By Colin Welsh
We cannot deny that Knowshon Moreno has been great this year out of the backfield. This has been a little bit of a surprise since last year Moreno was inactive for most of the first half of the season after fumbling in a game. He played only a total of 345 snaps, and had 138 rushing attempts for 525 yards and four touchdowns in 2012. This year he has played 567 snaps already, and has more than 200 attempts for 842 yards and nine touchdowns.
Moreno’s success has come as sort of a shock to the fans. With a lot of hype in training camp surrounding Hillman, and rookie running back, Montee Ball, some questioned whether Moreno would make the team.
Coach John Fox told the media before the season it would be a running back by committee. With the first depth chart of the season released Moreno was listed as the third back, Ball the second, and Hillman as the starter. When week one came around everyone was a little bit shocked when Moreno came out of the tunnel as they announced the starting offense. He has been the starter since then and looked very good.
Fans are still worried on whether or not the team will find a secure number two behind Moreno. They tried Hillman to start the season, but he had some very costly fumbles that have led to him being inactive over the past few weeks. Fans got excited when rookie CJ Anderson was activated, but he saw very little time. Now it’s back to rookie back Montee Ball.
Last week against the Chiefs we finally saw why the Broncos took Montee Ball with their second pick. He carried the ball 13 times for 117 yards on Sunday, an average of nine yards per carry. 73 of his 117 yards came after contact. He had two carries of over 25 yards, and a Broncos season high long 45 yard rush.
Montee Ball is clearly the most explosive back on the team and it has shown. He averages 2.4 yards after contact while Knowshon averages only 1.9. Moreno has caused 14 missed tackles this year, Ball has the same amount, but in less than half the carries. Montee Ball has four rushes this year of more than 15 yards, and Moreno has nine, once again on more than double the carries. Ball has a breakaway percentage of 27.4 percent and Moreno only 19.6, a breakaway is any run longer than 15 yards....
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