We're moving on to the next week, and we had a couple of massive upsets...almost happen. One of which would have put Frost below 50 million if I recall correctly. Anyways, on to the success rate!
Philadelphia Liberty at Yellowknife Wraiths:
Liberty Rushers:
Darrell Williams: 2/16
Sam Torenson: 3/13
Brock Phoenix: 0/1
Fuzzy Dotson: 0/1
Wraiths Rushers:
Acura Skyline: 3/8
Jameson Vermillion: 2/7
At first I thought the Liberty were doing better at rushing than they ended up. They ended up worse at rushing than I could imagine considering they had 2 running backs over 4.5 yards per carry. 5 successes over 31 runs? That's a total success rate under 20%, and only 1 guy got higher than that. Williams only got 2 successes, a 38 yard run in the 1st quarter to help set up the Liberty for a lead, and an 8 yard run near the end of the 3rd on a drive that almost gave the Liberty the lead heading into the 4th. Granted, Williams also had an unsuccessful 6 yard run, due to it being 3rd and 16 when he got that. Minus that 38 yarder, Williams had 2 yards per carry on the night. Torenson only got 3 successes, an 18 yard rush, a 13 yard rush, and a 15 yard rush. The remaining 10 runs got 8 yards total. Minus his 18 yard carry, he falls to 3 yards per carry. Torenson was extremely feast or famine, which is not OK when you only have 3 feast runs. Brock Phoenix didn't go anywhere, and Fuzzy Dotson continues his campaign to be the guy with the most rushes and 0 successes.
Skyline almost had an awful game. Going into the 4th quarter, he was 0-5, with a long of 2. Then he ended the day on 3 straight successes, a 5 yarder and 2 double digit length carries, one of which went for 6. He was a huge reason why the Wraiths ended up with a 10 point 4th quarter that won them the game. Minus his 18 yard long, he does fall to 2.9 yards per carry, but considering he partly won his team the game tonight, I'm sure he's fine with his performance, wherever inactive players are. Jameson Vermillion ALSO was 0-5 going into the 4th quarter. The only difference between his night and Skyline's was that Vermillion had 1 less 4th quarter rush and 1 less touchdown. His successes were a 4 yard rush on 2nd and 4 and a 17 yard rush 2 plays later to take Yellowknife just outside of the red zone on their last touchdown drive of the game. An OK day, but this is still going to drive Vermillion below 50% success rate, although I don't know how far right now.
New Orleans Second Line at Chicago Butchers:
Second Line Rushers:
Mr Forty Two: 2/6
Mike Rotchburns: 1/4
Ben Slothlisberger: 0/1
Butchers Rushers:
Baby Yoda: 9/18
Julio Tirtawidjaja: 2/5
George O'Donnell: 0/1
Zed Keppler: 0/1
I am somewhat surprised that the Second Line managed to squeeze 3 successes out of a game where they only ran the ball 11 times and didn't have anyone with a yards per carry higher than 1.5, but strange things can happen. Mr Forty Two's successes were a 4 yard run on 1st and 10, and a 2 yard run on 2nd and 2, gaining a grand total of 1 yard on his other 4 carries. Rotchburns had a higher average, but was even worse than Forty Two in any other aspect; he had a 7 yard rush to set up a 1st and goal from the 3, and managed to get -1 on his other 3 carries. Considering how the Second Line almost caused an upset tonight against the best team in the league, it's not hard to speculate that they would have won if they had a good running game tonight. Or if Slothlisberger didn't throw one of the least clutch picks I've ever seen right after his defense gave him the ball with great field position.
I'm of two minds about Baby Yoda's performance tonight. His first half was monstrous, going 6/9 on successes and having 2 rushes of over 50 yards in the 1st quarter. However, he also benefited a LOT from short yardage successes on the night. One of those successes was a 1 yard run on 3rd and inches, which came after the passing game had just gotten out of a hole that he put them in, and he would pull off an almost perfect repeat of that in the 2nd half. He ran for 1 yard on 1st down, the passing game gave him a 3rd and inches, and this time he got 3 yards for another success. He even managed to get a 2nd rush for 1 yard that succeeded in the same game, when the passing game gave him a 2nd and 2 and he ran for 1 yard. Normally, this is the type of game where he'd be successful but get murdered in the yards per carry department. But he ran for over 100 yards on 2 carries. The rest of his game he had 2.1 yards per carry. Astounding 1st quarter, but the success rate lies about his performance for the rest of the night in my opinion. Tirtawidjaja might not have had the pizazz of Baby Yoda tonight, but both of his successes were his alone, with a 14 yard rush and an 8 yard rush, both going for 1st downs. He is left with a 1.33 yard per carry average once you take those out, but that's just on 3 runs. This game will certainly help Tirtawijaja's efforts to get out of the bottom 10 least efficient running backs of the season. Speaking of, Zed Keppler is up to 4 runs and 0 successes.
Sarasota Sailfish at Berlin Fire Salamanders:
Sailfish Rushers:
Raphtalia Chan: 8/21
Running Back: 3/5
Salamanders Rushers:
Joseph Petrongolo: 6/10
Terry Yaki: 0/1
Nick Kaepercolin: 0/1
I don't really have all that much to say about Raphtalia Chan's performance tonight, it didn't have anything all that special about it. None of her successes weren't earned, none of them were strange, her numbers aren't extraordinary in any sense outside of sheer number of carries. That being said, there is something kind of interesting; Chan is so average, she even balanced out the number of successes she ruined with unsuccessful runs with unsuccessful runs she salvaged with a success in the same series. She ran for 3 yards on 1st down and 5 on 2nd down once, and she also ended up rushing for 6 yards on 1st down and following that up with a lost fumble. Her yards per carry aren't great at 3.8, but they don't even fall that far minus her long of 17; they only fall to 3.1. Running Back returns to being a successful runner with this 3/5 performance, although granted, one of his runs did not matter in the slightest, being a success right before halftime. Other than that, though, he had a 7 yard run on 4th and Inches, and a 44 yard run, both in the 1st quarter, both setting up touchdown drives. As a matter of fact, Back was not used at all during the 2nd half. Kind of strange, considering they were up for the vast majority of it. Maybe if they run more, the Salamanders never get back in the game.
Petrongolo has been somewhat disappointing coming off of last year's OPOY caliber season. This is a good start to make up for that. Only 2 of Petrongolo's successes were shorter than 4 yards, and one came immediately after he set himself up with an 8 yard rush on 1st down. The other was a 2 point conversion, so of course it would be shorter than 2 yards. His most important conversion was a 4 yard conversion on 4th and 2, during the final drive for the Salamanders that ended up coming up just short. This partly made up for his unsuccessful 1st down rush on the same series. Unlike Petrongolo, who will creep towards a 40% success rate after this game, Yaki might fall into the bottom 10 running backs for success rate on the year, it's very competitive down there near the bottom and a couple failed rushes could put you down multiple percentage points.
Colorado Yeti at Baltimore Hawks:
Yeti Rushers:
Richard Gilbert: 8/17
Anders Christiansen: 4/5
Hawks Rushers:
Mai Fukushu: 7/15
Matthias Hanyadi: 3/5
Chika Fujiwara: 0/1
This ended up being the only game where one team was heavily favored that didn't end up being close, and I think a significant part of that was due to the rushing performance of the Yeti. Or the terrible nature of the Hawks defense, both work. As for Gilbert, he ended up doing a significant amount of damage during a drive that I'm pretty sure nobody watching expected to matter. With under a minute and a half on the clock in the 1st half, Gilbert ran 3 straight times, succeeding on 2 of 3, setting up a 4th and inches which he promptly took 48 yards to the house. Gilbert was decently quiet before the 2nd quarter, but he had a streak of 5 successful runs out of 6 in that second to put the Yeti very much on top for the day. He doesn't even suffer all that much from the remove long method, as he still ends up with an astounding 6.6 yards per carry. None of Gilbert's successes were below 5 yard carries, hell, only 2 were below 10 yards, and one of those was a 9 yarder. Amazing day from a Running Back whose been incredibly poor on success rate so far in the season. Anders Christiansen ran for 2 yards on 2nd and 11, and that was his only failure on the day. The rest of his runs had 2 first downs and 2 touchodowns. Again, a huge break for a guy who has been hanging out near the bottom of the efficiency rankings. His yards per carry do fall to 2.75 if you take out his long of 8, though, in part due to one of his successes being a 1 yard run on 4th and Inches, and having a 3 yard touchdown run for one of his scores.
This was a decent day for the Hawks' rushing offense, and the fact that they only scored 7 is probably on their passing offense and play calling more than anything else. Fukushu only had 1 success in the 1st quarter, but pumped up her average due to 4 straight successful runs in the 2nd half. Of course, none of these led to points due to poor play during the rest of the drive on the Hawks' part. While she only has 4 yards per carry, she doesn't get hurt that hard by the remove long method, as she still has a 3.3 yards per carry average even minus her long of 14. Hanyadi benefited from one of Fukushu's successes for one of his runs, a 2 yard run on 3rd and 2, but both of his other successes were 4 yard gains on 1st down. Due to getting the bare minimum for a success on all 3 of his successful rushes, Hanyadi suffered somewhat on the yards per carry end, falling below 2.5, and getting 2 yards per carry flat if you take out his long of 4.
New York Silverbacks at Honolulu Hahalua:
Silverbacks Rushers:
Captain Rogers: 5/13
Ashley Owens: 0/3
Buster Bawlls: 1/3
Hahalua Rushers:
Nicholas Ayers: 3/9
Cobra Kai: 2/6
I would like to congratulate the Silverbacks for ending up with one of the most common final scores in one of the dumbest ways I've ever seen. 2 safeties to end up with 14 points is one of those things that probably gives scorigami people nightmares. Anyways, Captain Rogers almost had a great game, but was too streaky to end up being more than average. He started out with a 43 yard run, and 2 successes on his first 3 carries. Then he failed the next 4 runs. He had 3 more successes in a row, including 2 double digit runs, and then failed 3 more times straight for this final total. As expected when a single carry is almost half of your yards, taking out that 43 yard carry causes his yards per carry to fall from 6.8 to 3.8. Captain Rogers was not only streaky, he was extremely feast or famine, with all but 3 of his total yards on the day coming on his 5 successful carries. As for his supporting cast, Owens had a long of 2 and was never close to getting a success, while Buster Bawlls is actually somewhat interesting. One of his runs was a 1 yard carry which he fumbled on, an unsuccessful run for sure. His successful run was a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 1, set up by one of Captain Rogers successes. This would seem to be a recipe for an undeserved success, but he also got a 4 yard carry on 2nd and 12, so he kind of got one and lost one on that front.
Ayers opened and closed with a 12 yard run for a 1st down. Between those, he only had 1 success, a 2 yard carry on 4th and 1 after a 3 yard carry on 3rd and 4 the play before. This came immediately before the last rush of the day for him. He had 6 unsuccessful carries in a row, and was extremely close to having an extremely awful day on the ground, at 1/7 beforehand. Then again, 3/9 is still kind of bad, only 13 players have a success rate of less than 33% and at least 5 carries. 1 of those is Ayers himself, so this might move him up a bit in terms of efficiency on the day, but it is notable that only he and one other player, Fukushu, had 75 carries and that poor efficiency on the season before Week 6. Minus one of his 12 yard runs, Ayers falls to 3 yards per carry, and at that point half of his production comes from his other 12 yard carry. Kai was a bit of a victim of circumstance, after benefitting from it a little by getting to have a 2 yard success on 2nd and 1. He had a 1 yard rush and a 9 yard rush, so this could have been a day where he got 2/3 successes with a bit of circumstantial luck for one of them. However, he was given the rock for the end of the game, right after a significant penalty. Granted, he never got more than 2 yards on his final 3 carries, but he was rushing from the 16 on 1st and goal. If it was from the 6 as the drive had started, he'd have gotten a success from his final 3 carries.
Arizona Outlaws at Orange County Otters:
Outlaws Rushers:
Tatsu Nakamura: 13/25
Gunner Thorbjornsson: 3/5
Otters Rushers:
Jeffrey Phillips: 7/9
Ace Savage: 3/4
Nobody who ran on the day had less than a 50% success rate, sheesh. Nakamura started out in pretty dire shape to make that, considering he succeeded on only 1 of his first 5 carries. However, due to a few touchdown runs and some short yardage successes, he managed to get over 50%. He had a 3 yard run on 2nd and 5, a 1 yard run on 3rd and inches, a 1 yard run on 2nd and 2 just before halftime (which was at least set up by and taken advantage of actually good length successful runs by Nakamura), and a pair of touchdown runs for 1 and 2 yards. No wonder that, despite having a long of 23, he had under 4 yards per carry, not even counting his -1 yard run on the 2 point conversion. He falls to just over 3 yards per carry if you take out his long of 23. However, I can't blame him too much for his 5 short yardage conversions considering he either set himself up or couldn't run any further for half of them. Thorbjornsson is back at 50% on the season, with his successes being an 8 yard run on 2nd and 5, a 5 yard run right after on 1st and 10, and a 3 yard run on 3rd and 2. So another short yardage success, for a total of 6 combined on the day between the 2 running backs.
I don't get it. The Arizona Rush Defense would be by FAR the best in the league if not for 2 games against 2 of the 3 worst rushing groups in the league. This is our second bad rushing defense game all season and it's against 2 people below 30% for success rate on the year. Anyways, for Phillips specifically, he either got 1st downs or was unsuccessful. And for him, it's a repeat of Baby Yoda earlier on in the night. Except even worse. Phillips had 5 straight successes to open his rushing for the day, and he had a 57 and 56 yard rush in those first 5. 2 of those runs were for 3 yards, both set up by players other than him. He'd later get a 2 yard gain on 3rd and 2 and a 1 yard gain on 2nd and inches, which were both set up by the passing offense. So in the end, we have a person with EVEN MORE short yardage successes set up by other people, with 2 great runs to pump up his yards per carry on the day. Without those 2 50+ yard runs, he falls to 2.4 yards per carry...and still has a success rate over 70%. Savage only has 1 run that could be considered a short yardage success, a 3 yard run on 1st and goal from the 7. Both his other successes were over 5 yards.
Austin Copperheads at San Jose Sabercats:
Copperheads Rushers:
Zoe Watts: 6/14
Jim the Vampire: 0/3
Sabercats Rushers:
Jamar Lackson: 5/16
Rando Cardrissian: 1/7
Monty Jack: 0/1
This was an amazing day for rushing for both sides...in the 1st half. Zoe Watts was completely on fire for half of the game, succeeding on 6 of her first 7 runs, with only one of them being a short yardage success, a 3 yard run on 2nd and 4. The rest of the game she went 0 for 7, with a long of 3. This almost completely killed her yards per carry to the 3.2 it ended up as. Although, she doesn't get hit too much by the remove long method, considering her long of 9. It only falls to 2.8, not that much. Jim the Vampire was so close to finally getting out of his rut, with a 4 yard rush on 2nd and 9. Had he gotten 1 more yard, or if Watts had gotten 1 more yard on her previous carry, or if he had carried first on the drive, he'd have gotten a success for the first time since Week 2. As is, he missed it by a single yard and then only got a single yard on his other 2 carries.
The Sabercats gave this game its only 2 second half successes, with a 4 yard rush from Jamar Lackson on the 1st play of the 2nd half and a 1 yard carry by Rando Cardrissian. In general, though, the 2nd half murdered the success rate of Jamar Lackson, who went from 4/9 to his below 33% success rate mark at the end of the day. Jamar also started out pretty slow, going 0/5 and then getting 2 successes that were both short yardage carries (a short gain on 2nd and 1 and a 3 yard gain on 3rd and inches). He got 3 more successes in a row, including the 4 yard success at the start of the 2nd half, and 2 long carries back to back for a total of 60 yards on the last drive of the 1st half. He ended up with a streak of 5 failures, 5 successes, and 6 failures. Lackson's yards per carry falls from 5.1 to 3.1 if you remove his 35 yard long, and if you remove the 25 yard touchdown he followed that up with, it falls to 1.5 yards per carry. It's no wonder he only got 3 successes on the rest of the day, 2 of them being short yardage. Cardrissian's lone success on the day was a 1 yard touchdown run set up entirely by a return to the 1 yard line by the San Jose special teams. He had a long of 2. He arguably didn't even deserve the 1 success he got.
Time for the master list, let's see who the new champion of efficiency is!
100% Kichwa Jones 1/1 (+1) AUS
57.9% Matthias Hanyadi 11/19 (+3) BAL
50% Gunner Thorbjornsson 17/35 (0) ARI
50% George O'Donnell 1/2 (0) CHI
50% Suleiman Ramza 1/2 (0) OCO
50% Mike Boss Jr 1/2 (0) SAR
50% Colby Jack 1/2 (0) YKW
47.4% Jameson Vermillion 27/57 (-3) YKW
44.1% Tatsu Nakmura 60/136 (-16) ARI
43.2% Jeffrey Phillips 19/44 (-6) OCO
42.9% Running Back 12/28 (-4) SAR
42.9% Anders Christiansen 6/14 (-2) COL
41.9% Captain Rogers 36/86 (-14) NYS
40% Forrest Gump 2/5 (-1) NOLA
40% Chika Fujiwara 2/5 (-1) BAL
39.8% Raphtalia Chan 49/123 (-25) SAR
39.7% Baby Yoda 46/116 (-24) CHI
39.5% Joseph Petrongolo 32/81 (-17) BER
37.2% Cobra Kai 16/43 (-11) HON
36.2% Sam Torenson 21/58 (-16) PHI
35.6% Acura Skyline 31/87 (-25) YKW
35.3% Jamar Lackson 30/85 (-25) SJS
35.2% Richard Gilbert 32/91 (-27) COL
34.2% Terry Yaki 13/38 (-12) BER
33.3% Monty Jack 1/3 (-1) SJS
33.3% Nick Kaepercolin 1/3 (-1) BER
33.3% Zoe Watts 27/81 (-27) AUS
32.8% Rando Cardrissian 19/58 (-20) SJS
32% Julio Tirtawidjaja 8/25 (-9) CHI
31.8% Mai Fukushu 35/110 (-40) BAL
31% Mike Rotchburns 18/58 (-22) NOLA
30.3% Ashley Owens 10/33 (-13) NYS
28.9% Darrel Williams 26/90 (-38) PHI
28.6% Buster Bawls 2/7 (-3) NYS
28.6% Mr. Forty Two 18/63 (-27) NOLA
28.3% Ace Savage 17/60 (-26) OCO
26.2% Nicholas Ayers 22/84 (-40) HON
15.4% Jim the Vampire 2/13 (-9) AUS
0% Ben Slothlisberger 0/1 (-1) NOLA
0% Brock Phoenix 0/1 (-1) PHI
0% Luke Skywalker 0/2 (-2) HON
0% Bronko Mills 0/2 (-2) OCO
0% Charlemagne Cortez 0/2 (-2) ARI
0% Sigismund Sternenstaub 0/4 (-4) SAR
0% Zed Keppler 0/4 (-4) CHI
0% Fuzzy Dotson 0/5 (-5) PHI
The King of Efficiency is between Hanyadi and Thorbjornsson right now, with Hanyadi having a bit higher percentage on a little more than half the carries. Right now, Nakamura's my running back of the year and it isn't even close. Only 3 players with more than 1 carry per week have a higher success rate than him, he has the most touchdowns total, and he has 20 more carries than anyone else and is still keeping up marvelous efficiency and yards per carry.
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Philadelphia Liberty at Yellowknife Wraiths:
Liberty Rushers:
Darrell Williams: 2/16
Sam Torenson: 3/13
Brock Phoenix: 0/1
Fuzzy Dotson: 0/1
Wraiths Rushers:
Acura Skyline: 3/8
Jameson Vermillion: 2/7
At first I thought the Liberty were doing better at rushing than they ended up. They ended up worse at rushing than I could imagine considering they had 2 running backs over 4.5 yards per carry. 5 successes over 31 runs? That's a total success rate under 20%, and only 1 guy got higher than that. Williams only got 2 successes, a 38 yard run in the 1st quarter to help set up the Liberty for a lead, and an 8 yard run near the end of the 3rd on a drive that almost gave the Liberty the lead heading into the 4th. Granted, Williams also had an unsuccessful 6 yard run, due to it being 3rd and 16 when he got that. Minus that 38 yarder, Williams had 2 yards per carry on the night. Torenson only got 3 successes, an 18 yard rush, a 13 yard rush, and a 15 yard rush. The remaining 10 runs got 8 yards total. Minus his 18 yard carry, he falls to 3 yards per carry. Torenson was extremely feast or famine, which is not OK when you only have 3 feast runs. Brock Phoenix didn't go anywhere, and Fuzzy Dotson continues his campaign to be the guy with the most rushes and 0 successes.
Skyline almost had an awful game. Going into the 4th quarter, he was 0-5, with a long of 2. Then he ended the day on 3 straight successes, a 5 yarder and 2 double digit length carries, one of which went for 6. He was a huge reason why the Wraiths ended up with a 10 point 4th quarter that won them the game. Minus his 18 yard long, he does fall to 2.9 yards per carry, but considering he partly won his team the game tonight, I'm sure he's fine with his performance, wherever inactive players are. Jameson Vermillion ALSO was 0-5 going into the 4th quarter. The only difference between his night and Skyline's was that Vermillion had 1 less 4th quarter rush and 1 less touchdown. His successes were a 4 yard rush on 2nd and 4 and a 17 yard rush 2 plays later to take Yellowknife just outside of the red zone on their last touchdown drive of the game. An OK day, but this is still going to drive Vermillion below 50% success rate, although I don't know how far right now.
New Orleans Second Line at Chicago Butchers:
Second Line Rushers:
Mr Forty Two: 2/6
Mike Rotchburns: 1/4
Ben Slothlisberger: 0/1
Butchers Rushers:
Baby Yoda: 9/18
Julio Tirtawidjaja: 2/5
George O'Donnell: 0/1
Zed Keppler: 0/1
I am somewhat surprised that the Second Line managed to squeeze 3 successes out of a game where they only ran the ball 11 times and didn't have anyone with a yards per carry higher than 1.5, but strange things can happen. Mr Forty Two's successes were a 4 yard run on 1st and 10, and a 2 yard run on 2nd and 2, gaining a grand total of 1 yard on his other 4 carries. Rotchburns had a higher average, but was even worse than Forty Two in any other aspect; he had a 7 yard rush to set up a 1st and goal from the 3, and managed to get -1 on his other 3 carries. Considering how the Second Line almost caused an upset tonight against the best team in the league, it's not hard to speculate that they would have won if they had a good running game tonight. Or if Slothlisberger didn't throw one of the least clutch picks I've ever seen right after his defense gave him the ball with great field position.
I'm of two minds about Baby Yoda's performance tonight. His first half was monstrous, going 6/9 on successes and having 2 rushes of over 50 yards in the 1st quarter. However, he also benefited a LOT from short yardage successes on the night. One of those successes was a 1 yard run on 3rd and inches, which came after the passing game had just gotten out of a hole that he put them in, and he would pull off an almost perfect repeat of that in the 2nd half. He ran for 1 yard on 1st down, the passing game gave him a 3rd and inches, and this time he got 3 yards for another success. He even managed to get a 2nd rush for 1 yard that succeeded in the same game, when the passing game gave him a 2nd and 2 and he ran for 1 yard. Normally, this is the type of game where he'd be successful but get murdered in the yards per carry department. But he ran for over 100 yards on 2 carries. The rest of his game he had 2.1 yards per carry. Astounding 1st quarter, but the success rate lies about his performance for the rest of the night in my opinion. Tirtawidjaja might not have had the pizazz of Baby Yoda tonight, but both of his successes were his alone, with a 14 yard rush and an 8 yard rush, both going for 1st downs. He is left with a 1.33 yard per carry average once you take those out, but that's just on 3 runs. This game will certainly help Tirtawijaja's efforts to get out of the bottom 10 least efficient running backs of the season. Speaking of, Zed Keppler is up to 4 runs and 0 successes.
Sarasota Sailfish at Berlin Fire Salamanders:
Sailfish Rushers:
Raphtalia Chan: 8/21
Running Back: 3/5
Salamanders Rushers:
Joseph Petrongolo: 6/10
Terry Yaki: 0/1
Nick Kaepercolin: 0/1
I don't really have all that much to say about Raphtalia Chan's performance tonight, it didn't have anything all that special about it. None of her successes weren't earned, none of them were strange, her numbers aren't extraordinary in any sense outside of sheer number of carries. That being said, there is something kind of interesting; Chan is so average, she even balanced out the number of successes she ruined with unsuccessful runs with unsuccessful runs she salvaged with a success in the same series. She ran for 3 yards on 1st down and 5 on 2nd down once, and she also ended up rushing for 6 yards on 1st down and following that up with a lost fumble. Her yards per carry aren't great at 3.8, but they don't even fall that far minus her long of 17; they only fall to 3.1. Running Back returns to being a successful runner with this 3/5 performance, although granted, one of his runs did not matter in the slightest, being a success right before halftime. Other than that, though, he had a 7 yard run on 4th and Inches, and a 44 yard run, both in the 1st quarter, both setting up touchdown drives. As a matter of fact, Back was not used at all during the 2nd half. Kind of strange, considering they were up for the vast majority of it. Maybe if they run more, the Salamanders never get back in the game.
Petrongolo has been somewhat disappointing coming off of last year's OPOY caliber season. This is a good start to make up for that. Only 2 of Petrongolo's successes were shorter than 4 yards, and one came immediately after he set himself up with an 8 yard rush on 1st down. The other was a 2 point conversion, so of course it would be shorter than 2 yards. His most important conversion was a 4 yard conversion on 4th and 2, during the final drive for the Salamanders that ended up coming up just short. This partly made up for his unsuccessful 1st down rush on the same series. Unlike Petrongolo, who will creep towards a 40% success rate after this game, Yaki might fall into the bottom 10 running backs for success rate on the year, it's very competitive down there near the bottom and a couple failed rushes could put you down multiple percentage points.
Colorado Yeti at Baltimore Hawks:
Yeti Rushers:
Richard Gilbert: 8/17
Anders Christiansen: 4/5
Hawks Rushers:
Mai Fukushu: 7/15
Matthias Hanyadi: 3/5
Chika Fujiwara: 0/1
This ended up being the only game where one team was heavily favored that didn't end up being close, and I think a significant part of that was due to the rushing performance of the Yeti. Or the terrible nature of the Hawks defense, both work. As for Gilbert, he ended up doing a significant amount of damage during a drive that I'm pretty sure nobody watching expected to matter. With under a minute and a half on the clock in the 1st half, Gilbert ran 3 straight times, succeeding on 2 of 3, setting up a 4th and inches which he promptly took 48 yards to the house. Gilbert was decently quiet before the 2nd quarter, but he had a streak of 5 successful runs out of 6 in that second to put the Yeti very much on top for the day. He doesn't even suffer all that much from the remove long method, as he still ends up with an astounding 6.6 yards per carry. None of Gilbert's successes were below 5 yard carries, hell, only 2 were below 10 yards, and one of those was a 9 yarder. Amazing day from a Running Back whose been incredibly poor on success rate so far in the season. Anders Christiansen ran for 2 yards on 2nd and 11, and that was his only failure on the day. The rest of his runs had 2 first downs and 2 touchodowns. Again, a huge break for a guy who has been hanging out near the bottom of the efficiency rankings. His yards per carry do fall to 2.75 if you take out his long of 8, though, in part due to one of his successes being a 1 yard run on 4th and Inches, and having a 3 yard touchdown run for one of his scores.
This was a decent day for the Hawks' rushing offense, and the fact that they only scored 7 is probably on their passing offense and play calling more than anything else. Fukushu only had 1 success in the 1st quarter, but pumped up her average due to 4 straight successful runs in the 2nd half. Of course, none of these led to points due to poor play during the rest of the drive on the Hawks' part. While she only has 4 yards per carry, she doesn't get hurt that hard by the remove long method, as she still has a 3.3 yards per carry average even minus her long of 14. Hanyadi benefited from one of Fukushu's successes for one of his runs, a 2 yard run on 3rd and 2, but both of his other successes were 4 yard gains on 1st down. Due to getting the bare minimum for a success on all 3 of his successful rushes, Hanyadi suffered somewhat on the yards per carry end, falling below 2.5, and getting 2 yards per carry flat if you take out his long of 4.
New York Silverbacks at Honolulu Hahalua:
Silverbacks Rushers:
Captain Rogers: 5/13
Ashley Owens: 0/3
Buster Bawlls: 1/3
Hahalua Rushers:
Nicholas Ayers: 3/9
Cobra Kai: 2/6
I would like to congratulate the Silverbacks for ending up with one of the most common final scores in one of the dumbest ways I've ever seen. 2 safeties to end up with 14 points is one of those things that probably gives scorigami people nightmares. Anyways, Captain Rogers almost had a great game, but was too streaky to end up being more than average. He started out with a 43 yard run, and 2 successes on his first 3 carries. Then he failed the next 4 runs. He had 3 more successes in a row, including 2 double digit runs, and then failed 3 more times straight for this final total. As expected when a single carry is almost half of your yards, taking out that 43 yard carry causes his yards per carry to fall from 6.8 to 3.8. Captain Rogers was not only streaky, he was extremely feast or famine, with all but 3 of his total yards on the day coming on his 5 successful carries. As for his supporting cast, Owens had a long of 2 and was never close to getting a success, while Buster Bawlls is actually somewhat interesting. One of his runs was a 1 yard carry which he fumbled on, an unsuccessful run for sure. His successful run was a 2 yard carry on 2nd and 1, set up by one of Captain Rogers successes. This would seem to be a recipe for an undeserved success, but he also got a 4 yard carry on 2nd and 12, so he kind of got one and lost one on that front.
Ayers opened and closed with a 12 yard run for a 1st down. Between those, he only had 1 success, a 2 yard carry on 4th and 1 after a 3 yard carry on 3rd and 4 the play before. This came immediately before the last rush of the day for him. He had 6 unsuccessful carries in a row, and was extremely close to having an extremely awful day on the ground, at 1/7 beforehand. Then again, 3/9 is still kind of bad, only 13 players have a success rate of less than 33% and at least 5 carries. 1 of those is Ayers himself, so this might move him up a bit in terms of efficiency on the day, but it is notable that only he and one other player, Fukushu, had 75 carries and that poor efficiency on the season before Week 6. Minus one of his 12 yard runs, Ayers falls to 3 yards per carry, and at that point half of his production comes from his other 12 yard carry. Kai was a bit of a victim of circumstance, after benefitting from it a little by getting to have a 2 yard success on 2nd and 1. He had a 1 yard rush and a 9 yard rush, so this could have been a day where he got 2/3 successes with a bit of circumstantial luck for one of them. However, he was given the rock for the end of the game, right after a significant penalty. Granted, he never got more than 2 yards on his final 3 carries, but he was rushing from the 16 on 1st and goal. If it was from the 6 as the drive had started, he'd have gotten a success from his final 3 carries.
Arizona Outlaws at Orange County Otters:
Outlaws Rushers:
Tatsu Nakamura: 13/25
Gunner Thorbjornsson: 3/5
Otters Rushers:
Jeffrey Phillips: 7/9
Ace Savage: 3/4
Nobody who ran on the day had less than a 50% success rate, sheesh. Nakamura started out in pretty dire shape to make that, considering he succeeded on only 1 of his first 5 carries. However, due to a few touchdown runs and some short yardage successes, he managed to get over 50%. He had a 3 yard run on 2nd and 5, a 1 yard run on 3rd and inches, a 1 yard run on 2nd and 2 just before halftime (which was at least set up by and taken advantage of actually good length successful runs by Nakamura), and a pair of touchdown runs for 1 and 2 yards. No wonder that, despite having a long of 23, he had under 4 yards per carry, not even counting his -1 yard run on the 2 point conversion. He falls to just over 3 yards per carry if you take out his long of 23. However, I can't blame him too much for his 5 short yardage conversions considering he either set himself up or couldn't run any further for half of them. Thorbjornsson is back at 50% on the season, with his successes being an 8 yard run on 2nd and 5, a 5 yard run right after on 1st and 10, and a 3 yard run on 3rd and 2. So another short yardage success, for a total of 6 combined on the day between the 2 running backs.
I don't get it. The Arizona Rush Defense would be by FAR the best in the league if not for 2 games against 2 of the 3 worst rushing groups in the league. This is our second bad rushing defense game all season and it's against 2 people below 30% for success rate on the year. Anyways, for Phillips specifically, he either got 1st downs or was unsuccessful. And for him, it's a repeat of Baby Yoda earlier on in the night. Except even worse. Phillips had 5 straight successes to open his rushing for the day, and he had a 57 and 56 yard rush in those first 5. 2 of those runs were for 3 yards, both set up by players other than him. He'd later get a 2 yard gain on 3rd and 2 and a 1 yard gain on 2nd and inches, which were both set up by the passing offense. So in the end, we have a person with EVEN MORE short yardage successes set up by other people, with 2 great runs to pump up his yards per carry on the day. Without those 2 50+ yard runs, he falls to 2.4 yards per carry...and still has a success rate over 70%. Savage only has 1 run that could be considered a short yardage success, a 3 yard run on 1st and goal from the 7. Both his other successes were over 5 yards.
Austin Copperheads at San Jose Sabercats:
Copperheads Rushers:
Zoe Watts: 6/14
Jim the Vampire: 0/3
Sabercats Rushers:
Jamar Lackson: 5/16
Rando Cardrissian: 1/7
Monty Jack: 0/1
This was an amazing day for rushing for both sides...in the 1st half. Zoe Watts was completely on fire for half of the game, succeeding on 6 of her first 7 runs, with only one of them being a short yardage success, a 3 yard run on 2nd and 4. The rest of the game she went 0 for 7, with a long of 3. This almost completely killed her yards per carry to the 3.2 it ended up as. Although, she doesn't get hit too much by the remove long method, considering her long of 9. It only falls to 2.8, not that much. Jim the Vampire was so close to finally getting out of his rut, with a 4 yard rush on 2nd and 9. Had he gotten 1 more yard, or if Watts had gotten 1 more yard on her previous carry, or if he had carried first on the drive, he'd have gotten a success for the first time since Week 2. As is, he missed it by a single yard and then only got a single yard on his other 2 carries.
The Sabercats gave this game its only 2 second half successes, with a 4 yard rush from Jamar Lackson on the 1st play of the 2nd half and a 1 yard carry by Rando Cardrissian. In general, though, the 2nd half murdered the success rate of Jamar Lackson, who went from 4/9 to his below 33% success rate mark at the end of the day. Jamar also started out pretty slow, going 0/5 and then getting 2 successes that were both short yardage carries (a short gain on 2nd and 1 and a 3 yard gain on 3rd and inches). He got 3 more successes in a row, including the 4 yard success at the start of the 2nd half, and 2 long carries back to back for a total of 60 yards on the last drive of the 1st half. He ended up with a streak of 5 failures, 5 successes, and 6 failures. Lackson's yards per carry falls from 5.1 to 3.1 if you remove his 35 yard long, and if you remove the 25 yard touchdown he followed that up with, it falls to 1.5 yards per carry. It's no wonder he only got 3 successes on the rest of the day, 2 of them being short yardage. Cardrissian's lone success on the day was a 1 yard touchdown run set up entirely by a return to the 1 yard line by the San Jose special teams. He had a long of 2. He arguably didn't even deserve the 1 success he got.
Time for the master list, let's see who the new champion of efficiency is!
100% Kichwa Jones 1/1 (+1) AUS
57.9% Matthias Hanyadi 11/19 (+3) BAL
50% Gunner Thorbjornsson 17/35 (0) ARI
50% George O'Donnell 1/2 (0) CHI
50% Suleiman Ramza 1/2 (0) OCO
50% Mike Boss Jr 1/2 (0) SAR
50% Colby Jack 1/2 (0) YKW
47.4% Jameson Vermillion 27/57 (-3) YKW
44.1% Tatsu Nakmura 60/136 (-16) ARI
43.2% Jeffrey Phillips 19/44 (-6) OCO
42.9% Running Back 12/28 (-4) SAR
42.9% Anders Christiansen 6/14 (-2) COL
41.9% Captain Rogers 36/86 (-14) NYS
40% Forrest Gump 2/5 (-1) NOLA
40% Chika Fujiwara 2/5 (-1) BAL
39.8% Raphtalia Chan 49/123 (-25) SAR
39.7% Baby Yoda 46/116 (-24) CHI
39.5% Joseph Petrongolo 32/81 (-17) BER
37.2% Cobra Kai 16/43 (-11) HON
36.2% Sam Torenson 21/58 (-16) PHI
35.6% Acura Skyline 31/87 (-25) YKW
35.3% Jamar Lackson 30/85 (-25) SJS
35.2% Richard Gilbert 32/91 (-27) COL
34.2% Terry Yaki 13/38 (-12) BER
33.3% Monty Jack 1/3 (-1) SJS
33.3% Nick Kaepercolin 1/3 (-1) BER
33.3% Zoe Watts 27/81 (-27) AUS
32.8% Rando Cardrissian 19/58 (-20) SJS
32% Julio Tirtawidjaja 8/25 (-9) CHI
31.8% Mai Fukushu 35/110 (-40) BAL
31% Mike Rotchburns 18/58 (-22) NOLA
30.3% Ashley Owens 10/33 (-13) NYS
28.9% Darrel Williams 26/90 (-38) PHI
28.6% Buster Bawls 2/7 (-3) NYS
28.6% Mr. Forty Two 18/63 (-27) NOLA
28.3% Ace Savage 17/60 (-26) OCO
26.2% Nicholas Ayers 22/84 (-40) HON
15.4% Jim the Vampire 2/13 (-9) AUS
0% Ben Slothlisberger 0/1 (-1) NOLA
0% Brock Phoenix 0/1 (-1) PHI
0% Luke Skywalker 0/2 (-2) HON
0% Bronko Mills 0/2 (-2) OCO
0% Charlemagne Cortez 0/2 (-2) ARI
0% Sigismund Sternenstaub 0/4 (-4) SAR
0% Zed Keppler 0/4 (-4) CHI
0% Fuzzy Dotson 0/5 (-5) PHI
The King of Efficiency is between Hanyadi and Thorbjornsson right now, with Hanyadi having a bit higher percentage on a little more than half the carries. Right now, Nakamura's my running back of the year and it isn't even close. Only 3 players with more than 1 carry per week have a higher success rate than him, he has the most touchdowns total, and he has 20 more carries than anyone else and is still keeping up marvelous efficiency and yards per carry.
(3857 words)
Jurisprudence Jones, OL ![[Image: cYhSwFY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/cYhSwFY.png)
