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There are some interesting stats posted at the Carolina Panthers official team website. Andrew Mason points out that the tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, among other things, is just the third since 1960 to each run for 10-plus touchdowns.
The Panthers are also only the second team ever to have a 1,500-yard rushing and a second rusher with over 800 yards, joining O.J. Simpson and Jim Braxton from the 1975 Buffalo Bills.
And Williams and Stewart are the first combo ever to each run for over 10 TDs and combine for over 2,000 yards.
The article can be accessed at Panthers.com
There are some interesting numbers, there. I will point out, however, that he's carefully wording it. Note that he usually talks about RUSHING touchdowns, rather than touchdowns -- since neither Williams nor Stewart caught many passes. There have been other tandems of running backs who each scored 10-plus touchdowns.
I keep track of some of those numbers in my own files, and since 1980, I'm seeing other teams that had multiple running backs score 10-plus touchdowns (when receptions are also included). Cincinnati 1985 (James Brooks, Larry Kinnebrew), Cincinnati 1988 (Brooks, Ickey Woods), Cleveland 1985 (Earnest Byner, Kevin Mack), Cleveland 1991 (Mack, Leroy Hoard) and Kansas City (Priest Holmes, Larry Johnson).
There was even another team last year with two running backs in double digits for touchdowns -- Tennessee, with LenDale White and Chris Johnson.
Still, an interesting list of stats to look at.
—Ian Allan
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Posted by JODY SMITH | Feb. 10 at 02:25 AM
Good stuff Ian. The question is, how do you think White, Johnson, Williams, or Stewart will score in 2009? Any other teams that you think could have dynamic scoring duos?
Posted by IAN ALLAN | Feb. 10 at 04:01 AM
You hear a lot of talk about how the running back by committee approach is on the rise. But I'm not 100 percent this is true. A reader sent me an e-mail a year or two back suggesting that he believed the opposite was true. That's something that I'll be looking at within the next month or so. As for this particular team, I see Jonathan Stewart as a viable player. He's good enough -- and may be even better in his second year -- that I would be nervous about taking DeAngelo Williams too high. At least that's my early lean. Williams was simply amazing late last year.
Posted by JODY SMITH | Feb. 10 at 05:56 AM
I agree about Williams. If he were that talented, how do you explain the rather pedestrian numbers his first two years? It might help my keeper league if you'd go ahead and put him on the cover if the Index this year....
Posted by IAN ALLAN | Feb. 10 at 07:39 AM
I think DeAngelo Williams is for real. He's got talent. It just took him a couple of years to adjust to the pro game (plus the Panthers inexplicably kept him behind DeShaun Foster for two years). I remember prior to the 2006 wondering how he would have performed if he had been transposed in college for Reggie Bush (who was in the same draft). Bush averaged a record 7.3 yards per carry at Southern Cal, but Williams averaged 6.3 yards per carry his final year playing as the marked man on a lesser Memphis team. When Carolina took him, they quietly said they were shocked New England selected Laurence Maroney ahead of him. Nowadays, I think pretty much everyone would take Williams ahead of either Maroney or Bush.