George The Key

Mike Keith: A Playoff Run

I hosted a daily radio call-in show for over nine years. Before and after that, I have hosted weekly call-in shows, magazine-type call-in shows, pregame call-in shows and postgame call-in shows.

In other words, I've hosted a few call-in shows.

Anyway, last week, I experienced a first. A caller, an actual person, said the following: 'I think that we need to run the ball more.'

Even after the paramedics brought me back to life, I was still amazed. As a call-in show host, I have heard all of the following with regularity:

'When are we going to open up the offense?'

'When are we going to throw deep?'

'Why won't we throw to the tight end?'

But I had never heard: 'I think that we need to run the ball more.'

The caller's reference followed the Tennessee Titans' Dec. 5 game at Baltimore. In that game, the Titans rushed the football just 14 times for just 65 yards. The Titans threw a total of 53 passes, meaning the pass-to-run ratio for the Tennessee offense was nearly 4-to-1. That's a pretty 'wide open' offense.

Final score: Baltimore 41, Tennessee 14. The 'wide open' offense did not work that day.

Against the Oakland Raiders last Thursday, the Titans promised to get back to the basics of offensive balance. In the game, the Titans threw 20 passes. Tennessee ran the ball 31 times. Final score: Tennessee 21, Oakland 14.

Eddie George keyed the attack with the second-best performance of his career: 28 carries for 199 yards and 2 touchdowns. George also caught 6 passes for 50 yards, giving him 249 yards of total offense. The commitment to running game was obvious early, even if it wasn't wildly effective in the first half. By making the commitment, however, George was able to establish a rhythm, as was his fullback Lorenzo Neal and his offensive line. Fact is, a team has to work at running the football.

The best NFL teams make that commitment. Last year's Super Bowl participants, Atlanta and Denver, featured an 1,800+ yard rusher (the Falcons' Jamal Anderson) and a 2,000+ yard rusher (the Broncos' Terrell Davis). The Jets made the AFC Championship game with Curtis Martin rushing for 1,287 yards. The Vikings made the NFC Championship game with Robert Smith rushing for nearly 1,200 yards.

But enough of last year. Look at this season.

Edgerrin James is already a 1,000 yard rusher for the upstart Indianapolis Colts. So is Marshall Faulk with the NFC West Champion St. Louis Rams. The Jaguars have the best record in football with James Stewart and Fred Taylor having combined for over 1,200 yards already.

Think about the last 10 winners of Super Bowls and name one who could not run the football effectively. Denver the past two years? We've already mentioned Terrell Davis. The three Dallas Cowboys championship teams? Emmitt Smith and enough said. The 1990 New York Giants? They kept the ball over 40 minutes in their Super Bowl win over Buffalo.

In December and January, if you can't run the football, you can't win in the NFL. You actually can't win big games in high school or college, either, but the column is starting to get long.

As the Tennessee Titans prepare to entertain the Falcons this weekend, there will be lots of calls to the talk shows. Many of them will surround the Tennessee offense, which is having a hard time completing passes to wide receivers. It is a problem and it does need to get better. It likely will with Yancey Thigpen scheduled to return from an ankle injury which has cost him the last 4-1/2 games.

But while all of that talk goes on, many won't bring up the obvious: the Tennessee Titans need to keep feeding the ball to Eddie George to win big games down the stretch.