One minor correction. No running back can consistently gain yards w/ a bad O/L. That running back has not been born. What happens is that your great running backs will plod along and plod along and then occasionally break one which will make the final numbers look good. But there will have been nothing consistent about it. See Barry Sanders.. though his lines were never as bad as they were made out to be.. His running style just made them look bad a lot of times because he would not run through the hole where the play was designed to go. But that's a rant for another day.
A modern day example is Henry. Completely different running styles but like Barry he has many games where he gains nothing on his first 15 carries and then BOOM! 55 yards later and he goes from 15 carries for 25 yards to 16 carries for 80. Emmitt also used to have games like that when the first 12-15 carries bore very little fruit but as the game wore on his runs got longer and longer. The difference being that Emmitt seldom broke off the long run.. Instead he would go from 1 yard, 2 yard, 3 yard runs to 5 yard, 6 yard, 7 yard runs to 9 yard, 12 yard, 15 yard runs. Of course it's often argued that Emmitt's lines were always "great" but you and I know that wasn't always true. Either way it sure was fun to watch.
