Fantasy owners who weren’t able to roster Giants running back Andre Brown before he busted out for 115 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries against the Raiders are probably kicking themselves, but all is not lost. There’s another back of the same last name, Donald Brown, who could be just as valuable heading down the stretch.
Forever immortalized as “Dammit” Donald by Peyton Manning after a mistake in pass protection, Brown has been on and off the fantasy radar for stretches of his career and this year is no exception. Coming into the season, Brown was behind both Vick Ballard and Ahmad Bradshaw on the depth chart for the Indianapolis Colts and he was then buried even further when Indy traded for Trent Richardson.
Season-ending injuries to both Ballard and Bradshaw opened up the opportunity for Brown to get himself back into the picture, but many believed that Richardson would be so dominant for the Colts that Brown would never get a chance. That has not been the case.
Richardson hasn’t averaged more than four yards-per-carry in a game this year for the Colts and only has seven catches over seven games. The last time he made it into the end zone was back in Week 4 and Richardson had his worst game of the year on Sunday against the leaky defense of the St. Louis Rams with just five carries for two yards.
With Richardson playing that poorly, how much worse could Brown be?
In that same Rams game, Brown had five catches for 64 yards and a score. His rushing numbers were actually worse than Richardson’s (hard to believe that’s possible) but he’s averaging 5.9 yards-per-carry on the season and has four runs of 16 yards or more on the year, including a 50-yard scamper and a 24-yard dash; Richardson has only one rush for 16 yards.
The Colts have started to realize that Richardson isn’t getting the job done and in the two games since the Colts’ bye, T-Rich touched the ball 18 times for 88 yards whereas Brown has turned his 13 touches into 112 yards. Add in the fact that Richardson has had problems staying healthy for much of his brief career and it seems fairly clear that the door for Brown to assert himself in the backfield is at least ajar, if not wide open.
His opportunity could come on Thursday night when the Colts face off against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football. The Titans rank in the bottom third of the NFL in rush defense and have already surrendered 12 rushing scores in 2013, tied for the second most in the league. After getting shellacked by the Rams on Sunday, the Colts may realize they have to do something differently; perhaps they’ll see if Brown can deliver.
Evan Bleier is a freelance writer based out of wherever he can plug in his laptop. You can send him questions, comments and Buffalo wing suggestions @itishowitis or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
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