At the halfway point of the season, the league’s most effective short-yardage runner is … Joe Flacco? Well, that’s what the numbers say.
Once per week, I like to look at the overview stats from one of the areas we track – usually passing, rushing or receiving around the end zone. For this week, I’m looking at key rushing plays. That is, when a team needs to pick up 1 yards on either third or fourth down to keep a drive alive, or has the ball on the 1-yard line of an opponent, who does it tend to give the ball, and is that player effective?
Turns out Joe Flacco is the current clubhouse leader. They’ve used him 9 times on quarterback sneaks, and he’s converted all of them. Similarly, Marcus Mariota is 8 for 8 on such plays.
Nine players have handled the ball at least 4 times on such plays and converted every time, and all but one of those players is a quarterback. Phillip Lindsay is the running back leader, hitting on all 5 of his plays.
Three other running backs have converted over 80 percent of such plays: Alvin Kamara, LeGarrette Blount and Derrick Henry.
Five players have run the ball on at least 13 such plays, and they’re all running backs: Todd Gurley, Ezekel Elliott, James Conner, Sony Michel and Jordan Howard. (While Michel has had a lot of those carries, he hasn’t been that effective – 7 of 13.)
Two others have double-digit short-yardage carries, but neither has been that effective. Carlos Hyde has gone 6 of 11, while Alfred Blue has converted 5 of 10. We tend to think of Lamar Miller as Houston’s starting, featured running back, but he has only 1 carry all year when the Texans were looking for a yard – Blue has had 10 times as many attempts.
Other observations.
In Buffalo, Chris Ivory has gone 3 of 5 on these plays, while LeSean McCoy just 0 for 1.
Jordan Howard looks like the main goal-line choice for the Bears. He’s gone 8 of 13 when they’ve been looking for a key yard, while Tarik Cohen is just 0 for 1.
You might logically figure Mark Ingram would be the goal-line back in New Orleans. He’s more of grinder than Alvin Kamara. But Ingram is just 2 for 2 on these kind of plays since coming back for their last four games. With Kamara, they can use Taysom Hill has a zone-read quarterback. Hill is 3 for 3, while Kamara is 6 of 7.
For the Eagles, they’ve used a league-high 8 different players for these kind of plays. Carson Wentz is the only one with 3 attempts.
| "AND ONE" RUSHING (individual leaders) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Good | Pct |
| J.Flacco, BAL | 9 | 9 | 1.000 |
| M.Mariota, TEN | 8 | 8 | 1.000 |
| A.Smith, WAS | 5 | 5 | 1.000 |
| B.Bortles, JAX | 5 | 5 | 1.000 |
| D.Brees, NO | 5 | 5 | 1.000 |
| P.Lindsay, DEN | 5 | 5 | 1.000 |
| S.Darnold, NYJ | 5 | 5 | 1.000 |
| B.Roethlisberger, PIT | 4 | 4 | 1.000 |
| M.Trubisky, CHI | 4 | 4 | 1.000 |
| A.Kamara, NO | 7 | 6 | .857 |
| D.Henry, TEN | 6 | 5 | .833 |
| L.Blount, DET | 6 | 5 | .833 |
| S.Barkley, NYG | 6 | 5 | .833 |
| C.Newton, CAR | 5 | 4 | .800 |
| M.Gordon, LAC | 5 | 4 | .800 |
| K.Hunt, KC | 8 | 6 | .750 |
| A.Peterson, WAS | 4 | 3 | .750 |
| D.Prescott, DAL | 4 | 3 | .750 |
| J.Allen, BAL | 4 | 3 | .750 |
| K.Cousins, MIN | 4 | 3 | .750 |
| M.Mack, IND | 4 | 3 | .750 |
| T.Coleman, ATL | 4 | 3 | .750 |
| E.Elliott, DAL | 15 | 11 | .733 |
| J.Conner, PIT | 14 | 10 | .714 |
| C.Carson, SEA | 7 | 5 | .714 |
| R.Freeman, DEN | 7 | 5 | .714 |
| T.Gurley, LAR | 17 | 12 | .706 |
| A.Collins, BAL | 6 | 4 | .667 |
| M.Lynch, OAK | 8 | 5 | .625 |
| J.Howard, CHI | 13 | 8 | .615 |
| C.Ivory, BUF | 5 | 3 | .600 |
| E.Manning, NYG | 5 | 3 | .600 |
| J.White, NE | 5 | 3 | .600 |
| T.Yeldon, JAX | 5 | 3 | .600 |
| A.Morris, SF | 7 | 4 | .571 |
| J.Mixon, CIN | 9 | 5 | .556 |
| C.Hyde, CLE-JAC | 11 | 6 | .545 |
| S.Michel, NE | 13 | 7 | .538 |
| A.Blue, HOU | 10 | 5 | .500 |
| D.Johnson, ARI | 6 | 3 | .500 |
| I.Crowell, NYJ | 4 | 2 | .500 |
| K.Drake, MIA | 4 | 2 | .500 |
Here are the team totals. Tampa Bay is the only team that’s converted on all of its running plays, but it has a league-low 3 attempts (only three other teams don’t have at least double-digit carries).
Only two teams have converted fewer than half of these kind of running plays – Raiders and Texans. Everyone else is over 54 percent.
| "AND ONE" RUSHING (team totals) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | No | Good | Pct |
| Tampa Bay | 3 | 3 | 1.000 |
| New Orleans | 18 | 16 | .889 |
| Baltimore | 23 | 20 | .870 |
| Denver | 14 | 12 | .857 |
| Tennessee | 19 | 16 | .842 |
| Carolina | 10 | 8 | .800 |
| Philadelphia | 14 | 11 | .786 |
| Minnesota | 9 | 7 | .778 |
| Pittsburgh | 18 | 14 | .778 |
| Kansas City | 13 | 10 | .769 |
| Seattle | 13 | 10 | .769 |
| Washington | 13 | 10 | .769 |
| Detroit | 12 | 9 | .750 |
| Jacksonville | 12 | 9 | .750 |
| NY Giants | 12 | 9 | .750 |
| NY Jets | 12 | 9 | .750 |
| Dallas | 19 | 14 | .737 |
| Buffalo | 11 | 8 | .727 |
| San Francisco | 18 | 13 | .722 |
| LA Rams | 24 | 17 | .708 |
| Cincinnati | 13 | 9 | .692 |
| Chicago | 19 | 13 | .684 |
| Green Bay | 6 | 4 | .667 |
| Indianapolis | 12 | 8 | .667 |
| Atlanta | 11 | 7 | .636 |
| Arizona | 8 | 5 | .625 |
| Miami | 10 | 6 | .600 |
| New England | 24 | 14 | .583 |
| Cleveland | 16 | 9 | .563 |
| LA Chargers | 11 | 6 | .545 |
| Oakland | 17 | 8 | .471 |
| Houston | 13 | 6 | .462 |
—Ian Allan