The Seattle Seahawks gave their two top running backs, Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny, a chance to play in the second preseason game of the year on Sunday evening.
A quick look at the stats and it is clear that Carson had the upper hand. He carried the ball five times for 25 yards, while also hauling in one pass for a three-yard gain.
Penny on the other hand had six carries which went for a disastrous -2 yards, although he did have two receptions for 10 yards.
Of course, Carson had the luxury of running behind Seattle’s starting offensive line, which included Justin Britt, D.J. Fluker and Duane Brown.
Penny was running behind Seattle’s second unit, a unit that was without Phil Haynes, Jordan Simmons, Jamarco Jones and George Fant – so it was more like the team’s third or fourth unit.
Thus, coach Pete Carroll was quick to absolve Penny of any blame for his poor performance on Sunday.
“Couldn’t get going,” Carroll said after the game. “He had nothing to do with it. There were plays we had leakage [so he] couldn’t get started.”
Penny was frequently getting hit two or three yards behind the line of scrimmage on Sunday, an issue that Seattle will need to address if injuries continue to pile up on the offensive line.
However, Penny was praised for his ability to make tacklers miss coming out of college, and his slow, methodical strategy of waiting for a hole to open up will not work if he cannot make oncoming tacklers miss.
Carroll went on to say that Penny ‘needs some space’ and that the team needs to block better for him – which is obviously true – but Penny needs to show some instincts running the football and less hesitation if he truly wants to be a feature-back in Seattle’s backfield this season.
