Chris Carson had 116 yards on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs
Kam Chancellor Jersey , bringing his season total to 1,029 yards. While the 1,000-yard barrier is arbitrary and has lost some meaning for receivers in a
passing era, Carson is only the eighth back this season to hit the mark, with
two more likely to join him this Sunday. He’s also done this despite a number of
factors working against him:2018Two games missed with injurySharing the
backfield with Rashaad Penny, Mike Davis, and Russell WilsonA broken ankle in
2017Playing for a team that a year ago had the least productive backs in the
leagueTeam drafted a running back in the first roundCarson is also the first
seventh round pick to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since 2008, when two
players went on to accomplish the feat: Peyton Hillis, who was selected by the
Denver Broncos and then hit 1,000 yards with the Cleveland Browns three years
later, and Justin Forsett, who you of course know was drafted by the Seahawks
and then had 1,266 yards with the Baltimore Ravens in his seventh season.Though
Forsett never hit 1,000 yards with Seattle, five other running backs before
Carson have and none of them accomplished that fewer than three times: Curt
Warner (four times), Chris Warren (four times), Ricky Watters (three times),
Shaun Alexander (five times), and Marshawn Lynch (four times). Lynch was the
last Seahawks to hit the benchmark, having done so in 2014. The team saw Thomas
Rawls lead the NFL in YPC and DYAR in 2015, but he fell short of 1,000 yards
because of a broken ankle and he never returned to form like Carson has.Carson
and Forsett are not the only Seattle seventh or later round picks to have
notable seasons on the ground: 1989 10th round pick Derrick Fenner rushed for
859 yards and 14 touchdowns in his second year with the Seahawks. If Tyler
Lockett gains 101 yards against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, it’ll be the
first time since 2004 that the team had a 1,000-yard runner and receiver in the
same season, when Alexander and Darrell Jackson did that. Carson is a long ways
off from a franchise record though, as Alexander holds that mark with 1,880
yards and 27 touchdowns in his 2005 MVP campaign. His 79.2 yards per game is the
12th-best mark in team history, and in fact is more than the 78.6 that Lynch had
during Seattle’s 2013 Super Bowl season. He has five 100-yard games this season
(another arbitrary mark, but rarer than it used to be), and only Ezekiel Elliott
(seven)
Rashaad Penny Jersey , Todd Gurley (six), and Saquon Barkley (six) have more. Again, Carson missed two games, shares the ball, and unlike those three was not
a top-10 pick.Over the last three weeks, Carson has the second-most rushing
yards in the NFL (325, behind only Derrick Henry, who has 492, and 99 of those
came on a single run against the Jacksonville Jaguars. (Still very impressive.)
The Seahawks lead the NFL with 12 100-yard games as a team, whereas their Week
17 opponent, the Cardinals, are last with three. Arizona has allowed the most
rushing yards and have had an NFL-high 13 games where the opponent has rushed
for 100 yards, so expect Carson to add his total considerably this Sunday unless
Pete Carroll pulls him early.In which case, Seattle could possibly also have two
500-yard backs behind their 1,000-yarder: Mike Davis is at 470 and Rashaad Penny
is at 413. It was a sweep for the home teams in the 2019 NFL Divisional round,
with only the New Orleans Saints in any sort of serious danger. After falling
behind 14-0 to the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, they
scored the game’s final 20 points and Marshon Lattimore effectively sealed the
game at the two-minute warning by intercepting Nick Foles deep in Saints
territory. It wasn’t Foles’ fault, as Alshon Jeffery had the ball go through his
hands, but there wasn’t much reason to run another play before the two-minute
warning and they hurried anyway.In the other three games, the Kansas City Chiefs
took care of the Indianapolis Colts, the New England Patriots wrecked the Los
Angeles Chargers, while the Rams ran over the Dallas Cowboys. Not a single
top-ten defense by DVOA is in the final four, but your top four scoring offenses
are here, and four of the top five offenses by DVOA. You think offense isn’t
dominating, right now? Think again.Here’s the schedule for next week’s
conference title games.Sunday, January 20th, 2019#2 Los Angeles Rams at #1 New
Orleans Saints (-3.5), 12:05 PM PT on FOX#2 New England Patriots at #1 Kansas
City Chiefs (-3.5), 3:40 PM PT on CBSI’m pulling for the Chiefs and Saints. You
may feel differently.
