It’s safe to say there was a lot of “bad” in Tech’s 23-20 loss to Tulsa on Saturday. The Bulldogs struggled with many of the same things they had all season. But if we struggle ourselves to find something positive to take out of this game, we see that the run game improved slightly.

But first, let’s establish just how far this run game has fallen in the third year under Sonny Cumbie. Tech currently ranks as the ninth worst in the nation with an average of just 76.3 rushing yards per game. And worse, they sit in third place for the fewest yards per carry at a meager 2.3:

Advanced stats reveal an even bleaker picture. The power success rate - measuring the team’s ability to convert on critical short-yardage situations - is only 0.50. That means there’s only a 50% chance of picking up a first down on 3rd or 4th down when needing just 2 yards or less, the sixth worst nationally.

Additionally, Tech’s offensive stuff rate is 0.30, indicating that a full 30% of run plays are stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage, the fourth worst in the country. And don’t even get me started on line yards.

All of those stats include the numbers from the Tulsa game. And yes, the run game still struggled against the Golden Hurricane. Officially, Tech logged only 87 yards on 41 carries, averaging only 2.1 yards per carry. However, if we narrow our focus to just the running backs, they produced 100 yards on 22 carries, averaging a more respectable 4.54 yards per carry.

That 4.54 yards per carry number is a meaningful improvement from the 3.3 running back yards per carry the group averaged in both the Nicholls and NC State games. And for the first time all season, a Bulldog RB logged a run of more than 12 yards.

Sure, this might be cherry-picking stats, but there’s enough evidence to suggest the running back room might be beginning to figure things out.

And this is the right time for the running backs to be heating up, because they will have a great chance to find success in Miami on Saturday:

Just like the advanced stats backed up the traditional ones for Tech’s offensive run game, they do for the FIU defensive run game too. FIU’s power success rate is an insanely high 0.90, meaning the Panthers have allowed conversions 90% of the time on 3rd or 4th down and 2 or fewer yards to gain. Their stuff rate is just as impressively bad, sitting at just 0.11, meaning that FIU has only stopped 11% of rush attempts behind the line of scrimmage.

So if there’s any opponent that Tech could potentially run the ball against, it’s an FIU team that is allowing 213 yards per game on the ground.

But considering Tech didn’t get to 213 total rushing yards on the season until the second quarter of their third game, we’ll just have to see who wins this battle between an extremely moveable object and an easily stoppable force.

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Nathan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.