Wow! Some of you guys totally amaze me!
We just had a game where our team fell behind by 18 and came back with the best offensive performance in a meaningful game since Tebow and it was done largely on the strength of the running game. We had not only one but two 100+ yard rushers and one of those had another near 100 yd. receiving performance as well. There were also major contributions made by everyone's favorite up and comers in Toney and Pierce and all some of you seem to want to do is complain! Need I remind you how much we have sucked offensively for the last decade?
Let me try and take a step back and try and evaluate the RB situation from a more holistic perspective. Coming into the season we had 5 RBs whom we all felt would give us a strong running attack. Unfortunately, the already questionable Oline struggled up front with an entirely new blocking scheme making them very ineffective in run blocking which seemed to be their only area of competence last year. On top of that Davis looked to have lost a bit from his injury and then got reinjured and so we were down to only 2 experienced backs. Meanwhile, Scarlett also seemed to have lost something over his year of penance but was at least still a beast as a pass blocker and was showing strength as a short yardage option. Perine, on the other hand, was our lone consistent contributor and has literally been getting better and better every week. That left the two new Freshmen RBs one of which, Lemons, who had showed massive potential in the offseason and then completely melted down once it began and the other, Pierce, who started showing serious potential when the season started albeit against the other team's 2nd team after the early games were in hand.
Once Davis went down, however, the RB position shrunk down to 3 with Pierce being thrust into the 3rd string position. Fortunately, at the same time, the OL started to gel to some degree and we started to have some success in the run game and the offense as a whole albeit moderate and intermittent. At that point Scarlett and Perine (and Franks to some degree) were largely on point in the running game due to their familiarity with the offense, their demonstrated ability to manage all the blocking schemes and their abilities catching the ball out of the backfield. Pierce remained in the late game closer role but was increasingly impressive with his raw skills of elusiveness, accelerating at the point of attack and surprising power after contact even though he is significantly smaller in stature and build than the other two. These trends have continued through each game until this week when Pierce started getting significant real playing time especially in the two back sets which were definitely a new wrinkle.
So, what does this all indicate about where all the RBs are relative to the coaches plans? To me it indicates that Scarlett and Perine have established themselves as the core RB group based on their experience, maturity, physical development and especially their overall grasp of the system. It also shows that the coaches have super high confidence and expectations for Pierce to the point that they are starting to be willing to put up with his inevitable freshman mistakes with missed blocking assignments and such and with his lack of physical maturity as evidenced by his fumble which was a result of his being man handled. The fact that they put him right back in and gave him the ball after his fumble says as much to me about their desire to help him grow into his bright future as anything because they need for him to learn from his mistakes and move on if he is going to learn to become the full contributor he seems destined to be. I therefore think the coaches are totally on top of this situation and the results since the KY game and especially this week clearly show we are heading in the right direction. I am therefore happy to chill, trust the coaches and celebrate the growth and overall results.