Smith the straight answer

By Ron Borges, Globe Staff, 8/28/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Need we debate this any longer?

Despite all the abuse he has taken over the past year, the simple fact is that Antowain Smith is the Patriots' best running back. So nine days from now, when New England opens the season at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., he should be the man standing behind quarterback Tom Brady.

Not on every play, to be sure. Perhaps not even in very many passing situations, where the quicker Kevin Faulk might be more productive. Frankly, if the coaching staff insists on using the toss sweep, they should refrain from doing it when Smith is on the field.

But the fact of the matter is that on the field is where he belongs. Smith belongs there the majority of the time, running between the tackles. As he showed again last night, he can gain yardage and keep drives alive if he is asked to do what he does best: run in the direction of the compass when it is pointing north-south.

In last night's artless 38-23 win over the Chicago Bears in the final exhibition of the season, Smith carried the ball nine times -- all in the first half -- for 47 yards, an average gain of 5.2 yards. He gained yards between the tackles when he was sent in that direction, and he will continue to make yards from tackle to tackle if the Patriots use him in the capacity for which he is best suited.

Smith is no gazelle, nor is he a battering ram. He is somewhere in between. But he is powerful and runs hard on every play. Given enough plays, he will make yards, albeit sandwiched by a few more 2-yard gains than your average fan might like to see.

Those short gains are not a reason to become impatient with Smith or the running game, however. Primarily, this Patriots team is a passing team. It will make the bulk of its bones through the air. But there is a time and a place to run the ball, and the main man to do it is Smith.

During preseason, neither Smith nor Faulk exactly put a firm grip on the job. Smith rushed 37 times for 122 yards, an average of 3.3 yards per carry. Faulk countered with 23 carries for 81 yards, an average of 3.5. A year ago, you may recall, New England had the 28th-ranked running game in the NFL, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. So things may not have changed much.

But did they have to?

Smith rushed for 962 yards last season, averaging 3.9 yards per carry and scoring six times. In the Super Bowl season, he rushed for 1,157 with 12 touchdowns and a 4.0-yard average. The only true difference between his production in those two seasons was that he carried 35 more times in 2001. If you added those runs -- using his average gain over the past two seasons (not to mention his entire career) -- to last year's numbers, he would have had 1,129 yards. In other words, he would have been a mere 28 yards short of his Super Bowl season.

Basically, Smith was the same back in 2002 that he was in 2001, and it is the belief in this corner that he will be the same back in 2003, if given a chance and used properly. That is reason enough for him to be given the bulk of the work load, at least until Faulk or some other back makes a clearer case to win the job than has been made this summer.

That does not mean there is no room for Faulk. Frankly, neither runner is a bell cow type of back, whose production demands he be handed the ball 350 times a season. But Smith runs hard, is consistent, and when he gets his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage and moves forward between the tackles, defenders had better wrap him up or he will run through them for big yardage. He did this more than a few times during the exhibitions.

When asked about the status of his two runners last night, coach Bill Belichick said, "They'll both play for us. They both have a role to play for us. I hope both of them will be productive." Used in the right ways, they very likely will be. And the best way to use Smith is to give him the ball 15-20 times a game and let him loose between the tackles. If that happens, he has shown he will make yards. He made them in Buffalo, rushing for 1,124 yards on 300 carries (3.8 per rush) in 1998, and has made them in New England.

In the end, the Patriots' running game is fourth in the AFC East, behind Ricky Williams, Travis Henry, and Curtis Martin. But that does not mean New England is doomed to be less than productive on the ground.

If the Patriots give the bulk of the inside carries to Smith and use Faulk as a change-of-pace back, they should be able to move the ball well enough on the ground to take the pressure off Brady, who simply cannot be asked to throw the ball 600 times again this season. If nothing else was learned a year ago, one thing should have been: To be one-dimensional on offense is to make life difficult for everyone. Give the football to Antowain Smith a few more times than you did a year ago, and he just might alleviate some of those difficulties. He's the best back you have, and if you give it to him often enough, his track record says he'll get you yards. And that's what he's paid to produce.