Portis v. Betts: The Grass is Always Greener

[Dirtbag59]

Portis rushed 11 times for just 27 yards Sunday, and is averaging 3.4 yards per carry over the last six games as the feature back, but Gibbs said he is mulling no changes and is not inclined to use running back Ladell Betts, who surpassed 1,000 yards last season, more often. . . . The Redskins have been prone to fumbles, a problem that recurred Sunday. Quarterback Jason Campbell fumbled three times, and the Redskins have fumbled at least three times in four of their last five games. They have 15 fumbles in that span, losing seven. "They did a great job of making plays on the ball," Campbell said.

[MTK]

A RB is only as good as the big fatties up front, and this year they haven't been good.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

A RB is only as good as the big fatties up front, and this year they haven't been good.

Again, though, that doesn't excuse failure in the open field.

Portis hasn't been good for us this year. He looks like he's too hurt to improve in the short term.

Plenty of guys can fail behind this offensive line, we don't need to keep on chuggin' until Portis can succeed.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Again, though, that doesn't excuse failure in the open field.

Portis hasn't been good for us this year. He looks like he's too hurt to improve in the short term.

Plenty of guys can fail behind this offensive line, we don't need to keep on chuggin' until Portis can succeed.

Problem is he's not even able to get to the open field, sometimes he's lucky to just get back to the LOS.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Problem is he's not even able to get to the open field, sometimes he's lucky to just get back to the LOS.

Oftentimes, yes.

And when he does get the oppertunity, he gets tripped up by whatever blew across in the breeze.

I'm not making this up, he's really struggling to gain postive yardage in similar situations to plays that he would break wide open two years ago.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Oftentimes, yes.

And when he does get the oppertunity, he gets tripped up by whatever blew across in the breeze.

I'm not making this up, he's really struggling to gain postive yardage in similar situations to plays that he would break wide open two years ago.

I don't think that there is a big difference between how we see this issue GTripp. But, I cannot agree that Betts will be better than Portis (unless the O-line improves). I also cannot agree that Portis is getting tripped up by whatever blew across in the breeze. The guy is still one damn physical back and he usually doesn't go down by just getting touched.

Dgack,

I am definitely disappointed in Portis' production. However, I think 90% of his woes have to do with the piss-poor play of the O-line and the fact that defenses know that we are going to run left a disproportionate amount of the time. I do agree though that Portis' numbers don't justify his salary. With regard to Betts, I think we can all agree that we signed him at rock-bottom prices.

I heard a lot of people saying Edge had "lost IT" after he went to Arizona. Now that Russ Grimm is coaching Arizona's line, surprise, surprise, the Edge has IT again. IMO, if our line starts playing better, we will see Portis start posting great numbers again and he will have rediscovered IT.

Finally, I hope you know that I am not pissy with you. You have presented coherent arguments. I have enjoyed talking with people like you and GTripp about this subject. I just can't the posters who write things like "Porits stikns , he is being the worstest back ever."

[Cowell]

Well obviously if Betts has the around the same or worse production with his reps then I say keep it how it is because Portis is the better back. I would still like to see Betts get more reps though, something has to give.

[GTripp0012]

There's a few players on the offense who are doing thier parts, namely:

Samuels
Kendall
Rabach
Cooley
Randle El
Campbell
Sellers

So, according to me, the blame for the offense being at its worst since 2004 falls on the four positions that aren't getting it done; RG, RT, WR, and RB.

Obviously the biggest culprits are RG and RT. But can we do anything to improve this? Well, yes, we can get Todd Wade out of there and put Stephon Heyer in. But that's about it as far as fixing the line. We are going to have to compensate in other areas.

Should we replace Santana in the starting lineup? Well, we could, but I don't think that does a lot of good. We lose a hefty deal of important big play potential with him out of the lineup, and that's a good way to circumvent the lack of consistent offense.

So that leaves one position where a change could do some good. I don't think Betts could be doing worse than Portis is right now. It's not all Portis, but he certainly isn't helping.

[dgack]

And to answer your straw-man about Cooley and Moss, SGG, I do think we need to re-evaluate Moss.

Cooley is a bogus argument since he's already got 5TD's on the year which is 2 away from his career high. His yards are down, but that's to be expected with a young QB who is getting ZERO help from the other receivers.

That was terribly weak sauce and you know it.

[dgack]

So with the updated Cap Sheets up there, it's pretty easy to see why guys start talking about Betts over CP right now. You may say, "Betts isn't any better than Portis!" or "Portis is by far the better, more complete players!", and you may be right.

But, I think we're all looking at that glistening $41m of remaining contract and thinking, "wow... Ladell makes a quarter of that?"

[billyharless]

Bring John Riggins out of retirement!!!

[Cowell]

I'm not going to get into the argument over why Portis is playing so terrible. I'm sure it's a combination of many things including contract year and previous injuries. Honestly though I would love to see Betts start getting more reps. I know when he has gotten them this season he really hasn't done anything with them but I think he just needs to find his rhythm out there like he did last year.

Whatever it is though the bottom line is this:
Portis isn't performing even close to what he should be and if our running game doesen't get started either this week or next, I think it is time for a change.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by Cowell

I'm not going to get into the argument over why Portis is playing so terrible. I'm sure it's a combination of many things including contract year and previous injuries. Honestly though I would love to see Betts start getting more reps. I know when he has gotten them this season he really hasn't done anything with them but I think he just needs to find his rhythm out there like he did last year.

Whatever it is though the bottom line is this:
Portis isn't performing even close to what he should be and if our running game doesen't get started either this week or next, I think it is time for a change.

As I said earlier, I think Betts needs to get more reps. That said, why should we make a switch before we see that Betts can actually do a better job than Portis after getting more reps?

[CHIEF CHUCKING MY SPEAR]

boy i'm sure glad portis miss training camp to keep him fresh for the regualr season. Because its sure paying off now. Instead of doing the dirty work the rest of the team had to do.

[SuperFan99]

Skins need to do more zone blocking, something Portis enjoyed in Denver while averaging 5.5 yards over 2 seasons . . . Gibbs has him running inside like he's Larry Brown. Unfortunately, Portis is taking Brown-like punishment.