Almost all the top teams won last week, leading to a very high average prediction. Some of the running backs involved performed well. Others...well, you'll see.
Orange County Otters at Yellowknife Wraiths:
Otters Rushers:
Jeffrey Phillips: 0/11
Ace Savage: 3/8
Wraiths Rushers:
Acura Skyline: 3/11
Jameson Vermillion: 2/6
Colby Jack: 1/2
Orange County has a long, impressive history; a 26 season stretch of never missing the playoffs. That record is now in mortal peril, and it's very hard not to point at the rushing game as the reason why. Phillips in particular went 0 for the night, and it wasn't for a lack of easy chances. Phillips got 0 yards when he needed 1, 1 yard when he needed 2, had a long of 3, and was generally completely useless on the night. Ace Savage was decent, however. He got quite a nice chunk of change to give the Otters a 1st down, despite an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play. His yards per carry do fall to 2.7 from 5.4 once you take out that 24 yard run, but he was still able to keep the chains moving for the Otters on one of their only scoring drives of the night.
Skyline started out pretty poor, although he arguably got robbed once when he ran for 4 yards on 1st and 25. He managed to pull off a pair of 4 yard runs after an unsuccessful rush on 1st down for 2 of his successes, making up for a failure. Later on, though, it's pretty hard not to blame him somewhat for a safety when he ran for 0 yards on 1st and 10 from his own 1, leading the Wraiths to pass on 2nd down. His last success was a 4 yard run on 2nd and 1 to bring the Wraiths into the Red Zone on their final possession. At least he doesn't get hit too hard by the remove long method, only falling to 2.5 from 2.6. Jameson Vermillion looked great efficiency-wise up until the final possession. Granted, one of his successes was a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 3, but his second success was a 4 yard rush on 2nd and 7 which came with an unnecessary roughness tacked on. Unfortunately for his efficiency, his next 4 rushes had a total of 5 yards with a long of 2, including 3 straight carries going pretty much nowhere on the Wraiths' final offensive possession. Before that he looked pretty good. Colby Jack's one success was a 1 yard touchdown run.
Austin Copperheads at Chicago Butchers:
Copperheads Rushers:
Zoe Watts: 6/20
Kichwa Jones: 0/3
Jim the Vampire: 0/2
Butchers Rushers:
Baby Yoda: 4/28
Watts' day looks a lot better on the stat sheet than it actually ended up. She started with a 42 yard rush to put the Copperheads in Field Goal range on their first drive, and wouldn't get another success for another 7 rushes. That being said, Watts did get robbed a couple of times. This included a 5 yard carry on 1st and 14, and a 6 yard carry on 1st and 25. To somewhat balance that out, one of Watts' successes got wiped out by 2 successive failures; a 7 yard carry on 1st and 10 followed by 2 short gains. The final bit of notable happenings from Watts' day is that she had a short yardage success, with a 2 yard gain on 3rd and inches. That being said, it still feels like this should have been a day where she got 8/20 which is a whole lot better than the 6/20 she got in reality. As for everyone else, Watts was not able to get any help from anyone else rushing tonight.
What the HELL, Baby Yoda? You're not a bad running back, and you're not performing badly this year, but this night might be the worst night of rushing anyone has all year. Sure, he got successes. Sure, he had positive yardage. But he had under 1 yard per carry and a long of 5 on 28 carries. Yoda's successes in the 1st half were a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10 a bit of the way into the 2nd quarter, and a 4 yard carry on 1st and 10 near the end of the 1st half...that he immediately canceled out by only getting a short gain on 2nd down. The rest of his successes were a 2 yard touchdown run right after he only got 1 yard on 1st down, and a 1 yard carry on 3rd and 1. It's hard to be efficient on a bunch of carries, but it might be even harder to be THIS INEFFICIENT on this many carries, much less only getting a long of 5. Minus his long of 5, he actually falls to under half a yard per carry. No wonder the Butchers offense only scored 14.
New Orleans Second Line at Sarasota Sailfish:
Second Line Rushers:
Mr Forty Two: 1/9
Mike Rotchburns: 3/5
Sailfish Rushers:
Raphtalia Chan: 14/23
Running Back: 3/11
Sigismund Sternenstaub: 0/2
Mr Forty Two has not had a good rookie season, though I can't blame him considering the change in sim. His lone success on the game was an 8 yard carry on 1st and 10, which did at least lead to a touchdown pass very soon afterwards. I do need to draw attention to one of the worst calls I've ever seen in the sim, calling a run up the gut on 4th and 36 is...uh...one of those things that is truly special to witness. A reminder that Freddie Kitchens received a bunch of well deserved shit for his draw play call on 4th and 7 a couple seasons ago. Mr Forty Two's yards per carry fall to 1.4 from 2.1 once you remove his 8 yard run. As for Rotchburns, he only had 1 carry below 4 yards, arguably getting robbed on one of his two failures when he ran for 4 yards on 2nd and 10. Besides that, he had a 7 and 15 yard carry to get up near midfield on a drive that would give the Second Line an easy field goal opportunity. His other success was a 6 yard carry on 3rd and 1. Even if you took out his 15 yard carry, he'd still have a 4.75 yard per carry average, only falling from 6.8 by a little. And yet he probably didn't have the best night of the players in this game considering who was on the opposite side.
Chan. This was an amazing night from Chan, and it puts her pretty close to Nakamura in my mind for RBotY, pending Nakamura's own performance on the night. While her yards per carry do take a significant hit when you take out her long of 72, to 4.6 from 7.2, this does nothing to overshadow how often she kept the chains moving on the night. While a couple of her successes were short yardage, including a 2 yard gain on 2nd and 3 and a 1 yard gain on 2nd and inches, and another success was completely wiped out by an unsuccessful rush following it, (6 yard carry on 2nd and 7 followed by a 0 yard carry on 3rd and 1) that does NOTHING to overshadow how great the rest of her night was. When other running backs would get screwed by poor situations, such as being given a 3rd and 11 at the end of the 1st half, she'd succeed despite it by running for 15 yards. She also ran for 9 yards on a 1st and 16. Wonderful job. Meanwhile, Running Back unlike Chan was entirely carried by a single long rush on the night; with a 49 yard carry causing his production to go from 6.5 yards per carry with it...to 2.3 yards per carry without it. That was his first rush of the night, and he'd follow with a 6 yard carry on 1st down soon after. The entire rest of the night, though, he went nowhere until near the end of the game, not succeeding in either the 2nd or 3rd quarters.
New York Silverbacks at Colorado Yeti:
Silverbacks Rushers:
Captain Rogers: 3/11
Buster Bawlls: 0/3
Ashley Owens: 2/2
Yeti Rushers:
Richard Gilbert: 5/17
Anders Christiansen: 1/3
Rogers' first rush was a 6 yard run on 1st and 10 for the Silverbacks' first offensive play of the game. He would not have another success until he strung a pair together on a series halfway through the 3rd. By that point, though, it was already late in the day and the Silverbacks' offense generally was stifled for most of the day. He only got 2 rushes after those successes, and due to sacks, neither possession he got successes on led to points. Rogers did have a significantly damaging failure in the form of a short gain on 4th and 3, when the Silverbacks were only down by 8 and somewhat driving. As you might expect with such a low success rate, his yards per carry were pretty terrible on the day, with just 3.1, and they fell to 1.5 once you removed his long of 19. Ashley Owens was only used twice, but was successful on each rush: a 5 yard carry on 2nd and 10, somewhat making up for an incomplete pass on 1st down, and a successful 2 point conversion. As for Bawlls, he came off an amazing day to go nowhere on any of his 3 rushes on the night.
Gilbert should feel very lucky to have the success rate he does, it should be far worse. He started out with 3 successes on 4 carries, all of which were short yardage carries which he did absolutely nothing to set up: a 2 yard rush on 3rd and 1, a 1 yard rush on 2nd and -3, and a 2 yard rush on 2nd and 2. He'd later get 2 successes on back to back runs, with a 20 yard rush followed by a 1 yard rush on 1st and Goal from the 2. As you'd probably expect with 4 short yardage successes, and no carries where he could possibly have been considered to be robbed of successes, his yards per carry is low at 2.4, and gets immensely hurt by removing his long of 20. His yards per carry fall to 1.3 once you remove his long. In all, a pretty terrible night on Gilbert's part and he should feel lucky he "only" has just under 30% success rate on the night. Christiansen's only success on the night was also a short yardage success, a 2 yard carry on 1st and 5. Later in the same series, he'd have a -2 yard rush on 3rd and inches to somewhat wipe out his lone success on the night.
Honolulu Hahalua at Berlin Fire Salamanders:
Hahalua Rushers:
Nicholas Ayers: 5/13
Cobra Kai: 4/8
Tristian Hex: 0/1
Salamanders Rushers:
Joseph Petrongolo: 6/10
Terry Yaki: 1/2
Ayers benefitted from one short yardage rush that was set up by Cobra Kai's successful rushes, with a 3 yard carry on 3rd and 2, as well as another short yardage rush set up by the passing game, a 3 yard carry on 2nd and 3. Due in part to these, Ayers had a pretty low yards per carry at 3.6 and it falls to 2.7 once you take out his long of 15. Kai, to compare, did also have a pair of short yardage success, a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 4, albeit this was set up by a success from himself, and a 1 yard carry on 2nd and 1 set up by the passing game. That being said, Kai did have a 4 yard carry on 3rd and 5 so he was arguably robbed once. His yards per carry do fall precipitously once you take out his long of 17, to 1.7 yards per carry from 3.6, but I feel like his game was better than Ayers by a pretty good ways.
Petrongolo started out pretty poor, starting out with 2 unsuccessful runs that helped kill off 2 drives in a row. He then rattled off 5 successes in a row, leading to 2 red zone possessions and 10 points. This included back to back double digit length carries, and an 8 yard carry in the red zone to set up a 2nd and 1 that was promptly wasted by a sack on 2nd down. Due to how great and consistent his carries were, he doesn't get hurt too much by the Remove Long method, only going down to 4.2 from 5.4 once you remove his long of 16. He was kind of boom or bust, but that doesn't matter when your booms are over half of your carries, and had 3 of over 10 yards. Yaki's only success on the night was a 7 yard carry on 1st and 10 that helped set up the field goal drive of those 2 red zone possessions.
Arizona Outlaws at Baltimore Hawks:
Outlaws Rushers:
Tatsu Nakamura: 11/22
Gunner Thorbjornsson: 7/10
Hawks Rushers:
Mai Fukushu: 5/15
Chika Fujiwara: 1/1
I did not expect Nakamura to reach 50% success rate, but it looks like I was exactly accurate with my thinking that he ended up getting stopped just short multiple times. Granted, 2 of his successes were short yardage, but besides that he put the team in position for most of the touchdowns they got on the day, and the Outlaws got a LOT of touchdowns against the Hawks. Nakamura got a success on 5 of the Outlaws touchdown drives on the night, and generally was able to keep the chains moving outside a couple of points in the night. Nakamura was the engine behind the Outlaws putting up 50 points, even if he only managed to get one touchdown. He doesn't even get hit that hard by the remove long method, falling to 4.8 from 5.7 once you remove his long of 25 (surprisingly higher than Chan on the night). Thorbjornsson, meanwhile, is back above 50% for the first time in a while, and he did it the hard way too. None of his successes were less than 5 yards, and only 3 of his successes were less than 10 yards. Those were a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10, an 8 yard carry on 4th and Inches, and a 6 yard touchdown run. It's no wonder his yards per carry is over 8 on the night, and it's still at 6.8 if you remove his long of 21. I believe this night actually puts him at the top of the efficiency chart. Well, minus Daytona on his 2 carries.
Fukushu was extremely boom or bust throughout the night, with her 5 successes containing 34 of her total 44 yards. Most notable is that she had 6 runs that were either short gains or no gains, meaning that she got basically nowhere more times than she was successful, including her unsuccessful 2 point conversion. I'm actually surprised, considering I could have sworn she did better on the night than it looks like she ended up doing, considering how mad I was at our defense for most of the game. This continues her pretty long at this point streak of having subpar days at least in terms of efficiency. Chika's one rush attempt on the night was a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10.
San Jose Sabercats at Philadelphia Liberty:
Sabercats Rushers:
Jamar Lackson: 7/16
Rando Cardrissian: 3/6
Liberty Rushers:
Darrell Williams: 3/14
Sam Torenson: 3/9
Brock Phoenix: 1/1
Lackson and Cardrissian are pretty opposite in terms of days; Lackson was over 50% success rate for most of the day until only getting 1 success on his final 6 carries brought him below that. Meanwhile, Cardrissian started out with only 1 of his first 4 rushes being successful, but both of his final 2 were successes to bring him up to 50% on the day. Granted, one of those successes was a 2 yard run on 2nd and 3 that was set up by the passing attack, but still. Cardrissian does get absolutely destroyed by the Remove Long method, though; his yards per carry drop from 4 flat to 2.2 once you remove his long of 13, and him getting 1 yard apiece on 2 successive carries on 1st and Goal did not put the Sabercats in a great position to capitalize. As for Lackson, he had a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 3, and a 3 yard carry on 3rd and 3 for short yardage carries, but outside that 2nd and 3, all of his carries were for first down yardage and that led to him being extremely productive in terms of Yards per Carry. 6.1 that falls to just under 4 yards once you take out his long of 38.
This is one of the most useless days of rushing I've ever seen on someone with over 4 yards per carry. Williams opened with a 25 yard carry. He'd get a 19 yard carry with time expired on the first half, a useless rush. He had 14 yards on the rest of his 12 rushes in the game. Just taking out his 25 yard carry causes him to end up with a 2.5 yards per carry. His other success, by the way, was a 4 yard carry on 1st and 10. As for Torenson, one of his successes was a 1 yard touchdown run, and he also had a 9 yard carry I deemed unsuccessful due to him fumbling on it. This 9 yard carry happened to be his long for the day. Phoenix's one run was a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10.
Alright, time for the master list. I've noticed these have been shorter recently. Sorry, but I've been a bit busier than I used to be.
100% Jackie Daytona 2/2 (+2) AUS
54% Gunner Thorbjornsson 27/50 (+4) ARI
52% Matthias Hanyadi 13/25 (+1) BAL
50% George O'Donnell 1/2 (0) CHI
50% Suleiman Ramza 1/2 (0) OCO
50% Brock Phoenix 1/2 (0) PHI
45.8% Anders Christiansen 11/24 (-2) COL
43.5% Tatsu Nakmura 83/191 (-25) ARI
43.4% Jameson Vermillion 33/76 (-10) YKW
42.9% Chika Fujiwara 3/7 (-1) BAL
42.1% Joseph Petrongolo 48/114 (-18) BER
41.2% Raphtalia Chan 77/187 (-23) SAR
40% Bronko Mills 2/5 (-1) OCO
40% Forrest Gump 2/5 (-1) NOLA
40% Colby Jack 2/5 (-1) YKW
39.9% Jamar Lackson 55/138 (-28) SJS
38.6% Captain Rogers 49/127 (-29) NYS
38.6% Jeffrey Phillips 27/70 (-16) OCO
36.7% Cobra Kai 22/60 (-16) HON
36.4% Running Back 24/66 (-18) SAR
36.0% Richard Gilbert 50/139 (-39) COL
36.0% Sam Torenson 31/86 (-24) PHI
35.5% Baby Yoda 66/186 (-54) CHI
34.6% Acura Skyline 41/119 (-37) YKW
33.9% Zoe Watts 41/121 (-39) AUS
33.3% Mike Boss Jr 1/3 (-1) SAR
33.3% Buster Bawls 4/12 (-4) NYS
32.6% Terry Yaki 15/46 (-16) BER
31.6% Darrell Williams 42/133 (-49) PHI
31.4% Nicholas Ayers 38/121 (-45) HON
31.1% Ashley Owens 14/45 (-17) NYS
30.8% Rando Cardrissian 24/78 (-30) SJS
30% Ace Savage 24/80 (-32) OCO
29.6% Mai Fukushu 45/152 (-62) BAL
28.9% Mike Rotchburns 22/76 (-32) NOLA
28.4% Mr. Forty Two 23/81 (-35) NOLA
25.8% Julio Tirtawidjaja 8/31 (-15) CHI
25% Nick Kaepercolin 1/4 (-2) BER
20% Monty Jack 1/5 (-3) SJS
18.2% Sigismund Sternenstaub 2/11 (-7) SAR
17.6% Jim the Vampire 3/17 (-11) AUS
16.7% Kichwa Jones 1/6 (-4) AUS
0% Ben Slothlisberger 0/2 (-2) NOLA
0% Tristian Hex 0/1 (-1) HON
0% Sam Howitzer 0/1 (-1) NYS
0% Luke Skywalker 0/3 (-3) HON
0% Charlemagne Cortez 0/2 (-2) ARI
0% Fuzzy Dotson 0/10 (-10) PHI
0% Zed Keppler 0/8 (-8) CHI
Thorbjornsson is the new king of efficiency.
(3290 words)
Orange County Otters at Yellowknife Wraiths:
Otters Rushers:
Jeffrey Phillips: 0/11
Ace Savage: 3/8
Wraiths Rushers:
Acura Skyline: 3/11
Jameson Vermillion: 2/6
Colby Jack: 1/2
Orange County has a long, impressive history; a 26 season stretch of never missing the playoffs. That record is now in mortal peril, and it's very hard not to point at the rushing game as the reason why. Phillips in particular went 0 for the night, and it wasn't for a lack of easy chances. Phillips got 0 yards when he needed 1, 1 yard when he needed 2, had a long of 3, and was generally completely useless on the night. Ace Savage was decent, however. He got quite a nice chunk of change to give the Otters a 1st down, despite an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play. His yards per carry do fall to 2.7 from 5.4 once you take out that 24 yard run, but he was still able to keep the chains moving for the Otters on one of their only scoring drives of the night.
Skyline started out pretty poor, although he arguably got robbed once when he ran for 4 yards on 1st and 25. He managed to pull off a pair of 4 yard runs after an unsuccessful rush on 1st down for 2 of his successes, making up for a failure. Later on, though, it's pretty hard not to blame him somewhat for a safety when he ran for 0 yards on 1st and 10 from his own 1, leading the Wraiths to pass on 2nd down. His last success was a 4 yard run on 2nd and 1 to bring the Wraiths into the Red Zone on their final possession. At least he doesn't get hit too hard by the remove long method, only falling to 2.5 from 2.6. Jameson Vermillion looked great efficiency-wise up until the final possession. Granted, one of his successes was a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 3, but his second success was a 4 yard rush on 2nd and 7 which came with an unnecessary roughness tacked on. Unfortunately for his efficiency, his next 4 rushes had a total of 5 yards with a long of 2, including 3 straight carries going pretty much nowhere on the Wraiths' final offensive possession. Before that he looked pretty good. Colby Jack's one success was a 1 yard touchdown run.
Austin Copperheads at Chicago Butchers:
Copperheads Rushers:
Zoe Watts: 6/20
Kichwa Jones: 0/3
Jim the Vampire: 0/2
Butchers Rushers:
Baby Yoda: 4/28
Watts' day looks a lot better on the stat sheet than it actually ended up. She started with a 42 yard rush to put the Copperheads in Field Goal range on their first drive, and wouldn't get another success for another 7 rushes. That being said, Watts did get robbed a couple of times. This included a 5 yard carry on 1st and 14, and a 6 yard carry on 1st and 25. To somewhat balance that out, one of Watts' successes got wiped out by 2 successive failures; a 7 yard carry on 1st and 10 followed by 2 short gains. The final bit of notable happenings from Watts' day is that she had a short yardage success, with a 2 yard gain on 3rd and inches. That being said, it still feels like this should have been a day where she got 8/20 which is a whole lot better than the 6/20 she got in reality. As for everyone else, Watts was not able to get any help from anyone else rushing tonight.
What the HELL, Baby Yoda? You're not a bad running back, and you're not performing badly this year, but this night might be the worst night of rushing anyone has all year. Sure, he got successes. Sure, he had positive yardage. But he had under 1 yard per carry and a long of 5 on 28 carries. Yoda's successes in the 1st half were a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10 a bit of the way into the 2nd quarter, and a 4 yard carry on 1st and 10 near the end of the 1st half...that he immediately canceled out by only getting a short gain on 2nd down. The rest of his successes were a 2 yard touchdown run right after he only got 1 yard on 1st down, and a 1 yard carry on 3rd and 1. It's hard to be efficient on a bunch of carries, but it might be even harder to be THIS INEFFICIENT on this many carries, much less only getting a long of 5. Minus his long of 5, he actually falls to under half a yard per carry. No wonder the Butchers offense only scored 14.
New Orleans Second Line at Sarasota Sailfish:
Second Line Rushers:
Mr Forty Two: 1/9
Mike Rotchburns: 3/5
Sailfish Rushers:
Raphtalia Chan: 14/23
Running Back: 3/11
Sigismund Sternenstaub: 0/2
Mr Forty Two has not had a good rookie season, though I can't blame him considering the change in sim. His lone success on the game was an 8 yard carry on 1st and 10, which did at least lead to a touchdown pass very soon afterwards. I do need to draw attention to one of the worst calls I've ever seen in the sim, calling a run up the gut on 4th and 36 is...uh...one of those things that is truly special to witness. A reminder that Freddie Kitchens received a bunch of well deserved shit for his draw play call on 4th and 7 a couple seasons ago. Mr Forty Two's yards per carry fall to 1.4 from 2.1 once you remove his 8 yard run. As for Rotchburns, he only had 1 carry below 4 yards, arguably getting robbed on one of his two failures when he ran for 4 yards on 2nd and 10. Besides that, he had a 7 and 15 yard carry to get up near midfield on a drive that would give the Second Line an easy field goal opportunity. His other success was a 6 yard carry on 3rd and 1. Even if you took out his 15 yard carry, he'd still have a 4.75 yard per carry average, only falling from 6.8 by a little. And yet he probably didn't have the best night of the players in this game considering who was on the opposite side.
Chan. This was an amazing night from Chan, and it puts her pretty close to Nakamura in my mind for RBotY, pending Nakamura's own performance on the night. While her yards per carry do take a significant hit when you take out her long of 72, to 4.6 from 7.2, this does nothing to overshadow how often she kept the chains moving on the night. While a couple of her successes were short yardage, including a 2 yard gain on 2nd and 3 and a 1 yard gain on 2nd and inches, and another success was completely wiped out by an unsuccessful rush following it, (6 yard carry on 2nd and 7 followed by a 0 yard carry on 3rd and 1) that does NOTHING to overshadow how great the rest of her night was. When other running backs would get screwed by poor situations, such as being given a 3rd and 11 at the end of the 1st half, she'd succeed despite it by running for 15 yards. She also ran for 9 yards on a 1st and 16. Wonderful job. Meanwhile, Running Back unlike Chan was entirely carried by a single long rush on the night; with a 49 yard carry causing his production to go from 6.5 yards per carry with it...to 2.3 yards per carry without it. That was his first rush of the night, and he'd follow with a 6 yard carry on 1st down soon after. The entire rest of the night, though, he went nowhere until near the end of the game, not succeeding in either the 2nd or 3rd quarters.
New York Silverbacks at Colorado Yeti:
Silverbacks Rushers:
Captain Rogers: 3/11
Buster Bawlls: 0/3
Ashley Owens: 2/2
Yeti Rushers:
Richard Gilbert: 5/17
Anders Christiansen: 1/3
Rogers' first rush was a 6 yard run on 1st and 10 for the Silverbacks' first offensive play of the game. He would not have another success until he strung a pair together on a series halfway through the 3rd. By that point, though, it was already late in the day and the Silverbacks' offense generally was stifled for most of the day. He only got 2 rushes after those successes, and due to sacks, neither possession he got successes on led to points. Rogers did have a significantly damaging failure in the form of a short gain on 4th and 3, when the Silverbacks were only down by 8 and somewhat driving. As you might expect with such a low success rate, his yards per carry were pretty terrible on the day, with just 3.1, and they fell to 1.5 once you removed his long of 19. Ashley Owens was only used twice, but was successful on each rush: a 5 yard carry on 2nd and 10, somewhat making up for an incomplete pass on 1st down, and a successful 2 point conversion. As for Bawlls, he came off an amazing day to go nowhere on any of his 3 rushes on the night.
Gilbert should feel very lucky to have the success rate he does, it should be far worse. He started out with 3 successes on 4 carries, all of which were short yardage carries which he did absolutely nothing to set up: a 2 yard rush on 3rd and 1, a 1 yard rush on 2nd and -3, and a 2 yard rush on 2nd and 2. He'd later get 2 successes on back to back runs, with a 20 yard rush followed by a 1 yard rush on 1st and Goal from the 2. As you'd probably expect with 4 short yardage successes, and no carries where he could possibly have been considered to be robbed of successes, his yards per carry is low at 2.4, and gets immensely hurt by removing his long of 20. His yards per carry fall to 1.3 once you remove his long. In all, a pretty terrible night on Gilbert's part and he should feel lucky he "only" has just under 30% success rate on the night. Christiansen's only success on the night was also a short yardage success, a 2 yard carry on 1st and 5. Later in the same series, he'd have a -2 yard rush on 3rd and inches to somewhat wipe out his lone success on the night.
Honolulu Hahalua at Berlin Fire Salamanders:
Hahalua Rushers:
Nicholas Ayers: 5/13
Cobra Kai: 4/8
Tristian Hex: 0/1
Salamanders Rushers:
Joseph Petrongolo: 6/10
Terry Yaki: 1/2
Ayers benefitted from one short yardage rush that was set up by Cobra Kai's successful rushes, with a 3 yard carry on 3rd and 2, as well as another short yardage rush set up by the passing game, a 3 yard carry on 2nd and 3. Due in part to these, Ayers had a pretty low yards per carry at 3.6 and it falls to 2.7 once you take out his long of 15. Kai, to compare, did also have a pair of short yardage success, a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 4, albeit this was set up by a success from himself, and a 1 yard carry on 2nd and 1 set up by the passing game. That being said, Kai did have a 4 yard carry on 3rd and 5 so he was arguably robbed once. His yards per carry do fall precipitously once you take out his long of 17, to 1.7 yards per carry from 3.6, but I feel like his game was better than Ayers by a pretty good ways.
Petrongolo started out pretty poor, starting out with 2 unsuccessful runs that helped kill off 2 drives in a row. He then rattled off 5 successes in a row, leading to 2 red zone possessions and 10 points. This included back to back double digit length carries, and an 8 yard carry in the red zone to set up a 2nd and 1 that was promptly wasted by a sack on 2nd down. Due to how great and consistent his carries were, he doesn't get hurt too much by the Remove Long method, only going down to 4.2 from 5.4 once you remove his long of 16. He was kind of boom or bust, but that doesn't matter when your booms are over half of your carries, and had 3 of over 10 yards. Yaki's only success on the night was a 7 yard carry on 1st and 10 that helped set up the field goal drive of those 2 red zone possessions.
Arizona Outlaws at Baltimore Hawks:
Outlaws Rushers:
Tatsu Nakamura: 11/22
Gunner Thorbjornsson: 7/10
Hawks Rushers:
Mai Fukushu: 5/15
Chika Fujiwara: 1/1
I did not expect Nakamura to reach 50% success rate, but it looks like I was exactly accurate with my thinking that he ended up getting stopped just short multiple times. Granted, 2 of his successes were short yardage, but besides that he put the team in position for most of the touchdowns they got on the day, and the Outlaws got a LOT of touchdowns against the Hawks. Nakamura got a success on 5 of the Outlaws touchdown drives on the night, and generally was able to keep the chains moving outside a couple of points in the night. Nakamura was the engine behind the Outlaws putting up 50 points, even if he only managed to get one touchdown. He doesn't even get hit that hard by the remove long method, falling to 4.8 from 5.7 once you remove his long of 25 (surprisingly higher than Chan on the night). Thorbjornsson, meanwhile, is back above 50% for the first time in a while, and he did it the hard way too. None of his successes were less than 5 yards, and only 3 of his successes were less than 10 yards. Those were a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10, an 8 yard carry on 4th and Inches, and a 6 yard touchdown run. It's no wonder his yards per carry is over 8 on the night, and it's still at 6.8 if you remove his long of 21. I believe this night actually puts him at the top of the efficiency chart. Well, minus Daytona on his 2 carries.
Fukushu was extremely boom or bust throughout the night, with her 5 successes containing 34 of her total 44 yards. Most notable is that she had 6 runs that were either short gains or no gains, meaning that she got basically nowhere more times than she was successful, including her unsuccessful 2 point conversion. I'm actually surprised, considering I could have sworn she did better on the night than it looks like she ended up doing, considering how mad I was at our defense for most of the game. This continues her pretty long at this point streak of having subpar days at least in terms of efficiency. Chika's one rush attempt on the night was a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10.
San Jose Sabercats at Philadelphia Liberty:
Sabercats Rushers:
Jamar Lackson: 7/16
Rando Cardrissian: 3/6
Liberty Rushers:
Darrell Williams: 3/14
Sam Torenson: 3/9
Brock Phoenix: 1/1
Lackson and Cardrissian are pretty opposite in terms of days; Lackson was over 50% success rate for most of the day until only getting 1 success on his final 6 carries brought him below that. Meanwhile, Cardrissian started out with only 1 of his first 4 rushes being successful, but both of his final 2 were successes to bring him up to 50% on the day. Granted, one of those successes was a 2 yard run on 2nd and 3 that was set up by the passing attack, but still. Cardrissian does get absolutely destroyed by the Remove Long method, though; his yards per carry drop from 4 flat to 2.2 once you remove his long of 13, and him getting 1 yard apiece on 2 successive carries on 1st and Goal did not put the Sabercats in a great position to capitalize. As for Lackson, he had a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 3, and a 3 yard carry on 3rd and 3 for short yardage carries, but outside that 2nd and 3, all of his carries were for first down yardage and that led to him being extremely productive in terms of Yards per Carry. 6.1 that falls to just under 4 yards once you take out his long of 38.
This is one of the most useless days of rushing I've ever seen on someone with over 4 yards per carry. Williams opened with a 25 yard carry. He'd get a 19 yard carry with time expired on the first half, a useless rush. He had 14 yards on the rest of his 12 rushes in the game. Just taking out his 25 yard carry causes him to end up with a 2.5 yards per carry. His other success, by the way, was a 4 yard carry on 1st and 10. As for Torenson, one of his successes was a 1 yard touchdown run, and he also had a 9 yard carry I deemed unsuccessful due to him fumbling on it. This 9 yard carry happened to be his long for the day. Phoenix's one run was a 5 yard carry on 1st and 10.
Alright, time for the master list. I've noticed these have been shorter recently. Sorry, but I've been a bit busier than I used to be.
100% Jackie Daytona 2/2 (+2) AUS
54% Gunner Thorbjornsson 27/50 (+4) ARI
52% Matthias Hanyadi 13/25 (+1) BAL
50% George O'Donnell 1/2 (0) CHI
50% Suleiman Ramza 1/2 (0) OCO
50% Brock Phoenix 1/2 (0) PHI
45.8% Anders Christiansen 11/24 (-2) COL
43.5% Tatsu Nakmura 83/191 (-25) ARI
43.4% Jameson Vermillion 33/76 (-10) YKW
42.9% Chika Fujiwara 3/7 (-1) BAL
42.1% Joseph Petrongolo 48/114 (-18) BER
41.2% Raphtalia Chan 77/187 (-23) SAR
40% Bronko Mills 2/5 (-1) OCO
40% Forrest Gump 2/5 (-1) NOLA
40% Colby Jack 2/5 (-1) YKW
39.9% Jamar Lackson 55/138 (-28) SJS
38.6% Captain Rogers 49/127 (-29) NYS
38.6% Jeffrey Phillips 27/70 (-16) OCO
36.7% Cobra Kai 22/60 (-16) HON
36.4% Running Back 24/66 (-18) SAR
36.0% Richard Gilbert 50/139 (-39) COL
36.0% Sam Torenson 31/86 (-24) PHI
35.5% Baby Yoda 66/186 (-54) CHI
34.6% Acura Skyline 41/119 (-37) YKW
33.9% Zoe Watts 41/121 (-39) AUS
33.3% Mike Boss Jr 1/3 (-1) SAR
33.3% Buster Bawls 4/12 (-4) NYS
32.6% Terry Yaki 15/46 (-16) BER
31.6% Darrell Williams 42/133 (-49) PHI
31.4% Nicholas Ayers 38/121 (-45) HON
31.1% Ashley Owens 14/45 (-17) NYS
30.8% Rando Cardrissian 24/78 (-30) SJS
30% Ace Savage 24/80 (-32) OCO
29.6% Mai Fukushu 45/152 (-62) BAL
28.9% Mike Rotchburns 22/76 (-32) NOLA
28.4% Mr. Forty Two 23/81 (-35) NOLA
25.8% Julio Tirtawidjaja 8/31 (-15) CHI
25% Nick Kaepercolin 1/4 (-2) BER
20% Monty Jack 1/5 (-3) SJS
18.2% Sigismund Sternenstaub 2/11 (-7) SAR
17.6% Jim the Vampire 3/17 (-11) AUS
16.7% Kichwa Jones 1/6 (-4) AUS
0% Ben Slothlisberger 0/2 (-2) NOLA
0% Tristian Hex 0/1 (-1) HON
0% Sam Howitzer 0/1 (-1) NYS
0% Luke Skywalker 0/3 (-3) HON
0% Charlemagne Cortez 0/2 (-2) ARI
0% Fuzzy Dotson 0/10 (-10) PHI
0% Zed Keppler 0/8 (-8) CHI
Thorbjornsson is the new king of efficiency.
(3290 words)