bwgood77 wrote:RavenMad31 wrote:One stat that always slipped through the cracks about Emmitt Smith, and I feel it's especially important because I feel way to much of the credit he deserves is carelessly tossed over to his O-line, is that Smith consistently would lead the league in yards after contact. This means that he was still responsible for creating a lot of his own yards. Emmitt never just got hit and tackled. There would almost always be a lean or push for one or two more yards. He was elusive, powerful, fast and incredibly durable. You don't set the all time rushing record by just having an great offensive line. You can have a good year, like Murray, but Smith has more rushing yards than anyone in history. I'll point to something else concerning Smith and offensive lines. In 2004, at the age of 35 freaking years old, he manages a 900+ yard season with 9 TDs playing behind a garbage offensive line in Arizona with Josh McCown as the main passing threat to force defenses to empty the box.
That stat is nice to point out, however, when we are talking about the greatest backs ever, I'd rather see the comparison in that stat with them, not the other backs in the league at the time. It's not like the league was full of really good and great backs.
That year in AZ he only averaged 3.5 yards a carry after averaging 2.8 ypc the year before. Despite the great OL, he still, in most years, averaged 4 or fewer ypc or slightly over that. For his career he averaged 4.2 ypc as opposed to Sanders' 5.0.
Another thing about yards after contact, is that when you are a downfield runner with a great OL, you are able to build a head of steam and barrel into defenders, as opposed to Barry Sanders, being elusive or untouched, but once hit, usually not having run with the power and speed because of the way he had to run. He also often would run into the line, probably be touched, and then turn around and go the other way entirely and maybe only eventually get back to the line of scrimmage, so he may not have been great with that stat.
Well, his career did overlap with Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Ricky Watters and Terrell Davis. Those guys are all either in the Hall of Fame or could make an argument for themselves.
I'd normally rag on someone for a sub-4 ypc (ahem, Jerome Bettis), but if you're 35 years old and still putting on cleats so you can carry the ball for a useless Arizona Cardinals team, I'll give you a pass. The fact that you wake up in the morning and actually want to do it is impressive.
During what you would consider the "meat" of his career. For a RB, let's call it every year up to age 29, he was under 4 his rookie season and one other, which could very well be an outlier due to a nagging injury of some kind, however, I don't know his injury history or care to make excuses. So, 4 of his 6 seasons where he was under 4 per carry came at age 32 or later when the Dallas dynasty was crumbling or he was in the ruins of Arizona.
Also, given their contrast in running styles, Barry Sanders would actually be taken out in most situations which would have required some sacrifice to his YPC, which were goal line and third and short. Even 2 of those per game can drop your yards per carry by about .3 to .5 yards depending on carries in a season. More than likely, a RB is seeing something closer to about 3-5 of those carries per game.
That's a great counter point to the yards after contact and frankly, I have very little to say to that since it makes perfect sense.
