Portis and Betts: Should We Just Stick With Portis?

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

What's backwards about that? More carries equal more yards; In a perfect world that is.

The crux of my argument is very simple, I simply think Clinton Portis is a home run type back. And the more touches he get's, the more likely we are to see to that.

I'm not arguing the merits of health, yards per pass, yard per offensive play, keeping him fresh, or anything else for that matter. I think the coaches are doing a fine job inter-changing both backs, by the way, and bringing JC along at the same time.

I think the more Portis carries the ball, the more likely we are to see that home run threat we're used to seeing and want to see.

But the goal isn't to get more yards for your RB? It's to get more total yards. If CPs aver per carry is low, aren't we hurting the team by giving him extra carries?

I think what you are getting at is that should we run enough with Portis, he may be able to break the big play. Or the "home-run" threat as you put it. This is accurate, but still it seems a little backwards to me. If Portis isn't producing big plays with 20 carries a game, why should we try to add another 5-10 carries? Sure, Portis gets more chances, but is that a good idea?

Actually, I kinda see what you and Matty are saying now, its all about giving him more shots to break the big one. That's fine, but I think the same concept should go for any player on our offense. If creating big plays is the goal, I think the best way to do that is to get the ball in space to Moss, Randle El, or Cooley.

Ok, so yeah, my misunderstanding, I apologize. I still disagree that its the best way to go about it, but it makes sense. More carries equals more shots to go for a long one. Of course he has the same shot of breaking the first one long as he does the 27th. So at some point, I think you just have to cut yourself off and start going with plays that will net more yardage.

If Portis was averaging 5.0 yards an attempt, this would be different. Because he gets stuffed so much due to some poor blocking, its a bad idea to try to pound the square Portis into a round hole until a big play happens.

But it's not the worst possible idea. That would be trying to throw it down the field over and over again until you punt or get intercepted.