You knew, late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLI, that Peyton Manning was going to garner MVP honors. His numbers (25 of 38, 247 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) were good but not great, though he was brutally efficient. Plus, no other player really posted dominant numbers.
Highly publicized quarterbacks in these circumstances will usually get the MVP nod.
But it was the Indy running game that really deserved the award, and maybe even decision-maker
Bill Polian.
The Cardinals were overpaying for an aging back. The Colts were losing the most productive running back in history. And James was leaving a proven winner for a proven loser.
A lose-lose-lose situation if ever we saw one.
Turns out we were two-thirds right – or one-third wrong for those Indy fans out there reveling in the brutal ass-whupping that we're suffering this postseason at the hands of our own baby, the Cold, Hard Football Facts. Clearly, the rock 'em-sock 'em fists of fury of our very own football Frankenstein do not discriminate when it comes time to dish out fact-filled beatings.
Call it pigskin patricide, and we are the victims.
Looking back, we should have learned from a classic old maxim: If the Cardinals are involved in something, anything, bet against them. Here's how it all unfolded:
The Cardinals ...
... were again a failure, with a miserable 5-11 record – four of those wins coming in the dreadful NFC West. It's the same record they had in 2005. But their offense did improve: The Cardinals scored 311 points in 2005 ... and 314 in 2006.
James ...
... was terrible in Arizona. He averaged a career-low 3.4 YPA, and ran for 1,159 yards – the lowest output of his career when he's played 15 or more games. He also scored just six TDs and, for the first time in his career, did not have a single run of 20 yards or more.
The Colts ...
... didn't miss a beat. In fact, they were better this year than they ever were with James in the backfield, as evidenced by the shiny silver trophy they hoisted Sunday night.
In the Super Bowl, Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai combined for 190 yards rushing and 74 through the air, which sounds like a heck of an argument for co-MVP. But sharing is great when you're 3 years old. It's not so great when you're looking for attention from MVP voters.
Still, Polian and the Colts recognized that replacing James wasn't as hard as conventional wisdom or the Cold, Hard Football Facts suggested.
Addai and Rhodes together ran for 1,722 yards and 12 touchdowns in the regular season, and added another 577 yards through the air.
If that 2,299 yards of total offense sounds a lot like a vintage Edgerrin James stat line, there's a good reason: It is.
Here's how Indy's top tandems stacked up over the past four seasons – including Edge's final three years in Indy.
|
Year |
Tandem |
Rush Att. |
Rush Yards |
Average |
Total Yards |
Total TDs |
|
2003 |
James/Williams |
358 |
1,416 |
3.96 |
1,865 |
14 |
|
2004 |
James/Rhodes |
387 |
1,802 |
4.66 |
2,309 |
13 |
|
2005 |
James/Rhodes |
400 |
1,624 |
4.06 |
2,049 |
14 |
|
2006 |
Addai/Rhodes |
413 |
1,722 |
4.17 |
2,299 |
13 |
Essentially, the Colts backfield this year was as productive as it had been with James carrying the workload.
Clearly, the Colts made the right decision when they let James walk, drafted a highly touted (and less expensive) rookie running back (Addai) to replace him, and spent the savings on wideout Reggie Wayne. As we've learned,
grabbing receivers early in the draft is a long, painful process, so premium pass catchers are like gold to NFL teams.
The tandem issue
As we saw in the 2006 playoffs and throughout the regular season, a pair of running backs can be as effective as a system in which one back gets the bulk of the work. However, a tandem backfield seems to ensure that the "pundits" won't recognize the effectiveness of your running game. They're looking for gaudy numbers from a single player – as if it's more important than gaudy production from a pair of players.
If a team has one excellent tailback, the "pundits" automatically consider this team more dangerous than a club that shares the duties with two tailbacks.
The "pundits," again, are missing the big picture.
Consider the case of Jacksonville's tandem of Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor. They weren't considered Pro Bowl-caliber performers, but their combined production surpassed that of any Pro Bowl performer.
Here's how Jones-Drew/Taylor stacked up this year compared with every Pro Bowl running back (plus their primary backfield mate, to make the comparison fair). We also tossed in Indy's
Super Bowl-winning backfield tandem to show how it compares to the backfields featuring Pro Bowl performers.
|
Tandem |
Team |
Att. |
Rush Yds. |
Avg. |
Total Yds. |
Total TDs |
|
Tomlinson/Turner |
San Diego |
428 |
2,317 |
5.41 |
2,872 |
33 |
|
Drew-Jones/Taylor |
Jacksonville |
397 |
2,089 |
5.26 |
2,765 |
21 |
|
Barber/Jacobs |
N.Y. Giants |
423 |
2,085 |
4.93 |
2,699 |
14 |
|
Jackson/Davis |
St. Louis |
386 |
1,705 |
4.41 |
2,601 |
17 |
|
Johnson/Bennett |
Kansas City |
452 |
1,989 |
4.4 |
2,476 |
17 |
|
Gore/Robinson |
San Francisco |
350 |
1,811 |
5.17 |
2,343 |
11 |
|
Addai/Rhodes |
Indy |
413 |
1,722 |
4.17 |
2,299 |
13 |
|
Parker/Davenport |
Pittsburgh |
397 |
1,715 |
4.32 |
2,130 |
18 |
Jacksonville's tandem was better than anything in a backfield this side of LaDainian Tomlinson. But because they were willing to share – a cardinal rule we all learned as pudgy little pigskin prodigies back in school – Jones-Drew and Taylor were swept into the refuse pile of irrelevance.
The trend over the last few years has been toward the tandem system, a return to the way football was played back in the day. Polian and Indy management saw the trend. In fact, they proved to be among those organizations leading the charge when they dumped James and split his workload between two lower-paid players who turned out to be just as productive.
Today, the Colts have their hands around a Lombardi Trophy that proves their decision was the right one to make.
