FO article shows what .netters already knew of Lynch

This article by Football Outsiders isn't about Lynch, it's about how teams do with one back vs two backs. They found that the Seahawks had the greatest fall off when going from one back to two backs. They also found that Seattle had the second best rushing attack with one back, behind only Philly and well ahead of anyone else.

I think we all saw how much worse the running game was when we put in our FB's. MRob seemed to fix that somewhat, but the article doesn't go into specifics of who the second back was.

One thing stands out, however, Marshawn Lynch, by himself in the backfield, is the man. Only Philly's offense, under Kelley, was better with one back and that's as much a testament to the scheme as to the RB.

Seattle had the largest gap between their single-back DVOA and their multiple-back DVOA, with a difference of 24.8%. Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson certainly made a formidable duo in posting a 9.7% DVOA on single-back runs, and this was even more impressive given the offensive line issues the Super Bowl champs had to deal with during the season.

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But but but MRob.....he's Lynch's eyes. Without Mrob he can't run....

This doesnt surprise me one bit. Lynch never "needed" Mrob and too many people on this board gave too much credit to him.

Lynch does not need a FB, although a multi-talented FB provides a few different wrinkles in the offense

I did a statistical breakdown a couple times last year showing how much better Lynch was from single back. But I did those before Robinson was back. It took Robinson a while to get rolling too. There were probably a total of 6 games last year where we had a healthy and experienced fullback.

However, to say that this is proof we need more single back sets is silly. Short yardage is full back time, and our short yardage numbers running last year were TURRIBLE. Some of that falls on the O-line, some falls on the fullback position.

Adding a FB also means more defenders in the box. Running out of a 3 WR set helps to take some of that pressure off the running game.

bjornanderson21":128unjen said:

But but but MRob.....he's Lynch's eyes. Without Mrob he can't run....

This doesnt surprise me one bit. Lynch never "needed" Mrob and too many people on this board gave too much credit to him.

Lynch does not need a FB, although a multi-talented FB provides a few different wrinkles in the offense

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This wasn't the argument at all. The offense rushing better out of 1 RB sets is not new and, as you can see in the article, is true for most teams in the league. The argument was, that MRob was the best option for when we do use a FB as it seemed apparent watching the film that Lynch did not trust the other FBs...its not like Pete is going to drop formations with FBs out of the playbook.

The problem with the fullback is that a good linebacker will key off of his movement. In other words...the fullback has hit gap A, Lynch will hit gap A or possibly B. Unless the Fullback blast the linebacker and roots him out of the hole, the hole is now clogged with bodies. We don't have a fullback that can "clean" a hole on our roster....yet. Maybe Small is that guy.