Ground and Pound Award – Week 1 : DeAngelo Williams

Pittsburgh Steelers DeAngelo Williams running against Washington Redskins
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Steelers’ running back DeAngelo Williams runs away with our Week 1 Ground-and-Pound Award.

We will be highlighting one running back each week by giving the Ground-and-Pound Award to a player chosen by the fans in our end-of-the-football-week poll. Be sure to check back for the poll each week and please retweet us to help expand the number of voters.

In week 1, DeAngelo Williams was far and away the most impressive running back and that showed in the polls.

The 33-year old Steelers’ running back helped put away the game against the Redskins with 143 yards and 2TDs, running the ball effectively well into the 4th quarter.

This DeAngelo Williams run (below) effectively put the game out of reach, making the score 31-16 with less than 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Take note of the nasty move he puts on the two Redskins defenders right at the line of scrimmage.

To put Williams’ performance into context, the Redskins had 55 yards rushing as a team. In an increasingly pass-happy league that only has a handful of true feature backs, there was only one other 100 yard rusher (Lamar Miller: 106 yards) in the opening week.

Thanks to DeAngelo Williams, the Steelers offense has hardly missed a beat during the first two weeks of Le’Veon Bell’s three week suspension. On an offense full of playmakers like Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, Williams has not looked one bit out of place. He has made defenders, Father Time, and media doubters all look silly, leading the league in rushing as the oldest starting running back in the league.

With Williams running so effectively, Mike Tomlin will have a hard time figuring out how to deal out the carries when Bell returns in Week 4. I don’t think any coach would complain about that–it’s a good problem to have.

(Photo Credit: Keith Allison via Creative Commons)

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