2005 Arizona Cardinal
I agree that the Chiefs and Seahawks line was a better line than we have, I never said that we have a better line. You said that teams can't run the ball with a bad defense. I used the Chiefs as an example becuase for two consecutive years they had the #1 rush offense and the 32 rated defense.
Larry Johnson was hardly a nobody. The guy was a first round pick out of Penn State, he just didn't see the field much because Priest Holmes was in front of him. Much like Deuce when Ricky was here.
Deuce is averaging 4.3 yards per carry. To put that in perspective check out these backs:
Larry Johnson: 4.1 ypc
Steven Jackson: 4.2 ypc
Chester Taylor: 4.1 ypc
Julius Jones: 4.0 ypc
Thomas Jones: 3.8 ypc
Rudi Johnson: 4.0 ypc
Ronnie Brown: 4.0 ypc
Every one of those guys are in the top 15 of the league in rushing, most in the top 10.
Deuce gets better as the game wears on. We all know this and have seen him get better later in games many times over the years. Deuce is not getting enough carries to be effective. Not only does he not get many carries but he is not even on the field half the time. Then you have to keep in mind that a large percentage of his runs come in short yardage situations which hurt his ypc even more. I don't know how good our offensive line is at running blocking, hell none of us know. We simply have not tried to run the ball one time this year. I don't think we have run the ball more than passed it once this season. I don't think there is another team with a winning record that can say that.
I know Reggie hasn't had holes to run through but if he is the problem then get his but in the slot or on the sidelines. I'm not anti Bush or anti Payton I just think he is not giving our line a chance. As a Saints fan I think we should know just how demoralizing it is to have a team run the ball 35 times in a game and not be able to stop them. We don't do that. We have a shaky defense and we challenge teams to shoot outs. It sure is fun to watch but at the end of the day the results are not desirable. In the beginning of the year I could understand that we were throwing more becuase most of the throws were very short and safe, much like a run but in the last few weeks we are taking shots downfield every other play. I think we have to take shots and I like us going downfield a lot but IMO we have to continue to run the ball to keep the downfield passing effective.
I posted this in another thread to put things in perspective. In the Chargers first 7 plays of their game today LT had more rushes than Deuce had in the first 3 quarters of the game. Imagine if they didn't give LT the ball after those 7 runs. LT had 4 TD's after that.
I don't disagree with Deuce running more......but hear me out....when Reggie has 11 yds all day on the ground, followed by Deuce with 34 yds for the day which happened in one of our game this season, that points not as much to the RB, than to the OL which blocks in front of them!
Why is that a good run stopping D IS MORE SUCCESSFUL, THAN a good OVERALL D?....WHICH IS THE BETTER ONE? A GREAT RUNSTOPPER D, or a good OVERALL D?
The answer is the same with the OL......a run blocking OL IS ALWAYS BETTER than a good OVERALL OL!......BECAUSE TEAMS WIN BY RUNNING THE BALL AND STOPPING THE RUN, which goes back to the structure of almost every team.....teams are built to run the ball, and stop the run......and every time they can't do that CONSISTENTLY.....they find themselves in trouble!
Look at the Saints right now!....Brees throws for 500+ yds....IN A LOSS!!...it would be sacrilegious if that would be just a story.....unfortunately it is true!....problem is....they just can't run worth a lick, so THEY'RE FORCED TO THROW MORE!
In all of this me and you know that it is UNHEALTHY what happens to this excessive throwing........they can't win by throwing only, so your point is a very valid one, and I see it......but there is NO SUCCESS IN OUR RUNNING GAME YET, and Brees pretty much IS FORCED to throw more, even though we all know that is in vain!
I listened to Payton the other week on Sirius talking about being A BALANCED OFFENSE......and he's all for it! if we look at our run/pass ratio, in every game we won, there is almost an equal number of pass and run.......ONLY IN OUR LOSSES IS THE BALANCE TILTED HEAVILY IN FAVOR OF THE PASS!.....the reason is that they fell behind early, AND OUR RUNNING GAME STRUGGLED!