C.J. Anderson Wins One for the Little Guys

Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com passes on a comment from Broncos running back C.J. Anderson on whether he would feel comfortable handling a bigger load, as he did in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

“‘Oh, I know that’s something I can do,’ Anderson said during a visit to Thursday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. ‘You know, we chose to go the two-back route and we chose to split time with me and Ronnie [Hillman] and just try to get a change of pace. You know, keep defenses off balance. But I mean if they want me to touch the ball 25 times, 27 times, 28 times, either way whether it’s all carries or carries and catches I believe I can handle it always, whether it’s being a third-down back catching the ball out of the backfield or picking up the blitz and also being first- and second-down just every-down back.'”

I like the two back system in part because if one back goes down with an injury, you effectively have another starter ready to pick up the load. And few people could doubt that Anderson can do that following Sunday’s game where he carried the ball 23 times for 100 yards. Anderson not only displayed his burst but at 5’8″ showed a surprising amount of power in this running style. He was hit repeatedly near or behind the line of scrimmage where you thought he was going down only to find out he’d gained as much as three yards after the initial contact.

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