Evans Scores His 1st NFL Pre-Season TD

Submitted by CincyBlue on August 14th, 2021 at 9:14 PM

He looked good in the 1st half in Cincinatti vs. Tampa tonight.  Scored with 6 seconds left in the half.  17 total yards so far.  

garde

August 14th, 2021 at 9:46 PM ^

I saw this play and thought, "That's what Milton and our offense was supposed to look like."

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1426711630713294849

 

 

JamieH

August 15th, 2021 at 1:30 AM ^

To be fair, running back was NOT the problem last year.  Haskins averaged over 6 ypc.

Hard to argue that he deserved LESS carries.

Happy for Evans, but him being utilized better would not have made a difference last year.

bronxblue

August 15th, 2021 at 8:54 AM ^

Also, throughout his career at UM Evans was used decently enough.  He was second on the team in rushing and attempts his sophomore year (135 att/685 yards) and also led all backs in receptions (16).  His junior year he got hurt against SMU and then sat out 3 games and looked limited in one or two more; he still ran the ball 81 times for 423 yards (behind Higdon's 224/1178) and again led the backs with catches at 18.  2020 his usage was down but (a) he was coming off a year-long break and guys had established themselves ahead of him, and (b) he still got 16 carries and 9 caught balls.  And all I heard last year was how every member of the backfield was underused. 

The reality is that the offense was bad last year for many reasons, but a good piece was because the defense struggled to stop teams so the offense was playing catch-up more than you'd like with a first-year starter who has accuracy issues throwing the ball.  Like, as a team UM threw the ball almost 36 times a game last year; the last time they broke 35 was in 2003 (!) with John Navarre.  So all the backs really struggled to get into any type of rotation (other than Haskins).  Evans got his shots but 2020 was a shitshow for a lot of reasons but "underutilization of our 3rd/4th-string RB" doesn't seem to be up there.

I always thought Evans was a really good player at UM and I'm happy to see him succeed with the Bengals, but the idea that he was ignored at UM out of negligence doesn't make any sense.  

Hairbaugh Maximus

August 15th, 2021 at 10:30 PM ^

No question he has speed on his side. Hard not to pull for him. Yes, he had suspension issues. But he buckled down and took action to win reinstatement. Takes being a man to do that. Kudos to Evans. And kudos to Harbaugh and the coaching staff for tough love and for helping him find a path to the NFL.