Time to run: 5 variables that impacted the Gophers’ week one rushing attack

Entering the season opener against Buffalo, a new system and culture installation — combined with depth concerns at certain position groups — left Gopher football fans with tempered expectations. Many fans still believed the Gophers would gash Buffalo’s run defense and cruise to an easy victory. However, Minnesota scratched and clawed against the Bulls in their first game. The main takeaway was a lack of consistency on the ground during their 17-7 season-opening win. The rushing attack improved as the game progressed, but the success wasn’t maintained through multiple carries.

Head coach P.J. Fleck knew questions would be asked about it during his post-game press conference.

“We did what we had to do to win the football game,” he said. “What we started to do was take two steps forward and a half step back.”

After watching tape and charting plays, it’s clear to see a few trends with the Gophers’ rushing attack.

Quarterbacks yield different results

Running backs Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith averaged a combined 3.5 yards per carry, but were unable to string together consistent rushes. Buffalo had the fourth-worst rushing defense in the country in 2016 and Minnesota’s running backs rushed for just 145 yards. There are a few variables that contributed to week one’s rushing inconsistencies, including the quarterback rotation and inexperience at key position groups.

Read more here: http://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/2017/09/time-run-5-variables-impacted-gophers-week-one-rushing-attack/

It's not a knock on Croft but I think the rushing yardage discrepancy between the offensive performance with the two different QB's is at least a little misleading.

On the final FG scoring drive, Croft and the Gophers offense rushed for 43 yards (more than 25% of their game total) against a Buffalo defense that was clearly gassed after losing the Time of Possession battle 37 minutes to just 23 minutes for Buffalo.

Croft makes the defense a little more honest against the threat of the QB running but I think it's premature to say they run the ball "significantly" better with Croft than they do with Rhoda. I would love to be proven wrong in the coming weeks though.

Let's hope one of them begins to separate themselves from the other before they hit B1G play.