Was Carson too injured to run up the middle?

I can't tell if Carson was just so banged up he couldn't run up the middle in which case we should of played Alex Collins...

or if Schottenheimer was deliberately calling all these sideline passes AND runs... that were gaining like 1 yard at best all game.

I think the sideline passes can work well for us if our plays break down but it seemed like this game (especially early I will have to re-watch more of the game after I throw up)... it seemed in this game we were just going to that as our first reads and it was a pathetically pu$$y approach in my opinion.

So I'm not sure if we had a game plan Carson couldn't execute or if Schottenheimer set us up to lose and play like bi%*(% from the start.

Forgot the point we ran Carlos Hyde on a 3rd and 1 play... if Carson was healthy shouldn't he be the 100% obvious option for this play?

Tokadub":2i0jqp63 said:

I can't tell if Carson was just so banged up he couldn't run up the middle in which case we should of played Alex Collins...

or if Schottenheimer was deliberately calling all these sideline passes AND runs... that were gaining like 1 yard at best all game.

I think the sideline passes can work well for us if our plays break down but it seemed like this game (especially early I will have to re-watch more of the game after I throw up)... it seemed in this game we were just going to that as our first reads and it was a pathetically pu$$y approach in my opinion.

So I'm not sure if we had a game plan Carson couldn't execute or if Schottenheimer set us up to lose and play like bi%*(% from the start.

Forgot the point we ran Carlos Hyde on a 3rd and 1 play... if Carson was healthy shouldn't he be the 100% obvious option for this play?

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That’s my guess. Carson has been timid hitting holes lately, and dancing in the backfield too much.
Don’t be surprised to find out he was much more hurt then they let on.

I put it in the Gameday chat that the sideline seems to be his best friend ala Chris Warren.

Carson did not have anywhere near his career carries per game this year. He had a max of 17 carries (week 2 vs Pats). This compares to breaking 20 in roughly half his active games prior and nearing 30 multiple times and breaking 30 once. He also had his highest career yds/carry this year (though not by much).

So it is interesting, at least. There was speculation that he was still nicked up or Pete was saving him for the playoffs. He went 16/77 against LA, so it wasn't like he wasn't effective. It seemed to me that there wasn't a lot of room to run inside. I've mentioned it before that a lot of Carson's runs seem predictable and slow in developing before the exchange (kinda like the pick six/they saw it coming). And I don't think our lineman won a lot on Saturday. But I would agree that he didn't seem to be hitting the hole as consistently/decisively as past seasons.

Dunno what it all means. My guess is something was up. If he wasn't still hurt somehow I would have run him like crazy vs Rams.