No doubt you've heard about him by now. Two Hundred and ninety pounds of rumbling mass that is the Texas A&M running back, Jorvorskie Lane.
Good God. Does anyone else have terrifying visions of Dan Connor and Sean Lee hanging on this guy as he marches ahead for six yard gains all day?
Lane reminds me a lot of Jerome Bettis. Not particularly fast, but he has quick feet and he gets his momentum going forward quickly. It's only nine plays but from the highlights it looks like A&M uses him almost exclusively up the middle. So I suspect like Bettis if you can get him going sideways he'll fall like a house of cards.
This is why it's important that the defensive tackles clog the middle. Just park there and eat up blockers and don't give up ground. I bet Phil Taylor is eating a second cheesesteak right now. But even if they do stuff the middle I don't think they will get Lane to run sideways. He only lost nine yards on the ground all season. So that tells me even if the middle is jammed he's going to run it straight ahead anyway.
If the defensive tackles can't stand up to the offensive line we're going to be in for a long day. But if they can stand them up and force Lane to lose his momentum it's up to Dan Connor to bring him down. If he can't and we have to depend on Scirrotto or Justin King to bring him down...well, let's not think about that. The defensive ends and outside linebackers will be occupied looking for the fake handoff to Lane to set up the outside option plays. This will leave Connor one-on-one in the middle quite often. How well he does or doesn't do will be a key factor in the game.
| Carries | Rush Yards | Rush TD | YPC | YPG | Catches | Rec. Yards | Rec. TD | YPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 159 | 746 | 16 | 5.0 | 62.2 | 9 | 82 | 1 | 9.1 |