Our 5 drives in the first half all ended in punts and went for a combined total of 82 yards. COMBINED. And since our 3 runs in that half gained 24 yards that meant we had all of 58 yards passing at half time.
In the second half we had 4 drives for 214 yards total offense, with drives of 70, 66, and 81 (that one drive itself only 1 yard less than our TOTAL offense in the first half). Our 4 drives ended in 2 FGs and a TD before that final 3 & out in the last two minutes.
In the 3rd quarter, Benson ran the ball 10 times for 49 yards and we scored 6 points on the two drives. We took the lead in the 4th Qtr for the first time on the only TD we scored in the game, a 1 yard run by Benson.
Abandoning the run in the first half made us one-dimensional and allowed the Seattle D to concentrate on our passing game, resulting in 58 yards passing and 82 yards COMBINED total offense at half time. Only 60 of our 214 yards in the second half were on the ground, but running the ball opened up our passing game by forcing the Seattle D to honor the run.
So yes, I'd say running the ball more in the first half would have helped us score. It would have been hard to do worse.
Originally Posted by: macbob