You may remember several years ago I wrote a column about "crutch arguments" -- arguments based on ambiguous, retrofitted "facts" that could actually have multiple implications. "That quarterback is great because his team will be behind so much, he'll have to throw!" "Don't draft that running back, we know he won't get any goal-line carries!" "Signing free-agent wide receiver X will open up the field for his new teammate, wide receiver Y!" These fantasy football clichés are sometimes -- but not always -- true, and exist mostly to back up an already-held opinion.
This week, I'm adding a new crutch argument: "Hey, what do you expect that running back to do? He's plenty talented! He's just got nowhere to run!"
Now, it's easy to look at the box score and see that a RB isn't producing. The important question is why? A dilettante fantasy owner's response might be to say, "He stinks!" In response, a so-called expert might say, "No, no, my talent evaluation of the RB was correct, he just has no blocking." Such excuses are sometimes appropriate -- to varying degrees -- but not always. That's the definition of a crutch argument. If you're predisposed to dislike the player, you say he stinks, can't set up his blocks, has bad vision, has terrible instincts. If you're predisposed to like the player, you say he has no room to run, and nobody would succeed behind that offensive line.
We tend to want simple answers: Either he's not very good, or his blocking is terrible. But the truth is almost always somewhere in between. How do we, as film-watchers, decide where our struggling RBs of choice fall? Let's take a few examples, one at a time:
Ben Tate, Cleveland Browns: In his past two games, Tate has gained 62 yards on 31 carries. He rescued his value with a garbage-time score Sunday against the Oakland Raiders, but watching that film was painful. As a team, from Weeks 1 through 6, the Browns averaged 4.4 yards per carry with a league-high eight rushing TDs, and the easy conclusion is that center Alex Mack was lost for the season in Week 6, so of course that's the reason Tate and the Browns are now struggling.
Mack's absence definitely doesn't help. His Week 8 replacement, Nick McDonald, got manhandled Sunday every time the Raiders put a man -- usually rookie defensive tackle Justin Ellis -- head-on against him. Here's a failed play that can be directly traced to McDonald:
This is a classic Kyle Shanahan zone-stretch play. At the snap, everyone is going right, including Tate, whose task is to float toward the sideline until he sees an opening in his blocking wall, whereupon he can cut upfield and get yards. It's well-blocked with one major exception: Instead of continuing right and accounting for Raiders linebacker Sio Moore, McDonald stays connected to a double-team of Ellis. Moore easily shoots the gap and meets Tate behind the line of scrimmage for a 2-yard loss.
But breakdowns are happening all over. In Week 7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Browns ran the zone-stretch to the left:
The breakdown on this play was either a mistake by left tackle Joe Thomas or fullback Ray Agnew; given the fact that Agnew was cut after the game, I'm guessing he might've been the culprit. The problem here is that Thomas stays connected with a double-team on defensive end Red Bryant, but Agnew doesn't fill the hole between Thomas and tight end Jordan Cameron. This mistake allows linebacker Paul Posluszny an easy path to gum up the works.
Tate's prognosis: Breakdowns are more noticeable in zone-blocking schemes because the RB is waiting, usually gliding east/west; when a missed assignment allows a defender to blow things up, the result looks bad. As Sunday's game progressed, the Browns eschewed outside-zone plays, simplifying things and asking Tate to get north/south much faster. I wouldn't say the results were spectacular, but it shows some flexibility. Fixing this scheme seems more like a mental challenge to cut out breakdowns, more than something the Browns are physically incapable of doing. I have hope that good coaching can fix this.
Doug Martin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: OK, I get it: We're all done with Martin. He's questionable to play this week because of an injured ankle, and if he sits it would be merciful to his disappointed fantasy owners. But let's evaluate his offensive system to get a sense whether possible replacements -- Bobby Rainey and Charles Sims come to mind -- might fare better.
Here was Martin's second carry of Sunday's game:
"Hi! My name is Sharrif Floyd, and I would like to eat you." When a defensive tackle meets you 3 yards deep in the backfield, I'm going to go ahead and say it's not the RB's fault. Here's what it looked like from the end zone:
That guy flailing away at Floyd, falling down as Floyd has run right past him, is one Logan Mankins. You may remember him as "Future Hall of Famer Logan Mankins." Well, Mankins has been consistently, ungodly bad this year. Maybe the knee he hyperextended in Week 1 is limiting him, but he's a shell of himself, and center Evan Dietrich-Smith looks dreadful, too. Martin actually made Floyd miss with a great lateral move, and gained 3 yards by himself on this play.
Once Martin injured his ankle, Rainey didn't have any more success. This is a pitch play to the right where right guard Patrick Omameh simply falls down. He starts to slide right, he looks like he might be about to block someone, and then he just ... falls down:
DT Shamar Stephen can't believe his luck. He's unblocked and scampers into the flat and tackles Rainey for a 1-yard loss. There wasn't anything Rainey could've done differently. The play was dead before it began.
Rainey's and Sims' prognosis: From what I've observed, what ails the Bucs may be less fixable than what ails the Browns. It isn't only assignment or communication mistakes that are dooming many running plays to failure: It's often personal breakdowns or limitations. I sound like a Martin apologist, but I don't see him making mistakes. I see him getting swallowed up by defensive players before his blocking can develop. Hey, what do you know? The Bucs get those aforementioned Browns and their disappointing run defense in Week 9, and I'm anxious to see what Sims can do. It wouldn't be the first time new blood shook up a running game for the better. But I'm skeptical, and I wouldn't be starting Sims until I see a good performance.
Andre Williams, New York Giants: In two starts since Rashad Jennings hurt his knee, Williams has rushed for 110 yards on 35 carries. That's not quite Tate- or Martin-esque, and you have to love the volume, but folks who handcuffed Williams to Jennings had bigger goals in mind.
Let me show you a play, but also acknowledge that I'm cheating. You can definitely find Giants running plays where the offensive line breaks down and Williams is stuffed through no fault of his own. That happens to every back, and it happened to Williams several times against the Dallas Cowboys. But Williams' inexperience as a runner -- and perhaps his lack of vision -- have also shown through:
This one is pretty simple. The play is designed to go off left guard, and by golly that's where Williams is going to go. Unfortunately, he doesn't see that a massive lane has opened up between his right guard and tackle. Williams had time to change course. Would linebacker Rolando McClain have escaped a double-team block and stopped him? Maybe. But there's no crease straight ahead, as Justin Durant is zooming directly into the hole.
Williams' and Jennings' prognosis: Like the Browns, the Giants have put together back-to-back horrendous run-blocking days after starting the season quite well, days that Williams was unable to overcome. But I also saw plays he left on the field, plays Jennings might make. The rookie was never my favorite prospect this spring, so perhaps I'm falling prey to the "crutch" I complained about earlier, and blaming the RB for something that's not his fault. But I'm looking forward to Jennings' return, whenever that happens. I think New York's run game will pick up as a result.