Is Running the Ball Overrated in the NFL?

    Probably not. In most weeks if you look through the football box scores you will see that the team that runs for more yards usually wins at least 67 percent of the time some weeks it's a lot higher. Yet what's been interesting this year is that three teams that have had  very good seasons thus far don't run  the ball very well-the Giants, Patriots, and Packers. The Packers do make up for this by at least playing very good run defense, but the Patriots aren't overly impressive on that side of the run game either and the Giants have done poorly on stopping the run all year.

   So as a Giants fan going in to yesterday's game against the 49ers my concern was that Frank Gore would make mincemeat of the Giants who came in giving up over 121 yard per game. They had given up 100 yard games to teams that weren't really even running teams so you figured playing a running team like the Niners this could be a very tough match up for the G Men. Gore ended up with just 6 rushes for 0 yards and the Giants out gained the Niners on the ground 93-77 and the lost the game 27-20, after winning all these games where they gave up all these rushing yards.

   Then consider the Patriots. Against the Jets they again did not impress on the rushing side of the game either offensively or defensively being out gained 110-60, and blowing out the Jets 37-16 in the Jets home stadium. While I don't doubt that if you want to build a winning football team it's great to start with a good rushing game both offensively and defensively, it is interesting that the top teams in the NFL right now are not top rushing teams but top passing teams. Which is kind of cool really. As to my mind passing teams are a lot more fun to watch. It's great to have a Giants team that is a pass team-wasn't great to lose to the Niners yesterday but that's another converstaion...