As long as he gets positive yards that's all you can ask from a back. Do you really expect him to get the first down on 3rd and very long? They may not get you a first, but they're still positive yards.
ok bro, you made have to go and get all logical on you, so here goes. Offensive football is about winning first down. Far too many times last year, JJ slammed into the guards butt for a 1 yard gain, so we had to pass on 2nd down to set up a decent down and distance on 3rd. Bledsoe would take a sack and it would be 3rd and 17. Now....on 3rd and 17, NFL Ds tee off on the QB, they bring the pass rush from the front four and drop off into deep zones with everyone else forcing a short throw and punt. What the Boys do more often than not in these situations is run a draw play that is 95% guaranteed to get you 5 yards with any RB in the NFL. Now, JJ makes a guy or two miss and gets 9 yards. Those yards do very very little for a team...might help with field position.....a little. Jackson on the other hand, was either A. Running on 1st down into an 8 man front for 4 yards (ill take those 4 yards over JJs 9 alllllll day) or B. Running into a 9 man front at the end of the game trying to kill the clock. Which seriously skews his yardage totals.
The thing with your second comment is his youth. If you watch his first season he's dancing away from players in the backfield and skirting all around the field. After his first year Bill got in his head and told him to hit the hole. He programed him to hit the hole even if it isn't there. Him doing that is as much Parcells programming him as it is Julius.
I know he is overcoached, Im well aware of it in fact. I point it out all the time to bar patrons who try to convince me JJ is the second coming of Payton, Smith, Sanders or whoever. Im really not interested in excuses. Rule #76 No excuses, play like a champion. I dont care what his reason for slamming into the guards rear end is, hes never going to be a quality back until he stops.
Watch him this year and we'll see what Julius has learned. He knows not to dance outside the line on every play, and he knows how to find the hole. Once he's able to merge his natural instincts with parcell's teaching, we should have a really good back.
As I said in the previous post, he was still doing it in the preseason game. I have it tivo-ed and have watched it about 5 times...there difference between him and barber was night and day, barber knifed into little gaps for small yardage, JJ slammed into the backs of blockers for no yardage.
