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Riotmaker
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: South Burlington, Vermont
Posts: 5,717
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What's Better Than A 2 Headed Monster? A 3 Headed Monster.
Quote:
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants’ running backs have become so interchangeable, Eli Manning sometimes has no advance knowledge who he’s handing off to.
“We will still have a good rushing game. Reuben has proved that he can do it, Brandon can do it and I can do it, so it doesn’t really matter who is in there as long as we can get it done.”
- RB Derrick Ward
“A lot of times I don’t notice who is in the huddle,” Manning said. “I have confidence in all of them in what they are doing. I am focused on what the play is and what is going on. They are kind of rotating in and out on their own.”
After five years of Tiki Barber handling the vast majority of the rushing load, the Giants have turned to a running back by committee this season. Through the first six weeks of the season, Derrick Ward, Brandon Jacobs and Reuben Droughns have each led the team in rushing for at least one game. Similar in size and style, the three backs substitute for each other seamlessly.
“You could put any of the three of us in there and we will still get the same results,” Ward said. “We run the same plays. We don’t have specific plays for a specific person. We all run power plays, sprint plays, draw plays, everything.
“We will still have a good rushing game. Reuben has proved that he can do it, Brandon can do it and I can do it, so it doesn’t really matter who is in there as long as we can get it done.”
“We have backs that can play,” Jacobs said. “That is just the way it is. Reuben has had a very, very productive career, so there is no reason for someone to forget about it and think that he can’t go out and run for 90 yards. D. Ward is in the NFL for a reason. He is a good back and he is very productive. He plays well. He can go out and get the job done for us.”
Throughout the offseason and training camp, Jacobs was expected to be the team’s feature back. But he hurt his knee early in the opener at Dallas and missed 3˝ games. Ward, a four-year veteran who had just 35 career carries when the season began, filled the void. He led the team in rushing in each of the first four games and has a team-high 421 yards. He has run for two touchdowns. Jacobs returned two weeks ago against the Jets and had his first career 100-yard game, including a 19-yard score. Droughns, who was primarily a fullback for a two-month spell beginning in training camp, had team-high totals of 14 carries for 90 yards, including a 45-yarder, in Monday night’s victory in Atlanta. His three rushing touchdowns are tops on the team.
The three backs have a combined 158 rushing attempts for 754 yards and six touchdowns. After six games last year, Barber (647 yards on 129 carries) and Jacobs (217 yards on 44 attempts) had combined for 864 yards and three touchdowns. That included four 100-yard games by Barber, topped by a 185-yard outing in Atlanta.
From 2002 through 2006, Barber accounted for 1,588 of the Giants’ 2,221 rushing attempts. That’s 70.1 percent. He led the team in rushing for an NFL-record 80 consecutive games.
This season, Ward has a team-high 55.6 percent of the carries. He rushed for between 80 and 94 yards and led the team in each of the first four games. Jacobs’ 100-yard effort made him the top dog against the Jets, while Droughns set the pace in Atlanta.
“It keeps all of us fresh,” Droughns, an eight-year veteran, said of the current rotation. “It is one of those things that these guys will learn over your career that the fresher you are, the better you are during the game, and at the end of the game.”
The formula is working. In the second half of the last two games – victories over the Falcons and Jets that stretched their winning streak to four games – the Giants outrushed their opponents in the second half, 258-15.
By constantly using fresh backs, the Giants wear down the opposing defense. Jacobs is 6-4 and 265 pounds. Ward is 5-11 and 228, while Droughns is 5-11 and 220. There’s not a scatback among them. All three are bruising runners between the tackles with speed to turn the corner.
“We are all big backs,” Ward said. “B.J. sets the standard for the big back, but if you take away him then Reuben and I would be considered big backs in the NFL. I guess you can call it big backs with speed. We can each get outside, we can each take it the distance. You saw Reuben have that 45-yarder, so it just all depends who is in there and what we do.”
Like Manning, the team’s offensive linemen feel secure with the three-pronged backfield, though they say they are well aware who is in the game at any given time.
“You can always tell when Brandon is in the huddle,” center Shaun O’Hara said. “He’s so doggone tall, sometimes it’s hard to see Eli. You have to tell him to bend over. When you look at the success that we’ve had with the three running backs, a lot of it starts with the schemes. I think the coaches are doing a great job of putting us in the right positions. We’re not just trying to run into a brick wall calling running plays, we’re doing a great job of studying what the defenses are doing, how they’re lining up against our formations and then finding the best position to run the ball in. And then we’re getting the execution from everybody involved – the offensive line, tight ends, receivers. And Eli is doing a great job at the line, calling all the right plays.”
“It doesn’t matter who’s behind us,” guard Rich Seubert said. “We’re still going to block the same. All three of those guys can run the ball.”
Droughns has more experience doing it than the other two, with career totals of 869 carries for 3,448 yards and 16 touchdowns. Jacobs and Ward combined have 302 attempts for 1,278 yards. Droughns has twice rushed for more than more than 1,200 yards in a season, with the Denver Broncos in 2004 and Cleveland Browns in 2005.
Despite his pedigree, Droughns had largely been reduced to the short yardage/goal line role that Jacobs handled the previous two seasons - until his breakout game in Atlanta. He has scored all three of his touchdowns on one-yard runs. It is not a role Droughns expected to fill.
“It is very surprising to me because I had trouble scoring back in the past in Cleveland and Denver,” he said. “But it is fun. It is a challenge to me, especially when I have a guy like big Brandon Jacobs, who has done it in the past, on my back. If you want to keep that type of job, you have to continue to score.”
Despite the curveballs thrown at him, Droughns has never complained, earning the admiration of his teammates.
“I think as impressive as Brandon and Derrick Ward have been – we were comfortable with them, because they were on the team – Reuben Droughns has done a great job coming in here as the new guy,” O’Hara said. “He’s picked up the offense extremely well and he made some great plays for us in this last game. When you watched the film of his touchdown, you can see he basically ran over their linebacker, Keith Brooking. His physical aspect has been an unbelievable addition to our other two backs.”
With three big, productive backs, the Giants’ ground game is in good hands – or legs.
The offensive line also deserves much credit for the rushing attack’s productivity.
“They are playing solid,” Coach Tom Coughlin said. “Obviously, if you go play by play you can always find some things that you want to improve upon and do better. But they are a solid group. They communicate well and they have done a good job. So hopefully going forward we will get even better.”
NOTES
*The Giants’ injury report remained unchanged. Brandon Jacobs (ankle), Derrick Ward (ankle) and Steve Smith (scapula) were limited. Plaxico Burress did not practice because of his ankle injury.
*The Giants were hit with a British invasion today. Seven British journalists visited the team in anticipation of next week’s trip to London to face the Miami Dolphins, in the first NFL regular season game to be played outside North America.
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Michael Eisen - Story - 10.18 Running Back by Committee - Giants.com
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What's Better Than A 2 Headed Monster? A 3 Headed Monster.
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