Look who I responded to initially with this discussion. People assume a great offensive line and a great back behind it have countless 20+ runs, that is not the case. The 15 20+ runs behind our number one run blocking line is great production and is the norm for great running backs. These expectations will make us disappointed in nearly EVERY RB we draft or bring in. The simple fact is, Murray had a great year and it wasn't all on the offensive line.
Fair enough. Although its interesting, I dont put too much weight on those numbers. For all kinds of reasons.
I cant speak for everybody, but I saw with my own eyes, the gigantic holes that this offensive line had produced last year. In fact, I cant remember seeing so many huge holes like that in the NFL.......ever.
And I also saw Murray getting caught by the last guy around in the secondary. Peterson runs by that last guy. And takes the rock to the house more often then DM does. AP breaks the record if he was running the ball for the Cowboys last year. I know, I know.....a lot of guess work there....
I like evaluating the numbers, but I put more trust in analyzing what I see.
Its like the 2k total for the year number . I don't care if AP runs for that much. Its in December and January, in the playoff games , when the level of intensity goes up 10 notches. Its in those games that we need AP. Not Williams, DMC, or a rookie(although to be fair I haven't seen said rookie yet). But we need AP in those games, so when Cam Chancellor wants to jawbone and hit are running back into submission by the 2nd quarter.....I send him Adrian Peterson. Not Joseph Randle or some rookie. Thats when we need AP...........I could care less if he runs for 1500 yards during the season. Although that would be cool too......... I don't need to read some stat sheet to know that.