extended Utah drives or ruined Washington drives were particularly frustrating. I’m sure it’s something he has been attempting to fix, but Sark really does need to get his players to stop committing personal fouls, as in a close game, Washington might not be able to win so decisively while giving away drives.