Ok, forget that missed game. Slaton had 17 more carries and only 58 more yards. You don't think CJ would have made up those 58 Yards?
But thats not the point. Johnson did more for his team. With Lendale we were limited, we stuck in Johnson and did nothing else and look what happened. Pretty much the same defense, same o-line (traded Jacob Bell with Jake Scott) and offensive weapons.
You won't admit it but VY helped the running game, tremendously. Defenses had to worry about his abilities out of the backfield... they forgot about those when Collins was in the game. Put it like this, do you think we would have made the playoffs in '07 with Collins at QB? I don't. I don't think we would have had the running game that we did that year with LenDale/Chris Brown. VY helped that running game get moving. IMO, Collins had success this season only because we could still run the ball, which I attribute to the insertion of Johnson. Put VY in the lineup and the running game gets better (while the passing game suffers, but you should get the point.)