From: ronnie@uts.amdahl.com (Ronnie Townsend)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: Benchmark = OJ
Date: 16 Dec 92 17:55:53 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <1992Dec16.020519.26992@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> Michael.P.Colburn@dartmouth.edu (Michael P. Colburn) writes:
>In article <1992Dec15.220452.15916@asl.dl.nec.com>
>nix@aslslc43.asl.dl.nec.com (David Nix) writes:
>
>> I think you are right.  I believe Jim Brown owns the record for most yards per
>> game during a season, but it was during a 12-game season earlier in his career.
>> Perhaps that is why everyone (including me) thinks he did it in 12 games.
>
>Nope...OJ has that one too.  143 yards per game in the 2,003yd season
>in '73.
>Brown's best year for yardage per game was 133 per game in '63 (the
>year of his best total yards/year: 1,863).  The stat that a friend and
>I argue over from time to time is that in '73, OJ averaged 6.0 yards
>per carry.  In '63, Jim Brown average 6.4 yards per carry.  If Brown
>had carried the ball 332 times like Simpson did in '73, Brown would
>have piled up a whopping 2,125 yards in 14 games!  I know this doesn't
>mean shit, but it's always a good stat to toss out in the heat of an
>Simpson/Brown agrument...

You're right it don't mean shit. Juice ran at 6.8 yards a clip in 1975. He was
league mvp and scored an amazing 23 tds that year! I believe he was the last 
non-kicker to lead the league in scoring. 

>
>One mark that will be hard to eclipse is Jim Brown's career mark of
>5.22 yards per carry.

Agreed.. today's defensive players are too big, too fast and too good. 

>
>> I wasn't around to watch Brown, but I remember OJ, and there has been none
>> like him in my time.  I remember one classic Simpson outing: he rushes for
>> 275 yards including a long run where he made a 90 degree cut through the
>> line at full speed and was 5 yards behind the safties before they could
>> even turn around.  He scored 2 TDs, and Buffalo lost 28-14.
>
>I agree with you, Dave...OJ was one of the most electrifying runners
>every to play the game.  I can even remember when he played at USC
>(yep, I'm that old...God, how he could make a tackler miss!  Oh, and
>sorry to be so picky, but I believe the game you are referring to was a
>loss to Detroit in 1976 where OJ ran for 273 yards...Buffalo lost
>27-14.

I've seen enough of Jim Brown to know that he'd do just fine in today's 
game. The thing is, he wouldn't average 5.2 yards per carry. Not when 
linebackers have 4.5 speed and DB's have to run 4.3 or stay home. The 
strongest argument I have ever heard in the Juice/Brown debate is that O.J. 
averaged ~100 carries per year in Buffalo until Lou Saban showed up. He also 
average more than 5 yards per carry in those years. If Lou Saban had been the 
coach in O.J.'s first three years and given him the ball 300+ times a year 
then we'd have to add another 3000 yards to O.J.'s career stats. That would 
place him way above Brown and just behind Payton in career yards. It would also
add 20-30 TD's to his total. I read an article in SI back in the mid-70's 
that projected O.J.'s numbers back over those first three years and they 
predicted he would have passed Brown in the middle of his 8th year in the 
league. It's not O.J.'s fault he played for an idiotin his first three years 
in the league any more than the knee injury detracts from Sayers' stature 
among the game's greats. Payton was a better blocker and receiver than either
Brown or Simpson but not as dominant a runner. Not that he  wasn't dominant,
just not like Brown and Simpson. 
>
>The best single rushing day for a RB...Walter Payton, 275 yards against
>Minnesota in 1977.  

Except on this day!  Of course I might point out that he took 41 carries to
get what O.J. got in 29, but that would be petty. 
-- 
Ronnie
-------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not cynical... I just don't believe in anything....