Extra Points: Week 16

MAKING A LIST...CHECKING IT TWICE
As we’ve documented in Extra Points several times this season, it’s been a peculiar year for running backs. Consider the list of Week 16’s top six rushers. No. 1 was Lawrence Maroney with 156 yards, but he need only 14 carries to get that many. Right behind him were Ahmad Bradshaw (151) and Brandon Jacobs (145) — strange not only because they’re teammates, but because both totals were career highs. Bradshaw, a rookie, came into the game with 39 yards for the season. Included in Jacobs’ total was a 43-yard touchdown. More than 300 carries into his career, that bolt was more than twice as long as his previous best — and he reached the end zone putting distance between his 265-pound ownself and the Bills defense. Coming in fourth for the week with 130 yards was Cincinnati’s Kenny Watson who, before 2007, had gained zero yards in three of his five NFL campaigns. Then we have Najeh Davenport of Pittsburgh with 123. A complementary back throughout his six-year career, he logged a personal-best 24 totes against St. Louis despite not even starting. Finally there’s Dominic Rhodes, scampering for 115 yards in his first start of a season in which he’d previously carried the ball 19 times.

RUN ‘YAN, RUN
Turns out all the glory showered upon Brian Westbrook for having the savvy to take that knee at the 1-yard line against Dallas two weekends ago was somewhat misappropriated. Even before the snap, it was Jon Runyan’s prescience that set the stage. The big tackle — who outsizes Westbrook by nine inches and 130 pounds — assessed the situation in the huddle and basically threatened to dismember his teammate should he cross the goal line. Sure enough, his li’l buddy broke loose, and there was Runyan lumbering after him, screaming, “Get down! Take a knee!” After a 24-yard pursuit, Westbrook pulled up.

BUMP AND RUN
Extra Points’ recurring installment of slapdash observation and imprudent opinion:

Roy Williams sat out last weekend on suspension for a play (well, three plays) that is legal in college football: the horsecollar tackle. We’ve seen some scary “hits” of this nature, and the NCAA needs to address it.

The Seahawks were not penalized in their win over the Ravens.

Among the many text messages received by the Bucs’ Micheal Spurlock after his kickoff return-TD on December 16 was one from a childhood friend wanting to know if the thrill topped the day they won a Pony League baseball championship when they were 13.

The one guy you don’t want to be right now: Packers punter Jim Ryan, who boomed one kick for nine yards, had two blocked and fumbled the snap on another.

QUOTABLE
“I look forward to November and December. Teams are tired. They’ve been going since training camp. It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s my time.” — Resurgent Browns RB Jamal Lewis, who’s averaged 110 yards his last six games after topping 65 only once before that.

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