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'Slicer' finding the seams
Clinton Portis making most of Redskins' opportunistic offense
Date published: 10/7/2008
BY ADAM HIMMELSBACH
PHILADELPHIA --Sometime on Sunday afternoon, Redskins guard Randy Thomas jokingly asked running back Clinton Portis when he would break a long, lose-your-breath run.
Rather than complain about what he had yet to accomplish, Portis was most grateful for what he had.
"I told him I was just glad to have a 20-yarder now," Portis said, smiling. "Those used to be hard to come by."
Last season, Portis had three runs of 20 yards or more.
This year, he has already topped the 20-yard mark four times, and there are still 11 regular-season games remaining.
Portis has two 100-yard games this season. Through the first five games last year, he had none.
On Sunday, Portis ran for 145 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries, helping the Redskins come back from a 14-point deficit in their 23-17 win over Philadelphia.
Most impressively, his effort came against an Eagles run defense that entered the game as the league's best, allowing just 53.8 yards per game.
"Whether you go 90 yards or three chunks of 30, it's gonna add up," Portis said. "So let's just keep plugging."
Portis said the key to breaking long runs is getting to a defense's "second level," beyond the defensive linemen and sometimes beyond the linebackers
When a running back reaches that point and is still on his feet, Portis said, he has an opportunity to make one defender miss.
Also, it is easier to break one tackle in the secondary than it is to break three at the line of scrimmage.
"They were able to break some of the gaps and make some big runs," Eagles cornerback Lito Sheppard said. "Portis has good vision, so he was able to find a seam."
Portis said that in recent years, he has done most of his bobbing and weaving behind the line of scrimmage.
This season, the success of the Redskins' passing game has opened lanes for Portis that were previously little more than daydreams.
"He does a really nice job of slicing through defensive lines," Redskins coach Jim Zorn said, "and that's what he did [against the Eagles]. He's a slicer and a dicer."
And, it turns out, he is also a play-caller.
With less than three minutes left in Sunday's game, the Redskins held a six-point lead and faced a fourth-and-1 from the Philadelphia 38-yard line.
Date published: 10/7/2008
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