More thoughts on ths game coming up Thursday-Monday, but let's start with a look at Clinton Portis's 2008 season to date. I think it's safe to say that if the season were to end today, Portis would be handed the NFL MVP Award.
Let's first take a look at his overall season stats:
Wow. Porits has a chance to flirt with a 2,000 yard season. He's also on pace to surpass that mythical number of 370 carries, and though the Redskins acquired Shaun Alexander just a few weeks ago (did you know that?), neither he nor Ladell Betts has taken much of the work load off of Portis' shoulders.
In fact, Portis's carries and production seem to be on the rise this past month. Let's see how he fared in the month of October, a month that saw him tie OJ Simpson as the only backs to have 4 straight games of at least 125 yards rushing on two separate occassions.
Could Porits possibly approach the 2,000 yard plateau? It's not likely, I'd say, but it is worth pointing out that CP typically improves as the season progresses. Last year, his two strongest months were in November (437 yards) and December (392). Same for 2005 (390, 461) and especially 2003, when he ripped off 6 straight 100 yard games to close, finsihing the year with 1,591 yards, a career best.
More on how we'll approach shutting down thie Clinton Portis led offense soon enough, but for now, take a look at those numbers and marvel. Sure would be nice to get that kind of consistent production in the running game, would it not? MVP type stuff from CP.