Ron Dayne has horrible balance and other observations

[gtexan02]

I don't live in Houston anymore, so I have a difficult time watching the games. Instead, I usually watch other games. I get to see Addai every once in a while, Portis here and there, etc. Good runners.

Today, I used a slingbox to watch the game. Unfortunately, my connection is a little crappy and I therefore had a slightly jumpy viewback. This did make it easy to watch our players in semi-slow motion, and the thing I noticed most of all was that Ron Dayne has horrible balance.

He runs downfield with his head low, like he is anticipating contact. He's slow to hit the hole and slow in the open field. When a guy makes contact with him, even if its arm contact, he leans into it. This causes him to fall down. Usually forward.

If you watch other, good runners they run in different ways. If they anticipate contact, they shift their weight to avoid being knocked down. Or they sidestep out of the way. They hit the hole fast, and accelerate into the open field.

I never realized how poor of balance Dayne has. I bet if you could find a yards fter contact stat, Dayne would be pretty low. Our offensive line isn't great. They don't open huge holes. But unless theres no one around him, Dayne gets hit. Then falls down

[run-david-run]

Originally Posted by gtexan02

I don't live in Houston anymore, so I have a difficult time watching the games. Instead, I usually watch other games. I get to see Addai every once in a while, Portis here and there, etc. Good runners.

Today, I used a slingbox to watch the game. Unfortunately, my connection is a little crappy and I therefore had a slightly jumpy viewback. This did make it easy to watch our players in semi-slow motion, and the thing I noticed most of all was that Ron Dayne has horrible balance.

He runs downfield with his head low, like he is anticipating contact. He's slow to hit the hole and slow in the open field. When a guy makes contact with him, even if its arm contact, he leans into it. This causes him to fall down. Usually forward.

If you watch other, good runners they run in different ways. If they anticipate contact, they shift their weight to avoid being knocked down. Or they sidestep out of the way. They hit the hole fast, and accelerate into the open field.

I never realized how poor of balance Dayne has. I bet if you could find a yards fter contact stat, Dayne would be pretty low. Our offensive line isn't great. They don't open huge holes. But unless theres no one around him, Dayne gets hit. Then falls down

Most yards Dayne gets are after contact because he usually caries a defender downfiled. Dayne is not a big play guy in that he will break away from people, but if he gets through the hole, its usually a first down because he can force himself foward after contact. Basicaly, you trade off the big play for consitantly gaining a few yards after contact.

[junior]

dayne has been good the last 5 weeks, he hasnt been the problem bad coaching and bad qb and wr play have been lately.

[adam]

Dayne is NOT the problem with this team. Have you been watching the last few weeks? He is rushing for an average of almost 4 yards a carry. Spare the one today, he hasn't fumbled all season long. Unlike our official starter, he is never injured. Dayne has done his job, and has done it well as of lately. Our o-line isn't producing, the defense isn't executing, and we turn the ball over too much. That is what is wrong with this team. We are worst in the league in turnovers.

[TexansSeminole]

aka Ron Dayne is not a good NFL RB.

[TexansSeminole]

Originally Posted by adam

Dayne is NOT the problem with this team. Have you been watching the last few weeks? He is rushing for an average of almost 4 yards a carry. Spare the one today, he hasn't fumbled all season long. Unlike our official starter, he is never injured. Dayne has done his job, and has done it well as of lately. Our o-line isn't producing, the defense isn't executing, and we turn the ball over too much. That is what is wrong with this team. We are worst in the league in turnovers.

It's not about being the problem. He just is not very good. He should really be getting much more yards. Some of these holes are pretty large, and a good RB would break big ones. Ron Dayne just runs for 7 yards.

[YellerLotYeller]

He is who we thought he was!

[adam]

Originally Posted by TexansSeminole

It's not about being the problem. He just is not very good. He should really be getting much more yards. Some of these holes are pretty large, and a good RB would break big ones. Ron Dayne just runs for 7 yards.

Just seven yards? I would have killed for seven yards in the age of Gado/Lundy. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that Ron Dayne is a power back. He shouldn't be expected to run with a great deal of speed. I will admit, that since losing Dominic Davis/Williams, my standards have been pretty low in the rushing game department. If only because I knew he'd be hard to replace. With that said, I have been plenty satisfied with Dayne's play. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; we are a passing team. This means that 75 or more yards on the ground should suffice in coordination with the rest of our offense. Dayne's been good for that for the majority of the season, and he's been improving his game. I'm not saying that he is great, but I would say that he has done well in his tenure here. If we'd stop turning the ball over and if our passing game would get back to where it was toward the beginning of the year, we'd win games with Ron Dayne's amount of production.

[GuerillaBlack]

Originally Posted by TexansSeminole

It's not about being the problem. He just is not very good. He should really be getting much more yards. Some of these holes are pretty large, and a good RB would break big ones. Ron Dayne just runs for 7 yards.

You can't be serious. "Just seven yards". Well do you want eight?!

[TexansSeminole]

Originally Posted by GuerillaBlack

You can't be serious. "Just seven yards". Well do you want eight?!

My point is that he has no explosion. The point isn't that 7 yards is bad. Seven yards is quite good but when you've got great blocking on the play, you need to take it for more than seven yards. Those are the ones that are suppose to go for 20+. My point is that more explosive backs would have picked up alot more.

Jeez some of you people are rediculous. Do you just quote random posts and make random statements? Is there a reason for this quote? What's your point?

Overall, I'd be happy for Dayne to be our backup, but he shouldn't start for us next year. Period.

[GuerillaBlack]

How is the quote I quoted random and how is the statement I made "random". I really don't know what your point is in that last little rant of yours. I had a good laugh.

[TexansSeminole]

Do some of you just come on here to snipe at people?

"You can't be serious. "Just seven yards". Well do you want eight?!" You can't understand what I am trying to say? Ok, well, communicating my point to you is over. It cannot be done. Just put me on mute or something.

If you can't understand it, and then when I explain it pretty clearly and you still don't understand it why even post again? Why not give up on understanding my stupid logic.

Some of you people don't even make arguments or have a discussion. You just comment on other people's posts. What for?

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by adam

Dayne is NOT the problem with this team. Have you been watching the last few weeks? He is rushing for an average of almost 4 yards a carry. Spare the one today, he hasn't fumbled all season long. Unlike our official starter, he is never injured. Dayne has done his job, and has done it well as of lately. Our o-line isn't producing, the defense isn't executing, and we turn the ball over too much. That is what is wrong with this team. We are worst in the league in turnovers.

Excellent summary.
Get off Ronny's back. He ain't Brian Westbrook and never will be, but he's doing his damned job.
That's more than I can say for some of the other guys.

[TheIronDuke]

Originally Posted by TexansSeminole

My point is that he has no explosion. The point isn't that 7 yards is bad. Seven yards is quite good but when you've got great blocking on the play, you need to take it for more than seven yards. Those are the ones that are suppose to go for 20+. My point is that more explosive backs would have picked up alot more.

Jeez some of you people are rediculous. Do you just quote random posts and make random statements? Is there a reason for this quote? What's your point?

Overall, I'd be happy for Dayne to be our backup, but he shouldn't start for us next year. Period.

Much like Salaam when he joined the Texans, Dayne was signed to BE the back-up. But Dayne's been pressed into being the starting RB for this team. I have no complaints at all at his performance. He's done MUCH more than I thought he would do especially considering how he performed at the beginning of the year.

I know that Kubes isn't going to go into the draft with Dayne as his #1 and I pray that he's not going to count on Ahman either since I don't think Ahman will see another snap in the NFL. Basically we're just snake-bit by injuries to key personnel as always.

[austintexanite]

Originally Posted by TexansSeminole

My point is that he has no explosion. The point isn't that 7 yards is bad. Seven yards is quite good but when you've got great blocking on the play, you need to take it for more than seven yards. Those are the ones that are suppose to go for 20+. My point is that more explosive backs would have picked up alot more.

Jeez some of you people are rediculous. Do you just quote random posts and make random statements? Is there a reason for this quote? What's your point?

Overall, I'd be happy for Dayne to be our backup, but he shouldn't start for us next year. Period.

I agree that Ron is not going to every bust one for 80 and take it home, but the guy has played well. I do think we need to find a RB that is capable of breaking massive gains, but for now Ron is our rb, and he is playing pretty solid.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by TexansSeminole

It's not about being the problem. He just is not very good. He should really be getting much more yards. Some of these holes are pretty large, and a good RB would break big ones. Ron Dayne just runs for 7 yards.

You watch to many highlight reels. That doesn't happen all the time.

How about the fact that when we've put other guys behind that same line, they never do as well as Dayne does.

[TexansSeminole]

Originally Posted by austintexanite

I agree that Ron is not going to every bust one for 80 and take it home, but the guy has played well. I do think we need to find a RB that is capable of breaking massive gains, but for now Ron is our rb, and he is playing pretty solid.

He has played well for Ron Dayne. He is really getting good blocking on some of these plays and it would be nice to have a RB that could take full advantage of it. He is playing well enough for me to be happy with him as our backup, but like you said we need to find another running back that is capable of breaking bigger runs.

Sometimes people on here (not directed at you austintexanite) take a statement to mean something more than it is. For example, people criticizing Ron Dayne and others defending Dayne by saying that he was not the reason we lost the game. People are not saying that he is the reason we lost the game, just that there is room for alot of improvement. People seem to do this quite often on these boards.

[TexansSeminole]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

You watch to many highlight reels. That doesn't happen all the time.

How about the fact that when we've put other guys behind that same line, they never do as well as Dayne does.

Two things:

1. It does happen quite often, and should have happened once or twice today, however Dayne is just too slow to create enough seperation from the defenders to get into the open field. I'm not saying he has to break a 80 yard run, as one of these other posters was saying. I am just saying some of these 5-10 yard carries he had could have easily gone for 20-30.

2. What other guys? Ahman Green with a bone on bone knee problem. Echemandu? Samkon Gado? ooOOooooOOOoOO. Dayne is the best runner on our roster at this point, but that isn't saying very much.

Again, I think he can play backup well for us, but he should not be considered a starter. (Speaking about 2008)

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by TexansSeminole

Do some of you just come on here to snipe at people?

"You can't be serious. "Just seven yards". Well do you want eight?!" You can't understand what I am trying to say? Ok, well, communicating my point to you is over. It cannot be done. Just put me on mute or something.

If you can't understand it, and then when I explain it pretty clearly and you still don't understand it why even post again? Why not give up on understanding my stupid logic.

Some of you people don't even make arguments or have a discussion. You just comment on other people's posts. What for?

ummmm... and your point would beeeeeee....?
J/K
Actually, you're missing OUR point. Like someone said earlier, Ron is who we thought he was. He was brought back to spell Ahman Green and carry the load in the 4th qtr when, presumably, we were protecting a lead.

Even ages ago when he won the Heisman up at Wisconsin, he was a between-the-tackles guy who ran over people, not away from them.

Would I rather have someone with power AND speed? Of course. Just make sure that, like Ron, he doesn't fumble and picks up the blitz, oh will play hurt.

Most of the teams that have those guys aren't giving them up.

Are there any of those guys in the upcoming draft? Maybe. But I don't want to take a RB before we take either a playmaking FS, a shutdown CB, or a stud LT.

Maybe F/A is the answer. Oh wait, we tried that didn't we?

[alphajoker]

I don't know about the balance but I think he limits the offensive playcalling. Other than the occasional screen pass, he's not a very good receiving back, IMO.