Would love to know what happened to the guy. I know he was dinged up the last 1/2 of 2010, but even this year he doesn't have the explosiveness and seems to run so tentatively like he's scared to get injured.
I'm pretty convinced the coaches got after him so much after some early-season fumbles that he was so worried about not fumbling or taking a big hit that he wasn't running anymore. That's what led to all the awkward slides and stops. Also, the play-calling changed to try to limit his carries.
Toward the end of the season, I though he was actually getting back into the flow. Not with the big runs but not so much of the awkwardness. He even lowered his shoulder a couple times - didn't run over anyone but at least didn't looked scared of contact. Hopefully it'll will get back closer to his earlier form.
Your take is my best guess too.
All the grief about fumbles, hogging the ball, needing to be a game manager "and" Bo/Beck telling him to do almost anything to keep away from contact (they weren't as sold on Carnes as the internet genius crowd) had him almost abandon running the ball this year.
So, agree with that or not at least I can see their point. However, with this being the last game of the year and knowing it will be a tough one I would think.....
let him run.
