Fayetteville running game strives for improvement
Fayetteville’s first team rushed for just 28 net yards and nearly abandoned the running game in the first half of a 37-16 win over Shiloh Christian in a preseason scrimmage last Monday. Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton, though, said he isn’t too concerned just yet.
“What happened against Shiloh was that we got our guys blocked and they were slanting to A gaps and bringing a linebacker,” Patton said. “We were running a lot of plays between the guard box and they put four guys there. Any type of off-tackle play, we could have really hurt them but we didn’t want to do that yet. That’s something that’s still in our bag of tricks. Just like last year, we wanted to have a balanced attack. I think we’re going to get there.”
“On the zone runs, we were having some leakage, some run-throughs and that’s something we’ve definitely got to clean up,” Patton added. “Overall I was pleased, not ecstatic, but pleased. I think the defensive line we were up against was one of the better ones we’ll see and I think that had something to do with it, too.”
Fayetteville also fumbled once in the backfield, something Patton said his team can’t afford to do in what bodes to be a heated conference race.
“We had one fumble but looking at the film it’s hard to tell if he ever had the ball or if he was hit as he was getting it or what,” Patton said. “We’ve just got to do a better job overall of protecting the football and giving our guys times to make the play.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.