To say that the running game has been a disappointment would be an understatement. Up until the last two games, DeAndra' Cobb could not get anything going. It was a short gain, followed by a short gain, followed by a loss of yards. It was painful to watch.
But these last two games have been like night and day compared to earlier in the season. Cobb seemed to run with purpose. He hit the holes hard and found yards. There are still some issues with him – he tends to dance around too much in the backfield – but he has started to turn it on. Cobb seems to get better the more times he touches the ball. He needs between 15-20 carries to be truly effective. He has rarely been given that many touches. Hopefully that changes and the trend of the last couple of weeks continues for the rest of 2010.
Marcus Thigpen has backed up Cobb since the end of training camp, and he hasn't really done all that much in the running game. The Cats have seldomly used a Fullback, so to even comment on Sam Fournier or Darcy Brown would be useless. I can't accurately measure their contributions to the Offense or the running game because they have hardly ever been called upon in that aspect of the game.
The Running Backs, namely Cobb, have played well the last couple of weeks, but it's not enough to make up for the ineptness that I witnessed during the first month and a half of the season. With the recent success, perhaps good things are on the horizon with the running game.
Mid-Season Grade: D
PREVIOUS: Mid-Season Grades: Receivers
I'm with you. Cobb spent too much time doing the Yeast early in the year, when he should have just taken the ball and moved ahead no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI think the offensive run schemes were also quite poor, and while better lately they're still not giving Cobb nice blocking. He gets caught behind scrimmage quite often when running between the tackles, and I wish we'd stop calling those plays to often. We also tend to hand off a little less than average, but while we're not dead last in running plays we are in average yards per rush, a full yard behind the next worst (Montreal). Good thing our passing game clicks at a good pace.