It sounds as if the Giants are looking more at their running backs than the offensive line for their run game failures. McAdoo made it clear that he's looking for significantly more from his runners.
Even when there isn't much room to run, he expects them to gain more yards. When they're in 1-on-1 situations, they need to beat their defenders more frequently. When their is contact, they need to fall forward for a few more yards. Each every one of them is valuable.
The Giants are rotating four backs – Rashad Jennings, Andre Williams, Shane Vereen and Orleans Darkwa. As a group and individually, McAdoo wants to see more.
"For the backs, the biggest thing for the backs is they need to be aware of the situation," McAdoo said. "When there's one yard to go, they need to get that yard on third and one. When you get 1-on-1 with a safety, we expect our backs to beat that safety and take one the distance, and we haven't done that yet and it's a challenge on them to do that. We expect them to do it and we count on them to do it."
The article considers this a challenge, which means the team may be looking for someone to step up and claim a bigger role. Vereen's role seems pretty set as the third down back, but Jennings, Darkwa and Williams look like they are battling it out for more early down work. Until someone does step up, this is a fantasy situation to avoid outside of Vereen in PPR leagues.
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