Chris Johnson has run for 1,730 yards through 14 games.
And while Vince Young’s continued resurgence is worthily grabbing headlines from an individual standpoint, Chris Johnson’s pursuit of 2,000 yards remains well in the spotlight as well.
Johnson had his lowest yards per carry average of the season in Sunday’s 27-24 win over Miami, but he still topped 100 yards for the ninth straight game and the 10th time this season, rushing for 104 yards on 29 carries.
It’s safe to say that he has the rushing title all but locked up, as the man in second, Steven Jackson, is 377 yards behind him, but he’s also now just 270 yards away from 2,000.
Can he make it, or is he starting to wear down in the home stretch?
Johnson has been a real workhorse over the last few weeks, and while his amount of touches has gone up, his yards and YPC have gone down.
Johnson has toted the ball 84 times in the last three games, and he’s also caught 11 passes, so he’s averaging nearly 32 touches per game in that span.
Being able to shoulder such a big load without it affecting his numbers too much was one of my concerns when it came to Johnson’s pursuit of 2,000 yards, and from a numbers standpoint, that does look to be the case.
However, the mere fact that he’s been able to hit the century mark as many times in a row as he has is amazing in itself, whether it takes him 20 carries or 30. If he can top 100 yards in each of his last two games, he’ll tie Eric Dickerson, Jamals Anderson & Lewis, and Barry Foster for the second-most 100-yard games in a season with 12 (behind Barry Sanders’ 14), and he’ll tie Marcus Allen for second-most consecutive 100-yard games with 11 (behind Sanders’ 14).
Of course, his run at 2,000 yards is secondary to Tennessee’s run at the postseason, and that run has a make-or-break game come Friday against San Diego.
San Diego has allowed only one back to run for more than 100 yards this season, and that was back in Week 4, when Pittsburgh’s Rashard Mendenhall torched the Chargers for 165 yards. However, they have allowed at least 100 total yards on the ground in 12 of 14 games this season, and if Johnson carries the load again like he has recently, he stands a more than fair chance of getting 100+.
The Chargers have already clinched the AFC West, and at 11-3, they’re two games ahead of Cincinnati and New England for the #2 seed in the AFC. They can afford to lose at Tennessee and still be in the driver’s seat for the first-round bye (they host Washington in Week 17), but that doesn’t mean they’ll just sit back and let Johnson and the Titans have their way.
But just as Johnson has found his way to 100 for nine straight weeks, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if he makes it ten straight and puts himself and the Titans in position for a magical Week 17.
