Pittsburgh Steelers' running back Rashard Mendenhall had very little impact in the Steelers' victory over the Arizona Cardinals. He had just 13 carries for 32 yards and caught a five-yard pass.
Last week Mendenhall shut a lot of his haters up with a 23 carry-146 yard performance in a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. I loved the way Mendenhall ran the ball in that game. He ran more north-to-south instead of east-to-west.
Against the Jaguars, Mendenhall didn't hesitate or try to tip-toe at the line of scrimmage like he usually does. He ran the ball straight ahead, and made people miss laterally in the open field.
Against the Cardinals, Mendenhall was stopped in the backfield on 4 different occasions s and even though the run-blocking wasn't anything to brag about, Mendenhall's performance was dreadful to say the least.
Issac Redman and Mewelde Moore combined for 12 carries and 55 yards, almost double what Mendenhall did with just one less carry. How come those guys were so much more effective behind the same offensive line.
It's not that they're better, just more consistent. Mendenhall's performance last week was the complete opposite of how he played this week. With Mendenhall at running back you have great talent and potential with a lot of inconsistency.
There's no doubt that Mendenhall is the most talented running back on the team but his inconsistent play is frustrating to say the least. He's also not the easiest player to root for because of the stupid things he says off the field. Mendenhall, who blocks me on twitter, has compared the NFL to slavery, and has defended Osama Bin Laden on twitter, which lead me to dub Mendenhall a great nickname, "Osama Bin Mendenhall".
For the season Mendenhall has just one 100-yard rushing game in five starts. He has 341 rushing yards in 94 attempts, averaging a measly 3.6 yards per attempt. That is just not good enough for a guy considered a top ten back in the NFL.
Mendenhall is on pace for a sub-1000-yard rushing season. This from a guy the Steelers drafted in the first round. Mendenhall is starting to drift towards being very overrated at this point.
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