Houston coach Gary Kubiak didn’t come right out and say it, but don’t expect 2010 NFL rushing leader Arian Foster in the lineup when the Texans face the Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium Sunday. The reason: Ben Tate, who rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown in his first NFL game, a 34-7 beatdown of Indianapolis last week. Tate, an Auburn product who spent the 2010 season on injured reserve with an ankle injury, set a franchise record for rushing yards in a debut, and Kubiak was impressed. “He’s got a lot of ability, we’ve known that,†Kubiak said Wednesday on a conference call with South Florida reporters. “If he can stay healthy he’ll play very well for us. This league is a league of opportunity. There’s a lot of good people backing up or running third and all of a sudden guys get hurt. Some of them go in and take advantage of their opportunities, and some of them don’t. I say it to our team all the team: If you get an opportunity and go out and do it, I’m going to leave you out there.†Source: Palm Beach Post
I don't like guys losing their jobs to injury. Foster should be starting if he's healthy. I think he earned that much last year.
Either he is still concerned about the hamstring or there is something else going that he isn't talking about.
Maybe it's the system. They've produced 1,000 rushers with Steve Slaton, Arian Foster and now maybe with Ben Tate. I'm with S12 on this though. I hate seeing players lose their roles due to injury.
At first I was surprised to hear Kubiak in essence say Foster is benched after missing just one game because of injury. But then I realized this could be nothing more than coach speak and doesn't want to tip his hand. You don't bench the reigning rushing champion after just one game despite Ben Tate's performance.
Or the coach and the organization is still pissed at Foster for leaking his xrays on twitter, but it also shows you this that hey we don't need Foster, we're not handicapped without him we still have a running game with this Tate kid. We'll be fine, take your time Foster get healed son.
"Start" doesn't mean more carries. If Foster's healthy, he'll tote the rock more than Tate... Kubiak said that Foster had a normal workload in practice on Wednesday...so he'll most likely play...
