Trent Richardson hasn't made a big splash thus far. He's also playing against that tough Seattle defense that held Frank Gore under 2 yards per carry. But don't be too quick to write off the Indianapolis back.
The Seahawks defense, most notably, isn't quite the same when it's away from CenturyLink. It's good, and it's been able to come up with timely plays to win games at Carolina and Houston. But it's not invincible.
Arian Foster, for example, went for 102 yards last week and caught a short touchdown. And he's not the first. If you look at Seattle's last nine road games, in fact, you'll see that the starting tailbacks for the other teams have actually fared pretty well.
| Home tailbacks against Seattle | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner | Att | Yards | Avg | TD |
| Frank Gore, S.F. | 16 | 131 | 8.2 | 0 |
| Mikel Leshoure, Det. | 10 | 46 | 4.6 | 0 |
| Reggie Bush, Mia. | 14 | 87 | 6.2 | 1 |
| Matt Forte, Chi. | 21 | 66 | 3.1 | 2 |
| C.J. Spiller, Buff. | 17 | 103 | 6.1 | 1 |
| Alfred Morris, Wash. | 16 | 80 | 5.0 | 0 |
| Michael Turner, Atl. | 14 | 98 | 7.0 | 0 |
| DeAngelo Williams, Car. | 16 | 76 | 4.8 | 0 |
| Arian Foster, Hou. | 27 | 102 | 3.8 | 1 |
| Average: | 17 | 88 | 5.4 | .55 |
History buffs will also recall that only twice before have running backs of Richardson's ilk been traded to new teams during the season. Both of those guys had huge days in their first games at home. Herschel Walker ran for 148 yards against Green Bay, and Eric Dickerson went for 138 against the Chargers.
Ahmad Bradshaw has a neck deal, so he's not going to play. Richardson should be pretty much a full-time type back in this game, and he could be surprisingly good.
--Ian Allan
@endtable