Portis: Sit or Start Him?

We lived and died by the success and failure of CP. if he can play he has to play. When he's effective we win. When he's not getting the job done we lose. We can't afford to lose this one

Either way works for me; However, I wonder if Portis being out, would push Zorn to be more aggressive.

If you were Zorn, would you be inclined to sit or start Portis this weekend? On the one hand, Portis is pretty banged up and could use the rest, the Ravens defense will likely stuff whomever we have in the backfield, and it's unlikely that we will win this Sunday. On the other hand, Portis is our best weapon (healthy or not), we have our backs to the wall in terms of the playoffs, and I'm afraid that Betts will get Jason killed when he's back there in pass protection.

No matter who we start its about the playcalling are we going to play into their strength and run the ball or are we going to exploit the fact that they have a pathetic secondary, even with Reed back there he can't run backwards only forwards, thats why he makes the plays he does its always action in front of him. So we cant 2-5 yard pass on them.

If we start CP get Cooley and the WR involved early/often. and spell Betts 1/2the time in first half and see where we stand. Ravens at home are going to be amped up in front of the night drunk crowd. If CP is limping we need BETTS to step up for once this season.

I'm telling you all, we need to start spreading the offense and roll out more, too many drives are being stalled without a first down b/c of bad pocket presence and poor blocking. Spread it out and they won't be batting down passes at the line. DUH ZORN.

sit him, this game won't be won on the ground.

Play him. You can't assume anything in today's NFL, not even that SF and Cinci are automatic victories with a healthy Portis.

Play to win. Play him. He'll fight through.

So Portis at 50% to 60% is better than a 100% Betts?? I say sit him down. Every team in the NFL plays back ups. Betts has carried the load and he a very capable NFL RB. He just needs to hold on to the damn ball.

We lived and died by the success and failure of CP. if he can play he has to play. When he's effective we win. When he's not getting the job done we lose. We can't afford to lose this one

So is CP are whole team?? We can win w/out him. If we can't then something is wrong.

Unless Portis is healthier than he was last week, he's got to sit. Against Dallas and Seattle, he was healthy enough to contribute to our offense. Against the Giants he was not, which suggests that his condition is deteriorating week to week.

I have no idea if sitting Portis down for a week will do any good in the long term, but in the short term, if Portis is too hurt to block even, we've got to not kill him.

I would give him a week, maybe even two, to recover. We'll need a more effective Portis than we just saw to handle the Eagles in two weeks.

I was talking with some people last week right after the Giants game about Portis. Does anyone know what incentives are in his contract? No games missed, leads the league in yards by the end of the season type stuff? He could be chasing money, but I don't think CP is totally motivated by that.
I think without CP in the game or chances of winning get cut down big. Let him get his start, bring him in on a couple first downs but let him rest. He's having a big year, and we are still in the playoff hunt, Portis will not let himself not be in this game.

I would prefer to sit him, let him rest for the remaining games, and let Betts get some action. I'd rather go in with Betts against the Ravens and a relatively healthy Portis against our remaining opponents, than play a banged up Portis and only aggravate his injuries.

So say we sit Portis. Do you think we should use Betts like we use Portis- and by that I mean how we use Portis when we're successful- running the ball about 30 times in a game (not saying Betts would get all of those carries)? I'm not sure how effective it would be, but when we can run we usually win. It's fun to speculate, however I'm pretty sure Portis is playing.

So is CP are whole team?? We can win w/out him. If we can't then something is wrong.

Ah yes..the games we won he averaged about 120 yards a game. the games we lost he didn't do as much. It wasn't Jason Campbell for damn sure.