The running game didn’t work against the Patriots in Week 2. The blame quickly fell on Zach Charbonnet’s shoulders with Ken Walker out injured. But to what extent is he really responsible?
I’ve been a Zach Charbonnet fan for a long time. Coincidentally, it was the same year I started watching Ken Walker. Both of them had a huge jump in production when they transferred from Michigan and Wake Forest to UCLA and Michigan State, respectively. When Charbonnet was drafted, I was very happy, since he would complement Walker’s explosiveness, being a power back that we haven’t had since Chris Carson retired.
The problem is that he hasn’t been able to stand out, even worse he is not able to impose his power play, which is his greatest quality. The running game against the New England Patriots wasn’t good because of Charb, but also because of other factors. Furthermore, the RB managed to find other ways to help the team.
Charbonnet has played in 18 career games, starting three of them, all due to Ken Walker’s injuries. In 130 attempts, he has rushed for 512 yards (3.9 ypc), 2 TDs, and 34 first downs. In the passing game, he has caught 40 passes on 48 targets for 269 yards (6.7 yards per catch), 1 TD, and 9 first downs.
This is the type of run Zach should be doing more often. He simply follows the offensive linemen, whom this time manage to create some space for Charbonnet, and he does so by playing an extremely low pad level, making it difficult to tackle him and allowing him to gain more yards in the process.
As mentioned earlier, he has been looking for ways to help the team beyond running the ball. At the moment, Charbonnet has at least established himself as the best RB in pass protection. Walker is like Shaun Alexander in this type of play; Kenny McIntosh was good in college doing this but hasn’t shown it in the NFL yet. George Holani had few opportunities in college to block passes.
The Patriots are in some variation of cover 2 fire zone, where they send a blitzer and use a DL in coverage. Charbonnet is able to block the blitz, giving Geno time to exploit the back of Keion White who has been set up on the defense (I wouldn’t use my best pass rush this way, but ok), with excellent ball placement.
On one of the most important plays of the game, Charbonnet escapes and quickly gets free, giving Geno an option against the blitz, makes the reception and fights for every bit of yardage for the first down. I really like players with this mentality and desire to win and fight.
I don’t believe he is the only or the biggest culprit for the failure of the running game in Week 2. The OL was very bad in this regard, losing most of the 1 vs 1 battles, that is, without physical imposition. In addition, Ryan Grubb lacked creativity to diversify the runs, as he did in Week 1.
This was the fourth down conversion attempt that failed. Noah Fant is our worst TE in blocking. On this play he is assigned to block Keion White who is the best defensive lineman on the Patriots. The play is DOA, forcing Charbonnet to make a cutback. He goes right into the arms of Kyle Dugger which is where the second mistake of the play is. Stone Forsythe and Anthony Bradford block the same player, and open the gap basically rolling out the red carpet for the Patriots defender to make the play.
Final Thoughts
I still believe we can have one of the best RB duos, both in production and skill complement. Ken Walker is one of the most creative (and most unorthodox) RBs, getting a lot of yards in the windows he creates. Charbonnet has the potential to be the third-down RB, as well as in short-yardage situations. But for that to happen we need an OL to do a better job, but that’s a topic for another article.