overrated and underrated

[BigRedOne]

Originally Posted by seablaster

Barry Sanders?

In a 10 year career he was the NFL rushing champion 4 times. He could have topped Walter Payton's all time rushing record prior to Emmitt Smith had he not lost his competitive drive. At the same time he was hampered by playing on all those pathetic, occasionally marginal, Lions teams. I give him all the credit in the world for walking away from the game on his terms.

While Barry made some of the most spectacular runs in you'll ever see.
He often lost yards at key points in games trying break those big runs, thus the ALL-TIME leader in yards lost from Scrimage.

The Barry Sanders crowd always like to sight the bad teams he played for, that is a cop out. Barry's Lions made the playoffs 5 Times and won the Division twice. Sanders was a none factor in ALL of those playoffs appearences and scored only once in all 6 games they played in.

Yes its true that Emmitt Smith is not going to be as successful with out that O-Line. And the same is true of Sanders. He doesn't win 4 rushing Titles without some help up front. Granted it wasn't that Cowboys Line, but he had a quality line.

The Bottom Line is Barry just didn't have the power to run inside and Move the Chains at key points in the game and was often out of the game on third and short/Goal. 7-8 men in the box and he was easily made a non-factor by playoff defense's which made the Lions a one dementional.

I love all those Spectacular runs he made! But as you stated, he didn't have the competitive drive or the ablity to ever carry a team to a Chamionship.

I know many will disagree, as Barry is well regarded by many, and rightfully so.

But IMHO I do believe he is one of the more overrated backs. Fun to Watch, but I can name a dozen backs I would rather have in crunch time Playoff games than Barry.