Between the Columns: Nov. 25

I wrote a good bit about the feeling I got from watching the offense in my column from yesterday, click here if you want to check that out. So let's look a bit more at the stats that back it up.

The first big one I noticed watching on Saturday was Luther Burden and Theo Wease getting yards after the catch. One of the coolest things I've had the pleasure to watch during games I'm covering is Luther Burden working after the catch. Just winding his way through defenses and through defenders with the ball in his hands. It's part of what makes him such a huge NFL prospect even with a somewhat disappointing final college season.

Last season, Burden averaged 8.4 yards after catch per reception and had two games with more than 100. He had 124 in the Memphis game, where he piled up 177 receiving yards, and he had 104 after the catch against Florida, a 154-yard receiving performance. He was regularly reaching 50 yards after the catch, especially early in the season.

This year, he's reached 50 yards after the catch three times. He had 75 against Boston College - a 117-yard receiving performance and the only game he's reached 100 yards this season - he had 54 against UMass - which, meh - and he had 65 Saturday out of 91 total yards.

Now, I want to make clear, I don't say this as a way to denigrate Burden or Wease's performances this year, yards after the catch are a product of both shifty receivers who can make a play and quarterbacks who put the ball in the best spot to get them room to work. It's not fully on either one and a lot of Burden's runs after the catch last year came on deep passes that just weren't hitting this season. Also not to say deep passes are the best way to get yards after the catch, look at Marquis Johnson, the deep passes the last two weeks have been nice to have back, but they've had exactly 5 yards after the catch combined on the two.

But Luther just hasn't had the chance to break free and move around after the catch that much this season. Teams have spent a lot of extra focus keeping him from getting around a solo defender, leading to him averaging just 6.3 yards after the catch per reception this year, but he had 9.3 per catch Saturday.

Wease wasn't as much of a run-after-catch guy last year, he had 282 of his 682 receiving yards come after the catch for an average ...

The rest of my thoughts for the week are for subscribers only, so head to the story thread to read the rest.

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