Some teams say they're going to run, others show it

	Tedy Bruschi and the Patriots defense gang-tackle the Jets' Derrick Blaylock. New York has averaged 2.4 yards per carry this season, the second worst mark in the NFL. Damian Strohmeyer/SI
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When do you put in a running game? Before the draft. Before the free-agency period. When you're planning the personnel makeup of your squad. Pass-blocking linemen are swell, but you'd better have some grunts in there, some no-necked drive blockers.

I hear a coach say in the offseason, "We've got to establish our running game," and I'm suspicious right away. You don't establish it. You build it and it establishes itself. You bring in the personnel to make it work. It's a serious commitment.

I hear that quote and then I look at the players his team has drafted. Hmmm, don't see any guards there. And the only tackles drafted are nifty-footed pass blockers. Who, exactly, are they planning to run behind?

The Jets paid lip service to their running game right up through training camp. Hopefully, Curtis Martin somehow would get himself in shape to play, but if not, well, a runner would emerge from somewhere. Then they went and drafted a pass blocker to play left tackle.

They can't run. D'Brickashaw Ferguson, the fourth player taken in the entire draft, is very agile, very quick, a tap dancer who can keep step with the outside rushers. The problem is that he can't knock anyone off the line. Add to that a marginal player at right tackle ... 30-year old Anthony Clement, who'd been cut from three teams ... and you've got a running game that is tied for 26th in the league.

This is meant as no knock on the Jets. Their main concern on offense this season has been the health of their quarterback, Chad Pennington. Their primary job was to provide protection for him, and Ferguson was the most logical guy to fill that role. And Pennington is off to a fine start.

But do you remember the old days, when Martin and the Jets' running game gave people real problems? Who was the left tackle? Jason Fabini, who everyone said was a natural right tackle ... too slow and not athletic enough to keep up with the blind side speed rushers. And yes, he'd give up the occasional sack, but he'd also knock defensive linemen off the ball.

Last year the Seahawks' Shaun Alexander led the league in rushing and averaged 118 yards per game. This season it's down to 70 yards. Left guard Steve Hutchinson is gone. As a pass blocker he's OK, not great, just OK. Stumbles a bit sometimes. But blocking for the run he's pure hell, one of those annoying, gila monster types who will latch onto a defender and never let go.

Walter Jones, playing next to him last year, generally is conceded to be the league's best pass-blocking tackle, but he isn't a tough guy as a run-blocker. He's a position player who does it with finesse. The arrangement worked just fine when the two of them were side by side, but now that Hutchinson is gone, the production has fallen off.

I've often asked myself what a team really wants from its running game. Could it be the focal part of an offense that lacks a great passing attack? Hard to see that. It's too easy for a defense to cram the box and stop it with numbers. Is it merely an adjunct to the aerial game, an annoyance, a device to control the pass rush and give the QB a sense of security and make his play fakes more effective? Well, yeah, that sounds more like it.

Or is it like a battering ram, knocking down a wall? Hammer and hammer away. Two yards a crack in the first quarter, then a bit more, and still more, until the exhausted defense is surrendering six and seven yards per shot? That seems to be the Vikings' game, with Chester Taylor and Hutchinson now at left guard. You'd better have a superior defense if you want to implement that scheme, or you'll be establishing your running game while the enemy opens up a two touchdown lead. And then, regretfully, you'll have to say good-bye to the pound-it-out game, just as it was starting to open up some holes, and put it on the train with an apple and good wishes.