Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Herd offense has confidence in turning yardage into points
10/11/2019 8:42:00 AM | Football, Word on the Herd
Green's 460 yards of total offense is the 10th-most in a single game in school history
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Here's the list of Marshall football players who had more total offense in a single game than Isaiah Green did last Saturday: Byron Leftwich, Chase Litton, Michael Payton and Rakeem Cato. Leftwich, the record-holder, makes five appearances in the top 10 on the school's single-game total offense list. Cato is there twice, along with single mentions of Litton and Payton.
Green, Marshall's sophomore quarterback, generated 460 yards of total offense at Middle Tennessee, which ranked as the 10th-best single-game performance in program history. Green threw for 365 yards, which is No. 50 on the single-game passing list at Marshall. Overall, the Thundering Herd piled up 578 yards of total offense last Saturday at Middle Tennessee, and all it got was a lousy result for the win-loss column.
Those yardage numbers didn't get celebrated because of the outcome, and that is understandable to Green and the team's offensive coordinator, Tim Cramsey. Like Green, Cramsey was a college quarterback. He understands the position will be under a microscope.
"It's the hardest position in sports; it's the most critiqued position in sports," Cramsey said. "It's the most adversity-filled position in sports. To say that we had a good game on Saturday would not be true. There were five or six plays that we could have made that would have changed the game."
The less-than-savory statistics cannot be avoided. Marshall scored 13 first half points, and five second half possessions ended like this: turnover on downs; turnover on downs; turnover on downs; interception; interception. The Herd, which hosts Old Dominion (1-4, 0-1 Conference USA) this Saturday at 2:30 p.m., ran 44 plays on offense in the second half and gained 304 yards. That's 300-plus yards of offense at nearly 7 yards per play, but zero points to show for it.
Overall, Marshall (2-3, 0-1 C-USA) finished with four turnovers, plus the three drives that ended on downs.
"We can't turn the ball over," Cramsey said. "Some of those interceptions aren't 100 percent on the quarterback, even though that what it's going to go down as. There's some deep balls that we have to put on people, even the ones that were caught, we've got to put them in better position so they turn into touchdowns instead of 40-, 50-yard gains.
"We have to be better in that room, but that's that position as far as five, six plays that we didn't play are going to be spotlighted over how many yards we put up. We have to find a way to win the game. Everybody made plays in that game, and everybody had opportunities to make plays in that game that we didn't complete."
Marshall finished the game 2-for-4 in red-zone chances, although the offense didn't score a touchdown after moving inside the 20. All five second half possessions ended in Middle Tennessee territory.
ODU has one of the stingiest run defenses in the nation, ranking No. 2 in C-USA and No. 25 nationally. The Monarchs gave up at least 150 rushing yards on the ground in 11 of 12 games last season, but no team had more success than Marshall (319 rushing yards and five touchdowns). This season, the most rushing yards ODU has allowed in a single game is 131 to Virginia Tech. The Monarchs' defense is permitting 2.94 yards per carry.
That means Marshall will need to take to the air Saturday afternoon, which gives Green a chance to make amends.
"Everything is on him," Cramsey said. "That's what we play position. That's why he chose to play this position. That's the way should be. The ball is in your hands every single play and you've got to make the right decision 100 percent of the time, not 98 percent of the time."
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In 2018, the ODU defense ranked No. 118 in total defense, No. 102 in pass defense and No. 109 in rush defense. This season, the Monarchs are No. 27 in total defense, No. 53 in pass defense and No. 25 in rush defense. Opposing offenses are averaging 150 fewer yards per game.
"They brought a couple grad transfers, a couple (junior college) transfers in," Cramsey said. "What they are right now is they're a defense that's playing with confidence and they're having success. They're not doing a lot schematically defensively, which allows them to get lined up. I'm assuming on the top of their philosophy board it says: stop the run. They are putting seven, eight guys in the box very quickly after the snap of the ball … they're forcing teams to beat them through the air."
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The style fans will see ODU play at Joan C. Edwards Stadium on Saturday will be drastically different on both sides of the ball. The Monarchs ranked No. 40 nationally in total offense last season, and the pass offense ranked No. 15 in the nation. This year, ODU ranks No. 129 in total offense, No. 115 in rush offense and No. 117 in pass offense. Old Dominion has one passing touchdown against six interceptions.
"This Old Dominion team is a totally different team than they were a year ago," Marshall coach Doc Holliday said. "They were throwing it all over the place with a couple NFL receivers and the quarterback throwing it for a bunch of years. This year, they're totally the opposite. They've got maybe one of the top one or two defenses in our league. They're not giving up a lot of points."
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Isaiah Green's 95-yard game on the ground at Middle Tennessee was the third-best rushing performance by a quarterback in 10 seasons under Holliday.
Rakeem Cato rushed nine times for 143 yards and one touchdown against Rhode Island in 2014. A.J. Graham carried 20 times for 129 yards and two touchdowns against Rice in 2011. Both of those games were at home.
Green finished with 16 carries and a long run of 9 yards. In five games this season, Green as set his single-game career-high for rushing yards three times, rushing for 46 yards in the season opener against VMI and 50 yards vs. Ohio.
"I've always been comfortable with the RPOs," Green said, referring to the run-pass option plays. "I've been running those since I was in high school."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a seven-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
