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Vikings RB
Robert Smith
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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The play was pure Robert Smith: It was the first play of the
Vikings’ final drive in their Week 14 game against the Lions. Detroit trailed 17-10
in a game that was much closer than most people had anticipated. With about 3½ minutes
left in the game, Lions QB Stoney Case had been sacked on 4th-and-10, giving the Vikings
the ball at the Detroit 43-yard line.
Enter Smith.
He took a handoff from QB Daunte Culpepper, broke through the line, exploded to the
right sideline and was off for 43 yards and a touchdown.
Nothing new here. Not from Smith, one of the best big-play specialists going when it
comes to running backs. After all, he has scored touchdowns on plays of 50 or more yards
14 times in his career, and he’s the only NFL back to have a 70-yard run in each of
the last four seasons.
Old stuff, right? Well, just turn the clock back about two quarters in the Week 14
game. It was the Vikings’ first possession of the game. They had the ball,
4th-and-goal on the 1. Culpepper handed off to Smith, whose 1-yard dive gave the Vikings a
7-0 lead.
This is new, if not news. In years past, Smith wouldn’t have been on the field on
4th-and-1, certainly not in the red zone. That would have been Leroy Hoard’s job. But
as the saying goes, things change.
In an 11-3 season in which the Vikings are strong contenders for a Super Bowl berth,
much of the credit should be given to Smith, whose game has matured. Take his breakaway
speed, which he still has. Add extra muscle and toughness running between the tackles,
good health, a big offensive line and an offensive coordinator determined to run a
balanced attack.
Prepare to be stirred.
"It looks to me like he’s moving to another level," Vikings coach Dennis
Green said.
He should know, being the only NFL head coach Smith has played for.
"The ability to accelerate, to make guys miss ... Robert is moving to another
level as far as a runner," Green said. "Of course, he is still very young.
He’s 28, so he’s really just coming into his own."
In every possible way, this is Smith’s career year:
- He already has run for 1,458 yards, eclipsing his previous high of 1,266 in 1997, which
was also the previous franchise single-season record. Earlier this year he passed Chuck
Foreman to become the team’s career rushing leader.
- He became the fastest running back in Vikings history to reach 1,000 yards when he did
it in his 10th game this year, also becoming the first in Vikings history with four
consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.
- He already has run for a career-high seven touchdowns, and his 10 total TDs are a career
high. Smith is on pace for 2,042 combined yards from scrimmage.
The bottom line on all these stats is that Smith, in every measurable way, is getting
better. Or maybe a better way to put it is that Smith has become a more complete runner,
adding power to his already impressive speed.
"Early in his career, Robert was not very good at making people miss," former
Vikings RB Darrin Nelson said a few weeks back. "He’s improved in two areas.
He’s running smarter; he’s not trying to get the extra half-yard when he
doesn’t need it, where he might get hurt. And it looks to me as if he’s running
a little lower to the ground in the open field, his shoulders low, so he’s not the
same target he was. He’s a little shiftier."
Actually, there are several things that have come together to produce this career year,
including:
HEALTH
Smith fought through numerous injuries early in his career, missing 23 regular-season
games from 1993 to ’96. He missed two games because of injury in ’98, three last
year. This could be the first time in his eight-year career that he appears in 16
regular-season games.
"Once a label is out there, it’s out there," Smith said. "I have
four straight 1,000-yard years, but if I went down next week with an injury, people would
say, ‘We told you, see, he’s injury-prone.’ "
Smith has played in 61 of the Vikings’ last 68 games and 23 in a row (including
playoffs).
OPPORTUNITY
Smith used to be the guy who’d make the big play to get the Vikings in scoring
situations, then he’d be replaced by Hoard. Now, Hoard is gone, and Smith is getting
the call in all situations.
Credit Green, who was convinced Smith could handle extra duty. And credit first-year
Vikings offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis, who came in determined to run a balanced
offense.
"This is the best balance I’ve had," said Lewis, whose resume includes
Super Bowl rings with San Francisco and Green Bay. "This is probably the best balance
I’ve had anywhere, even in San Francisco. We didn’t run the ball in San
Francisco like we run it here. There, we’d be up by 21, and in the fourth quarter
we’d pound the ball. When the game was over, it would look like we had a lot of
rushing yards. … Here, we consistently run the ball the whole game."
STYLE
Smith has proved in game after game that he can be both a breakaway back and a man who can
get tough yards between the tackles. Smith hasn’t had a run longer than 22 yards in
nine of the Vikings’ 14 games, but he has a 5.4-yard per-rush average, which nearly
ties his career high of 5.5. His ability to get tough yards when not much is there is a
big reason he has run for 100 or more yards in eight games, including his last five of the
last six.
"I don’t know if I’m a better inside runner," Smith said. "But
I think I’m a better runner overall now than I was. I’m more patient, I’m
stronger and I’m bigger than I was when I first came in the league."
Kent Youngblood covers the Vikings for the Minneapolis Star Tribune |
