Quote:
Originally Posted by over the mountain
QUESTION: am i right or wrong for thinking that teams ran to carter's side more b/c they knew he would most likely try and go outside of the tackle opening up a running lane?
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You are right, pretty much, but you should also note that teams were largely unsuccessful when they ran at Carter last year (but not in 2006, back in the highway 99 days).
Where teams gashed us last year in the run was between the tackles. The difference was London Fletcher, not Carter (although Carter deserves a bit of credit). When teams run outside, it's nearly impossible to block Fletch with an interior player. He's too quick. Some teams got slot receivers on him, but largely, it was a futile excercise to run outside on the Redskins last year.
Where teams were incredibly successful was in heading up the gut. You can get your fullback on LF if you go right at him, and then Rocky--often the unblocked man, did not have the play recognition skills to close the gap.
Rocky should improve in that aspect this year...but Fletcher is going to start losing his quickness now, and it's not going to take very long until he's a step slow at MLB instead of a step fast. That is a good reason that it is critical that Daniels gets replaced by a player who is even better against the run than he is.