And Now You Know: Quarterback Option

So I got to thinking recently about the San Diego Chargers and more specifically, LaDainian Tomlinson. Would they have done any better with him playing versus the Steelers than the embarrassing loss on Sunday? Let's take a quick gander at his stats.

For his career, Tomlinson averages over 92 yards per game rushing on 4.4 yards per carry. Couple that with 30 yards receiving per game and you have over 1/3 of the team's 350 yards per game on average this season. In 8 years, LaDainian has missed just 1 game. That's 127 starts in 128 games. This year though he suffered his worst year statically, racking up his fewest yards from scrimmage and his second fewest touchdown aside from his rookie year. But no worries right? He still has great numbers, so thus it should translate to success in the playoffs?

Eh, not so fast. I'm sure you all know that Tomlinson doesn't always show up for games in the winter. In the six games that he has played in January, Tomlinson only averages 50 yards rushing per game and has a total of four touchdowns. Yikes, not so good for one of the best players in the game. But maybe that is a trend that star running backs have?

Take Barry Sanders for instance. You'd expect him to be a great player in January as well, but in fact he only averaged less than 65 yards rushing per game, in contrast to 100 in the regular season. Walter Payton just over 70 ypg in the playoffs but 90 during the regular season. Jerome Bettis had 71 ypg per 16 regular season games but 51 ypg in the playoffs. Edgerrin James 86 yards to 68 yards, and this list goes on and on. Of the top 10 running backs of all time, Emmitt Smith and Marcus Allen surprisingly are the only rushers who did a lot better in January than the previous four months of the year. Smith averaging near 100 ypg in the playoffs and just over 81 ypg in the regular season throughout his career and Allen had 85 ypg in contrast to just 55 in the regular season.

So if you aren't going to succeed with Tomlinson rushing what good is he for in the playoffs? Here's an idea, let him throw the ball! In his limited experience throwing Tomlinson has the highest quarterback rating amongst non-quarterbacks throwing the ball (minimum 10 attempts). In his career LT is 8 for 11 with 143 yards passing and 7 touchdowns.So about 64% of the time, when Tomlinson throws the ball, the Chargers score a touchdown.

The Bears used the same tactics with Walter Payton, letting him air it out more often but much less successful. Payton threw the ball 34 times in his career connecting just 11 times, but of those 11 completions, 8 were touchdowns. It was all or nothing for the Bears. Payton was allowed to throw in the playoffs, as he connected for a touchdown pass with Pat Dunsmore in a 23-19 divisional playoff victory over the Redskins in 1984. Dunsmore had two career touchdown catches and one of them came off the arm of Walter Payton. Two of Payton's Eight touchdown passes went to Bear's quarterback Jim McMahon.

Tomlinson is a great quarterback as he doesn't play favorites. Of his seven touchdown passes he has had six different receivers. So my question again is, would the Chargers have been better with LaDainian Tomlinson in the lineup on Sunday? Tomlinson played quarterback until his senior year of high school, hence him only getting looked at by Texas Christian University for halfback.

I'm not saying that Philip Rivers is a bad guy, but just imagine the possibilities with Tomlinson under center? Did you know that Rivers has just one rushing touchdown in his career? Kansas City's third string quarterback Quinn Gray has more rushing touchdowns, two, than Rivers and they both came in a single game in which he didn't even start. Seems like Tomlinson would be a much more versatile quarterback.

And Now You Know! (And Knowing is Half the Battle)

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