Give LJ the ball.

JayrodT — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:32:41 -0000

This is my first fanpost, so cut me a little slack on it.

One thing that I've been shouting at the top of my lungs the last couple of years is that the Chiefs are simply a much better team when we give Larry Johnson a large workload. Most people were ready to write him off this offseason and let Jamaal Charles take over as our feature back. After all, only 6 wins in the last 2 years with LJ as our primary ball carrier hardly seems like a reason to pay a guy loads of money and put up with any temper tantrums that will spring up during the season. But even a slightly closer look over the last two seasons might change some people's minds.

In the last two seasons LJ has gotten 20 carries in a game only 8 times out of the 20 games he participated in. He had the freak injury in 2007 which sidelined him for half the season, and off the field issues kept him out 4 games last year. But out of those 8 games in which he got 20 carries, the Chiefs were 6-2. And the games in which he didn't get 20 carries we were a whopping 0-12. Sure, the numbers aren't the entire story. When you're playing from behind you generally don't stick with your running game as much as you'd like. But one mistake Herm Edwards continued to make was to abandon LJ early in a game.

The most telling thing to take out of this is that LJ made the team better by getting more carries during a time when our offense was continually changing. Two different OCs, and two different QBs in different configurations benefited form LJ getting the ball more.

The truth is that guys like Larry Johnson get better as the game goes on, and even as the season goes on. They get in to the rhythm of the game as it goes on. Larry Johnson isn't the only one who operates this way. The Chargers are having a similar problem keeping Ladainian Tomlinson with enough touches. When LJ and LT were at their prime and battling weekly for the rushing title, I used to see the boxscores of games at halftime and LT would be in single digits or even negative for total rushing yards. But that didn't stop him from ending the game with 130 yards rushing.

The only way that I see the Chiefs making a giant leap this year is to rely heavily on LJ. Back in 2006 we rested our entire team on his shoulders. He had 11 games with 20 or more carries, and we won 8 of them. Compared to the 1-6 that we went in games where he didn't get his carries. And that includes his 13 carry playoff loss against Indy.

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Give LJ the ball.