I have several systems based on rushing/passing percentages at halftime. Last week we were doomed based on the first half numbers. Our likelihood of winning that game was lower than even the margin suggested. I posted last week that we needed at least 18 rushes at halftime.
Rushing attempts keep poor to average quarterbacks in the game. That's always been true. Bud Goode always emphasized the value of running the ball often. Unfortunately, with the recent rules changes and protection of the offense, premier quarterbacks can ignore the old standbys and throw the ball an extreme percentage of the time. They can also use empty formations, with are a disastrous choice for a lesser quarterback. Sites like Football Outsiders don't differentiate between varying levels of quarterback, and their top analysts are young guys who didn't experience the earlier eras, so all they do is look at examples of great quarterbacks succeeding without running the ball much early in the game, and announce that it's all a big myth. I always have to laugh because the systems I use are clear cut and the percentages haven't changed at all. It's been a struggle not to post a comment on that site and detail the stupidity but I'm still young enough that I don't want to give away angles that I plan to use for hopefully decades to come.
When we hired Philbin I posted that there was severe danger of him failing to recognize that an average quarterback couldn't be treated the same way as Aaron Rodgers. You can get away with otherwise idiotic choices and imbalance if you have an Aaron Rodgers, particularly the version when Philbin was there and the receiving corps was younger and deeper. Everything here has unfolded as I feared it would. McCoy was more likely to understand the value of running the football. After all, he managed miracles with Tebow, at least for a while, based almost exclusively on running the football as often as some college teams.
Also, while it's true that rushing attempts can be skewed late in the game based on score, you'd be amazed how many simple angles hold up, like first to 15 rushes, and stuff like that. We were lucky that New England threw the ball so often in the opener, specifically 29 times in the first half. Brady is an interesting case in that he's declined just enough to the point that team can no longer ignore how often it runs the ball. Belichick seems to be gradually accepting that, based on the numbers. Apparently he spent the offseason somewhat in denial but all it took was one pathetic game to revert to what they were doing so often last season.