This is something that my friends at Roll Bama Roll do every week, and I thought it would be interesting to look at for the Titans as well. Here is how it works:
Each individual rush is considered on it's own, and measured by it's "success." A run is considered successful if it gets 40% of the yardage needed to move the chains on first down, 60% of the yardage needed on second down, and 100% of the yardage needed on third or fourth down. This is a much more accurate overall picture of how well a running back does in a game than just the total yardage or ypc averages because it ignores big run outliers that can skew those kinds of stats.
Chris Johnson:
Not an overall successful day for Crazy Legs by this measure, but his cut on the 4th and 1 play that got him in the end zone makes up for all of that.
*The 13 yard gain on 3rd and 19 probably shouldn't count against him because it was a throw away play.
Now LenDale White:
Smash had a better percentage success day that CJ. He was very effective eating clock at the end of the game.
Overall the running backs were 13 of 31 for a 42% success rate. We will take that against a defense that is as good as Pittsburgh.