Dr. Z rips us

from cnnsi.com

How to build a running game
Some teams say they're going to run, others show it
Posted: Thursday September 21, 2006 12:19PM; Updated: Thursday September 21, 2006 12:19PM

When do you put in a running game? Before the draft. Before the free-agency period. When you're planning the personnel makeup of your squad. Pass-blocking linemen are swell, but you'd better have some grunts in there, some no-necked drive blockers.

I hear a coach say in the offseason, "We've got to establish our running game," and I'm suspicious right away. You don't establish it. You build it and it establishes itself. You bring in the personnel to make it work. It's a serious commitment.

I hear that quote and then I look at the players his team has drafted. Hmmm, don't see any guards there. And the only tackles drafted are nifty-footed pass blockers. Who, exactly, are they planning to run behind?

The Jets paid lip service to their running game right up through training camp. Hopefully, Curtis Martin somehow would get himself in shape to play, but if not, well, a runner would emerge from somewhere. Then they went and drafted a pass blocker to play left tackle.

They can't run. D'Brickashaw Ferguson, the fourth player taken in the entire draft, is very agile, very quick, a tap dancer who can keep step with the outside rushers. The problem is that he can't knock anyone off the line. Add to that a marginal player at right tackle ... 30-year old Anthony Clement, who'd been cut from three teams ... and you've got a running game that is tied for 26th in the league.

This is meant as no knock on the Jets. Their main concern on offense this season has been the health of their quarterback, Chad Pennington. Their primary job was to provide protection for him, and Ferguson was the most logical guy to fill that role. And Pennington is off to a fine start.

But do you remember the old days, when Martin and the Jets' running game gave people real problems? Who was the left tackle? Jason Fabini, who everyone said was a natural right tackle ... too slow and not athletic enough to keep up with the blind side speed rushers. And yes, he'd give up the occasional sack, but he'd also knock defensive linemen off the ball.

Last year the Seahawks' Shaun Alexander led the league in rushing and averaged 118 yards per game. This season it's down to 70 yards. Left guard Steve Hutchinson is gone. As a pass blocker he's OK, not great, just OK. Stumbles a bit sometimes. But blocking for the run he's pure hell, one of those annoying, gila monster types who will latch onto a defender and never let go.

Walter Jones, playing next to him last year, generally is conceded to be the league's best pass-blocking tackle, but he isn't a tough guy as a run-blocker. He's a position player who does it with finesse. The arrangement worked just fine when the two of them were side by side, but now that Hutchinson is gone, the production has fallen off.

I've often asked myself what a team really wants from its running game. Could it be the focal part of an offense that lacks a great passing attack? Hard to see that. It's too easy for a defense to cram the box and stop it with numbers. Is it merely an adjunct to the aerial game, an annoyance, a device to control the pass rush and give the QB a sense of security and make his play fakes more effective? Well, yeah, that sounds more like it.

Or is it like a battering ram, knocking down a wall? Hammer and hammer away. Two yards a crack in the first quarter, then a bit more, and still more, until the exhausted defense is surrendering six and seven yards per shot? That seems to be the Vikings' game, with Chester Taylor and Hutchinson now at left guard. You'd better have a superior defense if you want to implement that scheme, or you'll be establishing your running game while the enemy opens up a two touchdown lead. And then, regretfully, you'll have to say good-bye to the pound-it-out game, just as it was starting to open up some holes, and put it on the train with an apple and good wishes.

And who's to say that a defense that alternates its front four, and is just as sturdy and resolute as the guys who are trying to crack it, won't be just as tough at the end? Just look at what the Jaguars did to Pittsburgh. The Steelers had only one run longer than four yards all night, but they had to stay with it as long as they could, to protect a fragile quarterback.

I think it's fascinating the way the Patriots have changed their style, from CharlieWeis' short pass attack to a running game, to adjust to a shift in personnel. Can it be that this was something they planned before the draft, because they knew Deion Branch would be a contract problem and maybe they'd lose him and Tom Brady would need time to adjust to his new receivers?

It's scary to believe that they saw everything coming so far ahead of time, but I'll never know because they don't talk about such things. I mean you can ask them if they breathe air when they step outside and they'll respond, "If it helps our team."

But I saw what they did to the Jets last Sunday, and even with Brady having an off day, they controlled things with their ground game. Corey Dillon is running mad now. He's become a mean runner, probably because they drafted another back, Laurence Maroney, in the first round. At Minnesota Maroney was a guy who read the defense and reacted, as if he were on cruise control, a guy with good outside speed, but hardly much toughness. Now he's a slasher, inside or out, a quick thrust guy who can break tackles.

"Surprised me, too, that they took him," said a scout who's friendly with the Patriots' personnel people. "He really didn't seem like their type. But they told me after the draft, 'Just watch. He'll fit in. He just ran in college the way they wanted him to. He can do it our way.'"

I saw two things with that Patriot ground game, which looks like the best since Martin was on their team. Their left tackle Matt Light, smaller and less gifted athletically than some of the ballet masters who play the position, is one of the best drive blockers in the game at that position. Pass blocking? Well, I've seen him give up sacks, and they'll occasionally protect him with a tight end chipping on the rusher. But he gets a lot more thrust on that side than almost everyone else in the league at the position. And he's a guy who probably will never make a Pro Bowl squad.

The second thing I noticed was the quickness of New England's center, Dan Koppen.

"You can't have a decent running game in the NFL with a slow center," says a Patriots scout who actually did talk to me. "There are too many adjustments, too many quick things he has to do. Actually, most of the good running teams in the league have light lines. We're not that big up front. Neither are the Falcons or Broncos, two of the best running clubs.

"How do you tire out a defensive line? By getting 'em moving and chasing, and that's what these light lines are geared for. You can hog 'em with those big guys, and all the defensive lineman will do will be to drop to a knee and take the double-team. But make him run and he'll get tired."

You don't find the precision running games anymore, probably because in the free-agency era, offensive lines aren't together year after year like they used to be. I loved the intricate timing of the Giants' great power toss that carried them to their first Super Bowl victory in the 1985 season.

Joe Morris carrying behind the vicious down-blocks of Mark Bavaro, with Chris Godfrey pulling and Maurice Carthon leading. Man, it was beautiful. Then one day it was gone. I asked Bill Parcells about it.

"Yeah, I hated to lose it, too," he said. "But you can't coach it anymore. It takes up too much of your practice time."

An interesting thing, the running game. But if you're showing me a team that has a good one, I'll bet it'll have guards that aren't just failed tackles but guys who were drafted for their drive blocking, as Hutchinson and the Steelers' AlanFaneca were. And I'll bet that it will have, rarest of all, a left tackle who will actually go after people.