bpfred
Active Member
- Messages
- 175
- Reaction score
- 82
KC Joyner contributes to website http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/. Sometimes he writes about the Cowboys.
For those that aren't aware, he grades last year's plays by player (for all of the positions) and publishes a book with them. One of the statistics he keeps for offensive linemen deals with the running game, and whether they made their block at the Point of Attack (POA) or got beat by the defense. Those statistics are included in the book.
Here is something he wrote about the Cowboys running game in 2008 (on the website above).
"...I have some interesting Scientific Football Cowboys running back material to share. One of the research areas I am tracking for the book is running back productivity on rushes in which there are no Point of Attack (POA) blocking losses versus rushes with at least one POA blocking loss.
The disparity between the “all-win” POA runs and runs with at least one loss has been fairly significant for all of the backs I’ve tallied up to this point, but the Dallas backs may have the largest disparity of all. Check out the numbers:
Running back Runs w/no POA losses Yds YPA Runs w/at least one POA loss Yds YPA
Marion Barber 145 726 5.0 93 159 1.7
Felix Jones 23 249 10.8 7 17 2.4
Tashard Choice 60 433 7.2 32 39 1.2
Totals 228 1408 6.2 132 215 1.6
The metrics that stand out here are Felix Jones and Tashard Choice’s Yards Per Attempt (YPA) totals in the no POA losses category. They gained a combined total of 682 yards on 83 runs here, or 8.2 YPA. The Boys’ O-line as a whole did not play up to its potential in run blocking (three of their players were at the unacceptable POA win mark of 80% or lower), but if they can improve their consistency even by just a few percentage points, it could mean huge dividends in their rushing productivity."
Joyner hasn't published his book yet, but he has sent out run blocking statistics for about half the league (for people who pre-ordered his book). The interior linemen for the Cowboys last year (Proctor, Gurode, and Davis) were pretty bad run-blockers. Their POA wins (using Joyner's grading system) were 79.0%, 77.0%, and 77.5% respectively. A really top run blocker will win over 90% of their matchups. The absolutely top guys, like Mangold (NYJ) or Neal (NE) win 94% plus. Adams and Columbo won 85.9% and 84.4% respectively.
The success of the Cowboys emphasis on the running game may have a lot more to do with the interior of the line improving their blocking than anything else.
As a standard of comparison for starting offensive lineman within the division (in 08): Every Commander lineman was over 80%, all of the Eagles were except Jean-Gilles 76.5% and he had nearly the same number of snaps as Cole who was over 80%, and every Giants lineman was over 80%, except Diehl @ 77.5%.
Kozier and Holland barely had enough runs behind them to be statistically meaningful, but Kozier was the worst of the lineman with 76.9% (on 26 attempts) and Holland was better at 82.4% (on 17 attempts).
Let me emphasize--all of the above stats are for run-blocking only.
For those that aren't aware, he grades last year's plays by player (for all of the positions) and publishes a book with them. One of the statistics he keeps for offensive linemen deals with the running game, and whether they made their block at the Point of Attack (POA) or got beat by the defense. Those statistics are included in the book.
Here is something he wrote about the Cowboys running game in 2008 (on the website above).
"...I have some interesting Scientific Football Cowboys running back material to share. One of the research areas I am tracking for the book is running back productivity on rushes in which there are no Point of Attack (POA) blocking losses versus rushes with at least one POA blocking loss.
The disparity between the “all-win” POA runs and runs with at least one loss has been fairly significant for all of the backs I’ve tallied up to this point, but the Dallas backs may have the largest disparity of all. Check out the numbers:
Running back Runs w/no POA losses Yds YPA Runs w/at least one POA loss Yds YPA
Marion Barber 145 726 5.0 93 159 1.7
Felix Jones 23 249 10.8 7 17 2.4
Tashard Choice 60 433 7.2 32 39 1.2
Totals 228 1408 6.2 132 215 1.6
The metrics that stand out here are Felix Jones and Tashard Choice’s Yards Per Attempt (YPA) totals in the no POA losses category. They gained a combined total of 682 yards on 83 runs here, or 8.2 YPA. The Boys’ O-line as a whole did not play up to its potential in run blocking (three of their players were at the unacceptable POA win mark of 80% or lower), but if they can improve their consistency even by just a few percentage points, it could mean huge dividends in their rushing productivity."
Joyner hasn't published his book yet, but he has sent out run blocking statistics for about half the league (for people who pre-ordered his book). The interior linemen for the Cowboys last year (Proctor, Gurode, and Davis) were pretty bad run-blockers. Their POA wins (using Joyner's grading system) were 79.0%, 77.0%, and 77.5% respectively. A really top run blocker will win over 90% of their matchups. The absolutely top guys, like Mangold (NYJ) or Neal (NE) win 94% plus. Adams and Columbo won 85.9% and 84.4% respectively.
The success of the Cowboys emphasis on the running game may have a lot more to do with the interior of the line improving their blocking than anything else.
As a standard of comparison for starting offensive lineman within the division (in 08): Every Commander lineman was over 80%, all of the Eagles were except Jean-Gilles 76.5% and he had nearly the same number of snaps as Cole who was over 80%, and every Giants lineman was over 80%, except Diehl @ 77.5%.
Kozier and Holland barely had enough runs behind them to be statistically meaningful, but Kozier was the worst of the lineman with 76.9% (on 26 attempts) and Holland was better at 82.4% (on 17 attempts).
Let me emphasize--all of the above stats are for run-blocking only.
