So it just so happened that none of those happened any other time that our bbacks carried the ball? Somehow only Marshall ever had those big plays that any of them could have made. How fortunate for him lol.
Marshall had a higher percentage of his plays be 10 or more yards, 13.5% to 11.2%. The big plays didn't inflate Marshall's numbers. He was a bigger home run threat. The increased numbers reflect that. That's not inflation. Mills had the advantage in getting 5-9 yard plays, some of that being turning some 3-4 yard gains into 5-6 but a good bit of it being unable to break runs longer.
Mills probably was better in yards after contact. And Marshall was better at using speed to avoid contact. Also, as I said, Marshall was more consistent in getting the yardage that would force teams to cheat, 0-2 yards aint getting that, and the fear of the big play. Beinga tougher runner doesn't mean you're better. People made the same mistake when Skov "won" the starting spot.
Johnson also put Laskey over Days, and Days out produced. He put Skov over Marshall and Marshall out produced. He put Mills over Marshall and Marshall out produced.
And you aren't getting the medium plays every time either. Also, no, the medium plays aren't so much more important. Home run plays will almost always result in TDs. Medium plays don't. Medium plays continue to force you to execute to get points. Lets look at Mill's two best games. Against UNC. He had 44 yards on drives ending in 0 points, including some of his medium yard gains. Another drive where he got 34 yards but it ended in a FG. The only two TDs we got that game were on a big play, 83 yard TD, and on the drive where Mills got his biggest gain of the year (39) We had several other longs drives stall out and either get no points or just 3, because we were forced to try and grind it all out. Against Kentucky, we only scored 2 offensive TDs despite his big game. The first was an 11 play drive, but it had to go 94 yards, and featured a play that gained us a total of 37 yards (22 on the play plus 15 for the flag). The second was a 58 yard drive with 42 being picked up on one play. Otherwise we had a 12 play drive ending in a FG, Mills had 5 carries for 26 yards. We had an 8 play drive that started on UK's side ending in a FG (mills had 4 runs for 18 yards). We had a 12 play drive ending in a FG (Mills had 8 carries for 66 yards). So that is 17 of his carries and 110 of his yards, that went to drives not ending in 7. Looking at those FG drives 2 were hurt by penalties, with one of those being hurt by a fumble recovered by us as well. The third petered out after a 1 yard gain on first and goal put us behind the ball. That was the reason why a game which we dominated for 3 and a half quarters was a one possession game with under 4 left.
And that is why the big play is important. The 50 yard gains are 50 yards that you don't have to spend 6-7-8 plays getting risking missed blocks, penalties or the like.
The only time one of Marshall's big plays didn't result in a TD, is when we had first and goal at the 2, got cute by putting Jordan in cold and proceeded to get a false start.
