Here are 3 running plays to Miller for -5 yards. Take that away and Thomas has a 5.5 yard average in preseason. That said, with the vanilla run game in pre season, I wouldn't count Miller out as our option in the red zone but the coaches have to be more creative than hand off to a single set back at the 5 yard line against good rushing D's. 2-10-TB 10 (9:12) 26-L.Miller left end to TB 10 for -5 yards (23-M.Barron). Penalty on MIA, Illegal Formation, declined. 2-10-TB 10(8:45) 17-R.Tannehill pass short left to 26-L.Miller to TB 8 for 2 yards (21-M.Adams). 3-8-TB 8(8:02) (Shotgun) 17-R.Tannehill pass incomplete to 11-M.Wallace [94-A.Clayborn]. PENALTY on TB, Illegal Contact, 4 yards, enforced at TB 8 - No Play. 1-4-TB 4(7:54) 26-L.Miller right tackle to TB 4 for no gain (59-M.Foster). 2-4-TB 4(7:20) 26-L.Miller right tackle to TB 4 for no gain (93-G.McCoy).
He raised his hand and tapped his helmet repeatedly and they called him to the sideline. He took his helmet off and was sucking air. They even talked about it on the broadcast.
No, it was after like a 5 yarder. It was in the first or second series. Dude needs to be running sprints from now til opening day.
It was the 12:28 mark of the first quarter. Yeah he had a run to the left side and tapped himself out. The taking off the helmet thing was an artificial memory but he was gassed and took a splash of gatorade.
Say what you want about the stats of each, but it's obvious that Miller has a leg up on any of the other guys. If Miller had been in the same position as both Gray and Gillislee in certain situations during the game, you just know he'd have gotten more yards.... One of the notes I made on the game the second time around was that while Thomas isn't the runner that Miller is, he does pretty much everything else just as well or better than Miller. I think he's more natural catching the ball and his blocking was very good (as was Miller's). I don't think Thomas is threatening Miller's #1 spot, but he'll be a good complement to him in the running game. Now, if we can resolve the RG spot...JJ seemed to do well but had limited snaps. Samuda was a bit shaky again, to me...
Pouncey had the one bad miss. The other play that was stuffed from the left side was Incognito's man, not Pouncey's. On the other hand, I think people fail to realize just how quickly Pouncey got outside and threw a lead block on Miller's long run. That was IMPRESSIVE.
Back to the original premise of the thread, I think it's pretty clear that Lamar Miller is the starter and Daniel Thomas will be the backup. As far as a competition between Gillislee and Gray, I've noticed that Gillislee plays on a lot of special teams. If there's one thing that separates the two, it might come down to that. I also think he's proved to be a more natural pass catcher than Gray. As far as running ability, I just hope that one or the other separates himself against the Saints Thursday. I think both of them will get a lot of carries.
LOL, REALLY?? Vs Tampa we came out to start the 2nd half with our backup OL and the Bucs kept their starters in til the 4th. DT ran with our starters vs their starters, Gil and Gray ran with our BACKUPS vs their starters. But you figure some how DT had it tougher and should be given the edge because he ran more in the first half?? Wow!! Nice logic
DT had an awful game against TB. He was falling against arm tackles, and his vision was obviously blurry.
The fumble was a killer and after his initial run, Gray was very unimpressive, but he has done well in short yardage runs to the extent that he may be kept around because of this ability.
You do understand that when writing of the "preseason" it encompasses more than just the tampa game, right? Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2
Do you guys realize that Tampa was #1 against the run last season and really haven't lost anyone of consequence in regards to run D ?? That would very much describe the fact that our RBs, other than the first run by Miller, were putrid against them. There is no reason to single out DT as worse Saturday than Miller except for that one run... Look, Thomas was the toast of the town last week and suddenly threatening Miller's spot as #1 (although I never believed that)... I will say that in watching the game a second time, Thomas does a lot things very well. He's much more fluid receiving the ball than Miller and his blocking is better, although admittedly Miller was doing well in that area too. I question Thomas's explosiveness and ability to find the holes some, but it's not like he's about to lose his roster spot...
I think it is safe to say we know the #1 and 2 backs. Question really comes from Gillie and Gray. Personally, I think that fumble late in the game (where it did not even look like a big hit) will doom Gray. The last few games he has looked slow and spent. Now neither has looked good, but more often than not when they are in, they are seeing two Defensive players in their face before or right as they get the ball. Not much you can do there. Unless there is some surprise cut somewhere, I think it is Miller, Thomas, and Gillie.
No answer. So I googled running back success rate and Reggie Bush was top-10 in the league on success rates for runners with more than 100 carries. 51%. Higher than a lot of notable names. Success rate determined by down and distance.
How does that site define their success rate? http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/RB Reggie Bush top 10, based on down and distance. Huge variance here. Of course they excluded RB's without 100 carries, so Miller wasn't included.
First, I don't recall it being their starters against our back-up OL. I'm pretty sure that was Tampa's second D. And second, our staring OL is better at pass pro than at run blocking. IMO our back-up OL is better at run blocking than pass pro. There was clearly more running space from the 3rd quarter on.
For the record, Jonas Gray's first carry of the game (a 10 yard run) came behind the 1st string OL. By the time we got to his second carry (which happened on the same drive), the backup OL was in...but the Bucs still had starters on defense out on the field through the remainder of the drive. With the exception of defensive tackle Akeem Spence I think the Buccaneers subbed out all of their defensive starters by the following drive. But then again some here have argued in the past that players expected to be active and rotated in on game day should be considered 'starters' so perhaps NCFINFAN is correct after all.
Well obviously if it is the same guys the back would run against in a regular season game are in then it should be considered playing against the starters. I only saw one of the four d-lineman that ESPN listed as the starters in on that first run by Gray. They seemed to be in a 3-4, maybe they were expecting pass which could explain why the hole Gray had was so big. I don't see any comparison between the amount of running room Gray had and what Thomas faced in the first half.