Running game will be vastly improved

[Schneed10]

With the running game, you can't point to Portis's 1300 yards and say he had a good year, he didn't. He led the league in carries. If you keep feeding him the ball, of course he's going to rack up a good yardage total. But that doesn't mean he was getting the chunks of yards that you need to gain first downs. You have to look at his yards per rush, which was 3.8, ranked at the bottom of the league.

I do think we'll be better though. Jansen coming back is a big reason. Raymer was not athletic enough to pull effectively in Gibbs' trap system. He couldn't get to his blocks fast enough and LBs were filling holes, giving Portis nowhere to go and no way to get his speed cranking. Rabach is much more athletic, I think he'll get out on blocks better.

The biggest reason for improvement, in my mind, is going to be 3rd and one's and goalline runs. Walter Rasby was supposed to be our bulldozing TE. What'd he do? Got cut midseason. We had no help for bulldozing blocking at TE or H-Back. I love Cooley, and he's a solid blocker, but he won't run guys over. I'm excited to see what White and Broughton can do. Plug them in for those short yardage situations and just run behind them, I'll bet they can move some bodies.

A running game is all about keeping the chains moving, especially in Gibbs' ball-control offense. I think we have some pieces to get that done now.