Hervoyel
BUENO!
There's a nice little article about Dayne in todays Chronicle.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4427774.html
When we signed Ron Dayne I got very optimistic. I looked at his career stats, saw the very good average he posted with Denver last year, and made some assumptions about him right away. I thought he was going to blow up here and that if he was used in the right system (ours and Denvers for instance) on a steady basis then he would become the running back he was expected to be when he was drafted. I looked at his time in New York and saw that he rarely if ever got the number of carries that he seemed to need to get going and that his arrival there coincided with the emergence of Tiki Barber. I concluded that he would suprise everyone here and be a beast for us.
Then he didn't do any of that.
Instead he played as badly as our other backs and looked like another Kubiak "Denver Legacy" pickup that must have been signed to make Gary more comfortable with his roster. Of course I knew about the turf toe but I discounted it too easily and within a few weeks of Dayne playing I backtracked on all my initial expectations. I wrote him off as another Stacey Mack who wouldn't make much of an impact for us and be gone the next year.
The past four weeks have been a real eye opener for me and I'm sorry I didn't have more faith in him. I know this excercise is familiar to anyone who's been following Domanick Davis career over the years but if you take Daynes numbers over the past four weeks and average them out you find that he's averaged 107 yards per game in that time. Multiplied by 16 games that would come out to around 1700 yards.
Obviously you can't say for certain that he'd run like this all year long until we actually see him do it. We all used to look at Domanick Davis and figure up what he would have run for IF he'd stayed healthy all year long so I figured I'd do the same with Ron Dayne. I believe that even if he didn't make it through an entire year he'd at least outperform Domanick in a typical season.
Daynes December is IMO consistent production. He obviously had a big game against Indianapolis who at 32nd against the run seem tailor made for a back like him to explode on but he did very well against Tennessee and New England as well. Neither of those teams are sporting "Colts like" run defenses. The Texans end the season against Cleveland this Sunday and they happen to be the 31st ranked run defense. I expect another heavy day on the ground and if Dayne is healthy enough to go then he'll probably wrap this year up with another 100 yard effort.
Personally I like a team with a big back. I grew up watching the Oilers and Earl Campbell and I have always associated a powerful running game with a successful team. During the Oilers Run-and-Shoot years I missed seeing a good running game. I think the Texans would be nuts to not give Dayne a shot at being the guy next year. If they think they need to go get someone else to be that faster change-of-pace back then go find him but I'd try to make 20-30 carries from Ron Dayne a staple of my offense next season. I think he's got at least two more years left in him at that pace. Probably more like three to four years. Plus I absolutely love the idea of a player who is grateful for a legitimate chance to play. A guy like Dayne who clearly appreciates the shot he's been given and who seemingly wants to prove that he wasn't a bust (but was rather mis-utilized) is something we can really use here. Someone who sounds genuinely grateful to be here is a real nice change of pace I think.
I'm going to flip-flop back to what I was saying at the start of the season. I'm going to apologize to Ron Dayne (in fact I'm doing it right now) and jump on that bandwagon. I think he's got a real future here if the Texans are smart enough to keep feeding that man the ball.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4427774.html
When we signed Ron Dayne I got very optimistic. I looked at his career stats, saw the very good average he posted with Denver last year, and made some assumptions about him right away. I thought he was going to blow up here and that if he was used in the right system (ours and Denvers for instance) on a steady basis then he would become the running back he was expected to be when he was drafted. I looked at his time in New York and saw that he rarely if ever got the number of carries that he seemed to need to get going and that his arrival there coincided with the emergence of Tiki Barber. I concluded that he would suprise everyone here and be a beast for us.
Then he didn't do any of that.
Instead he played as badly as our other backs and looked like another Kubiak "Denver Legacy" pickup that must have been signed to make Gary more comfortable with his roster. Of course I knew about the turf toe but I discounted it too easily and within a few weeks of Dayne playing I backtracked on all my initial expectations. I wrote him off as another Stacey Mack who wouldn't make much of an impact for us and be gone the next year.
The past four weeks have been a real eye opener for me and I'm sorry I didn't have more faith in him. I know this excercise is familiar to anyone who's been following Domanick Davis career over the years but if you take Daynes numbers over the past four weeks and average them out you find that he's averaged 107 yards per game in that time. Multiplied by 16 games that would come out to around 1700 yards.
Obviously you can't say for certain that he'd run like this all year long until we actually see him do it. We all used to look at Domanick Davis and figure up what he would have run for IF he'd stayed healthy all year long so I figured I'd do the same with Ron Dayne. I believe that even if he didn't make it through an entire year he'd at least outperform Domanick in a typical season.
Daynes December is IMO consistent production. He obviously had a big game against Indianapolis who at 32nd against the run seem tailor made for a back like him to explode on but he did very well against Tennessee and New England as well. Neither of those teams are sporting "Colts like" run defenses. The Texans end the season against Cleveland this Sunday and they happen to be the 31st ranked run defense. I expect another heavy day on the ground and if Dayne is healthy enough to go then he'll probably wrap this year up with another 100 yard effort.
Personally I like a team with a big back. I grew up watching the Oilers and Earl Campbell and I have always associated a powerful running game with a successful team. During the Oilers Run-and-Shoot years I missed seeing a good running game. I think the Texans would be nuts to not give Dayne a shot at being the guy next year. If they think they need to go get someone else to be that faster change-of-pace back then go find him but I'd try to make 20-30 carries from Ron Dayne a staple of my offense next season. I think he's got at least two more years left in him at that pace. Probably more like three to four years. Plus I absolutely love the idea of a player who is grateful for a legitimate chance to play. A guy like Dayne who clearly appreciates the shot he's been given and who seemingly wants to prove that he wasn't a bust (but was rather mis-utilized) is something we can really use here. Someone who sounds genuinely grateful to be here is a real nice change of pace I think.
I'm going to flip-flop back to what I was saying at the start of the season. I'm going to apologize to Ron Dayne (in fact I'm doing it right now) and jump on that bandwagon. I think he's got a real future here if the Texans are smart enough to keep feeding that man the ball.