Something's Different: Offense

I've had several conversations already this season with people who either aren't crazy about the performance of this year's version of the Horns without last year's stars, or could not be more excited about the track that this team is on. The expectation going into this season was that we would struggle to produce on offense after losing our three best play-makers, but now it is starting to feel like the Patrick Ewing Theory might be in effect. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the offense, and how this season's numbers compare to last season's.

On Colt:
It must be very refreshing for Colt to be back on the collective fan base's good side, after being constantly criticized last season. How much better is he? At this point last season he had attempted 118 throws for 79 completions (66.9%), 5 picks, 721 yards, and 4 touchdowns. So far this season Colt has thrown only 82 times for 64 completions (78.0%), 1 pick, 845 yards, and 11 touchdowns.

Verdict: New Colt is making old Colt look silly. With 36 fewer passes, Colt has thrown for 124 more yards and 7 more touchdowns. Not to mention he is throwing 1 interception for every 82 throws rather than 1 every 23.6 throws.

On the Ground:
The ability to establish a running game was one of my greatest concerns coming into this season, and I am still bugged by the inability of our running backs to get into the secondary. In reality, this season is different from last season in that we have legitimate running threats at QB and we have a group of RB's picking up stats (kind of like '05). Last season we ran the ball 117 times for 576 yards, losing 54 yards, 4.4 yards per carry, and 4 touchdowns. This season the crew has scampered 121 times for 653 yards, losing only 40 yards, 4.9 yards per carry, and 7 touchdowns.

Verdict: This year's crew (including Colt) is also decimating last year's one man show. In only 4 more runs they have managed to out gain Jamaal by 77 yards and out score him by 3 touchdowns. So I will stop complaining about the running game this season, and recognize that Colt is a part of our running even if he is risking injury. We risked Vince by allowing him contribute to our ground game, so we might as well do the same for Colt as long as he gets results.