Can RB Rotation Work? Eagles Running a Lot, But Average Is Low

The Eagles have run the ball a lot so far. They just haven’t run it particularly well.

Two games into the 2016 season, the Eagles have the sixth-most carries in the NFL but they rank just 21st in yards per carry.

They’re 2-0, Carson Wentz has been remarkable and the defense has been superb. The running game has been one of the few subpar areas during a terrific start.

“It needs to be better,” offensive coordinator Frank Reich said Thursday. “We expect it to be better.”

The Eagles ran 34 times for 133 yards and a 3.9 average in the win over the hapless Browns and 32 times for 100 yards and a 3.1 average in the win over the Bears.

Both Ryan Mathews (3.5) and Darren Sproles (3.1) are averaging at least a yard below their career averages of 4.5 for Mathews and 5.0 for Sproles.

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“We ran the ball fairly well in the second half Monday night, but still, I really believe that our running game is just going to continue to get better,” Reich said.

“We’ve run it OK at times. I think we have a really good offensive line, I think our backs are good, I just think it’s early in the process. We need to just keep handing them the football.”

It was a little surprising the Eagles weren’t able to run the ball more consistently against the Browns, who ranked 30th in the NFL in rush defense last year.

And Monday night in Chicago, the running game never got going until very late . The Eagles were 11-for-23 rushing until late in the third quarter, when rookie Wendell Smallwood picked up 16 yards on his only two carries of the game.

Mathews, who had 22 carries in the opener, had just nine against the Bears and only three in the first three quarters. Sproles had 12 carries but averaged just 3.1 yards.

Reich said nine carries isn’t enough for Mathews.

“Backs, you want to get 15, 20 carries,” he said.

The task won’t get any easier Sunday afternoon when the Steelers come to town.

The Steelers rank second in the NFL early on in rush defense. They allowed only 55 rushing yards to Washington in the opener and only 46 to the Bengals. They’ve allowed just four rushing first downs, and they’re eighth at 3.4 yards per carry allowed.

"I don’t know for sure, you could look over the last 20 years, this defense is continually in the top five vs. the run," Reich said. "They've got great schemes to stop the run, they've got great personnel to stop the run and they put you into the pass-only mode and then they can run some of their exotic stuff. But I think that’s their strength."

We did look it up, and the Steelers indeed have allowed the fewest rushing yards in the NFL over the last 20 years — 92 per game — and their 3.8 yards allowed during the last two decades is second-best in the NFL during that span, trailing only the Ravens (3.5).

The Eagles, meanwhile, may be victim to their depth at running back.

Kenjon Barner is averaging 7.3 yards per carry but has only six runs. Smallwood had two nice runs Monday but has only three carries in the two games. Sproles and Mathews both have proven track records, although both are averaging well below their career averages.

Head coach Pederson has talked about a running-back-by-committee approach, but Reich talks about how Mathews needs 15 to 20 carries.

Can this system work?

“It can work,” Reich said. “You’ve got to have unselfish players, and Duce (Staley, running backs coach) does a great job with those guys. Some of the different use of the backs is very specific, where coach Pederson puts it in the gameplan that he wants — Sproles in on this play and Ryan in on this play and Kenjon in on this play and Smallwood in on this play — and some of it is just the rotation, and that really comes from the position coach and that’s Duce.

“Duce will talk to Coach and say, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking about how to rotate the guys this week,’ and he gives his plan to Coach Pederson and Coach signs off on that plan and Duce has the freedom to rotate his guys as he sees fit. But other plays are specific, and that’s the way it normally goes.”

The bottom line is the Eagles do need to run the ball better and more consistently, if nothing else to take pressure off rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, who has already thrown 71 passes in two games.

“We ran for 133 yards first game and 100 last game,” Reich said. “That’s OK. That’s acceptable.

“It needs to be better. We expect it to be better. But that’s certainly in the acceptable range. We just need a few more explosive runs, but I think we’re on our way to that.”

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