Week 2 of the 2015 NFL season is gone and the Houston Texans are reeling from a 24-17 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Ryan Mallett has replaced Brian Hoyer as the starting quarterback in an attempt to breathe some life into the offense, but the results were the same.
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A slow start again by the offense begs the question, what other positions need to see some change. The answer there is another position in the offensive backfield, the running back.
A review of Alfred Blue career highlights would be to as exciting as watching a snail race on a salted track. In reflection on his short career with the Texans, the question that comes to mind is why isn’t there more pressure on him to be more effective? He was handed the de-facto starting running back job when Arian Foster suffered a groin tear early into training camp.
To be frank I think that it was a huge mistake to give such a critical role to someone who to be brutally honest hasn’t done much more than effectively cover punts and kickoffs and sign autographs for kids after practice. For his career to date, Blue has two touchdowns and 570 yards, and averages an eye-popping 3.1 yards per carry (sarcastic stare).
The sand in the hour-glass that is Arian Foster‘s career is obviously running out, so why does a guy like Blue who has done so little has been able to escape scrutiny? The Texans now have a guy on the bench who can potentially exceed Blue’s production as both as a runner and on special teams and his name is Chris Polk.
Polk has roughly 1/3 of Blue’s carries in his short career, and has already scored 7 touchdowns with an average of 4.4 yards per carry while scraping the bottom of the barrel in Philadelphia’s offense behind LeSean McCoy and Darren Sproles.
Polk has shown that he is an explosive runner who can hold on to the ball after contact (cough cough, Hard Knocks Watt hit ), a capable receiver out of the backfield and if you review his resume, you’ll see that he spent some time in kickoff return duty in Philly as well, with a 102 yard kickoff return for a touchdown (does anyone else think that the return unit can use a boost as well)?
Fortunately for the Texans it appears that Foster is on the mend and will be back much sooner than originally expected, but I think that the backup position should be earned. Perhaps it’s time for the Texans to sample some “chicken & shrimp” into their offensive diet.