Running the Ball and Controlling the Clock

Pat’s Weekly Stat (you won’t see anywhere else): Looking over last night’s final team statistics from Georgia’s 33-24 victory over North Carolina, two figures immediately jumped out at me: “289”—the Bulldogs’ rushing yardage—and “38:07”—their time of possession. I then recalled that it was once said by Tiki Barber, “If you run the ball, you control the clock. If you control the clock, you usually control the game.”

Today, looking through decades of Georgia media guides and season statistics (and, admittedly, not having a whole lot going on the day before Labor Day), I first discovered that when the Bulldogs have run the ball, they have indeed usually “controlled” the game. Including last night and the 50 seasons beforehand, Georgia has rushed for at least 275 yards in 115 games, whereby it has recorded a spectacular 112-3 record with its only losses resulting vs. Auburn in 1971 (311 rushing yards), vs. Stanford in the 1978 Bluebonnet Bowl (315), and at Georgia Tech in 1985 (341).

As far as controlling the clock, although Georgia began keeping time-of-possession statistics in 1979, the school did not begin releasing them on a game-by-game basis until a decade later. Still, the Bulldogs have had a time of possession of at least 37 minutes in 14 games the last 27-plus seasons, whereby they have achieved a perfect 14-0 record. The top 10:

But, as far as the saying, “If you run the ball, you control the clock”—at least when it comes to Georgia football, and reaching 275 rushing yards and a time of possession of at least 37:00—that is certainly arguable. Consider that the North Carolina game was the 28th time since 1989 the Bulldogs rushed for 275+ yards and, as mentioned, the 14th time they held possession for 37+ minutes, yet only the third time Georgia rushed for 275+ yards and held possession for 37+ minutes (2011 vs. Auburn, and 2015 vs. Kentucky the others).

Notably, another statistic which caught my eye was of the individual variety: Nick Chubb’s 222 rushing yards. Chubb’s extraordinary performance marked the 20th time, including the third by Chubb, a Bulldog player has rushed for 200+ yards in a single game during the modern era. By the way, Georgia is a perfect 20-0 in 200-yard individual rushing performances. And, since 1989, yesterday’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game marked the only time Georgia has held possession for 37+ minutes and rushed for 275+ yards, including 200+ by an individual.

In closing, at least when it comes to Georgia football, if you run the ball, you usually control the game. But, if you control the clock and/or have a player run the ball for 200+ yards, you always win the game.