He didn’t do anything fancy. No long runs, no great moves. He was just Ron Dayne and that was enough for his coach and teammates.
“They knew we were going to run him right at them,” said LT Lomas Brown after the rookie ran for 78 yards on 23
carries and a touchdown in the Giants’ 21-16 win over the Cardinals yesterday. “They still couldn’t stop him. He was great.”
Brown should know. He used to block for Jim Brown back in Cleveland. Well, maybe not, but he has been around a long time – 16 years, to be exact.
“Having a guy like him, doing what he did is crucial,” Brown said. “We were able to eat the clock and keep them off the field.”
Not bad, for a guy making his NFL debut. Still, Dayne was aided largely by gaping holes produced for him by the Giants’ revamped offensive line. He was rarely able to break a tackle or find another hole once one was filled. Jim Fassel wasn’t too worried about that, though.
“I think there will be times when he’ll be spectacular,” Fassel said. “But there’s a lot of yardage there that’s tough yardage and he got it when we need it.”
The 250-pounder was stuffed too many times at the line of scrimmage, but showed especially encouraging signs late in the game. During his record-setting career at Wisconsin, Dayne was frequently controlled throughout the first half, but would explode late in the game. He showed a glimpse of that against the battered Cardinals defense yesterday.
In the fourth quarter, Dayne helped lead a 15-play, 82-yard drive that gave the Giants a 21-3 lead. He carried the ball six times for 36 yards – including his longest on the day for 10 yards – and scored on a seven-yard touchdown.
“I started to feel a lot better [as the game went on],” Dayne said. “I was more nervous in the beginning. I was missing holes that I thought I should have gotten to.”
But his toughness and size clearly took a toll on Arizona’s defense and proved to his teammates that he can be a very good NFL player.
“Ron did some pounding,” said his backfield-mate Tiki Barber. “There were times last year when it was third-and-one and we weren’t getting it. Now we should get it.”
Perhaps most impressive was Dayne’s performance considering the microscope he was held under.
“All the pressure was on him and it still is,” Brown said. “Can you imagine that? Everyone knows that he was brought in to do one thing: To rejuvenate this running game. That’s a tough test for any player, let alone a rookie. But he showed that he can do it. He’s a man.”
There is little doubt about that. With his size, he almost naturally moves a pile of defenders forward. That has endeared him even more to his offensive linemen.
“Having a big guy back there like that is amazing,” said RT Luke Petitgout. “You don’t have to worry about him making it through a hole. If it starts to close, he’ll go right through it. If we just stick to what we do, with Ron as big as he is, we know it will work.”
They like him so much because he’s part of their fraternity.
“Heck at 250 pounds or whatever, he already is one of us,” Brown said. “At the end, there was nothing their defense could do. You’ve got a guy like that coming at you all day long, you’ve got to get tired and they did. That’s something you can’t teach.”
And apparently, it’s hard to stop, as well.