He baited Zeke to go inside with less space and near another player. You're broad brushing every situation as the same, I'm discussing THIS play alone. You get to the outside, Zeke has one on one with a guy - I have absolutely no idea why anyone thinks running between tackles with a defender coming down on you is a better situation then hitting the outside and getting a one on with a player with some space.
Zeke missed an opportunity and the Barkley highlights I provided showed just this, hitting the outside and getting away from multiple defenders.
He did bait Zeke … and the O-Lineman (was it Frederick?). He made a good play. It happens. But Zeke didn't have the benefit you do of watching in replay and seeing how the whole thing plays out. He had to make an instant decision while moving at full speed with bodies moving in the front of him and pursuing from the side and back. Plus, there was a 315 lb O-Lineman blocking his view of the DB some of the time. It's easy to play armchair QB sitting at a computer with slow motion replay, but that's not real world.
As for discussing THIS play alone, your argument was that Zeke should have cut outside because there are fewer potential tacklers to the outside than there are to the inside. Well, that is not unique to THIS play alone. That's pretty much always the case unless the situation occurs downfield with the D-Linemen and LBs still near the line of scrimmage. Accordingly, that is not a strong argument. You can't simply say the right way is to avoid contact at all by running to the area where there are fewer tacklers. A RB has to make a choice as to what move is likely to get the most yards. And, all in all, I think the preference for most fans and coaches is to have a RB who thinks in terms of running North/South rather than East/West.
