By Erik Brandstetter
November 12, 2008 10:10pm CST

In this weekly article, we'll take a look at the positive and negative trends at the stripe, as well as those "fluke" occurrences where your guy got vultured.

Review

San Francisco 49ers - While no Niner scored any goal-line tuddies, the entire NFL community scratched its collective head when, in the most important carry of the entire game, Mike Martz used Michael Robinson - not Frank Gore - at the goal line.

New York Giants - Derrick Ward continues to have a significant role in the running game (17 carries on Sunday), but this is still Brandon Jacobs' gig. He scored two three-yard touchdowns.

Pittsburgh Steelers - Well, so much for Willie Parker being healthy. Mewelde Moore once again had a good fantasy day in relief duty with two goal-line touchdowns (although he gained only 57 yards on 24 carries). Don't be surprised if/when Parker returns to see some vultured touchdowns from Moore given Parker's health issues.

Baltimore Ravens - The roulette game continues. Willis McGahee more than doubled the number of carries allotted to Ray Rice and Le'Ron McClain combined (25 to 12, respectively). McGahee also scored twice from inside the five-yard line.

Green Bay Packers - Ryan Grant was the only running back in green and gold to tote the rock, and yes, he scored a goal-liner.

New England Patriots - This week was the BenJarvus Green-Ellis show, as he amassed 105 yards on 26 carries, including the lone goal-line rushing score of the game. Don't get too comfortable, however, as this is a New England Patriots running back we're discussing.

Jacksonville Jaguars - Maurice Jones-Drew had an insane day and was once again the prominent fantasy back in Jacksonville. He scored three times on the ground, all three from inside the 10-yard line. Fred Taylor did have more carries, but the short-yardage duties are clearly MJD's.

Detroit Lions - Kevin Smith looks to finally be settling in as "the guy" in Detroit (for whatever that's worth). Not only did he have carry the full load (23 totes), he found the end zone from a yard out.

Tennessee Titans - The Bears did what virtually no one else could do so far this season by shutting down rookie Chris Johnson. They did, however, give up a two-yard score to the current king of the goal line, LenDale White.

Denver Broncos - The long-awaited debut of rookie Ryan Torain as the primary running back finally came to be, and he scored the first touchdown of the night from the goal line. He promptly suffered a season-ending injury, leaving the Broncos with only fullback Peyton Hillis as the sole running back on the roster for the duration of the game.

Good News

The good news this week is for folks who invested in Kevin Smith. It's still far too early to tell whether Smith is going to be consistently used as a true feature back for the rest of the season, but his stock is definitely rising. He's showing that he's effective between the 20's and in short-yardage situations. Rudi Johnson did technically "start" the game, but Smith should be a pretty decent bet to get at least a good share of the goal-line carries (provided the Lions can make it down the field that far).

Bad News

There's a plethora of bad news this week. Starting with Baltimore, it appears that either a completely unpredictable three-headed attack is indeed in place, or that McGahee's the guy unless injured (which unfortunately happens often enough). Unfortunately, there just isn't enough of a consistent performance trend, although it appears as though McGahee's the best bet to produce of the trio.

Then there's the Denver Broncos. As if Shanahan's running game wasn't enough of an enigma, an absolute full-on assault of injuries has landed four running backs on IR thus far. The Broncos' current roster consists of a banged-up Selvin Young, free-agent Alex Haynes, practice-squadder P.J. Pope, and former Bronco/Lion/skycap for Rudi Johnson and now Bronco (again) Tatum Bell. Fullback Peyton Hillis is also in the mix as a surprisingly effective rusher and receiver. Selvin Young is currently listed as the starter in Denver, but he's a longshot to play this week. Granted, this reaches far beyond just goal-line implications, but if you're still convinced that you need a Broncos running back somewhere on your roster, you are beyond help.


'Til next week. See you at the stripe.