By Brian Moore
May 30, 2009

The New York Giants rushing offense amassed 2518 yards in 2009, more than any other team in the NFL. The Giants average of 157 yards per game was tops in the NFL as well. Collectively, the Giants rushing attack averaged 5 yards per carry, again the most in professional football.

To accomplish this feat, head coach Tom Coughlin and offensive cooridinator Kevin Gilbride set up an intricate system which would use each runningback's strength at the proper time of the game. This system would be used week in and week out to provide the punch for the Giants offense.

The beginning runningback for the Giants in 2008 was big Brandon Jacobs and his 6 foot 4 inch 264 pound frame. Jacobs is bigger than some young defensive linemen. While tackling Jacobs once may not seem like too difficult a task for NFL linebackers, tackling him many times can be quite a burden. For linebackers used to dealing the big hits to runningbacks, it's a role reversal against the big Brandon Jacobs that dishes out hits himself. Brandon steamrolled his way to 1089 yards with 15 touchdowns and a 5 yard per rush average.

The intermediate runningback was Derrick Ward. Ward is a stout 5 foot 11 inches tall and weighed 233 pounds. While not as big as Jacobs, he is a load for opposing defenses to tackle as well. Ward ran for 1025 yards with two touch downs and an average of 5.6 yards per rush.

The final piece was runningback Ahmad Bradshaw. Bradshaw is a relatively small back at 5 foot 11 inches 195 pounds. Bradshaw ran for 355 yards for an average of 5.3 yards per rush.

The key to the Giants system was individual players performing their roles at the right time.

Big Jacobs was used as a battering ram to wear down a defense.

Stout Ward was then used to wear them down further. Next came Bradshaw to flourish against an already tired and worn down defense.

In the first quarter of all 2008 games combined Jacobs ran 74 times, Ward ran 32 times and Bradshaw only ran three times.

In the second quarter Jacobs ran 53 times, Ward ran 65 times and Bradshaw ran just four times.

In the third quarter Jacobs ran 56 times, Ward ran 38 times and Bradshaw ran nine times.

In the fourth quarter Jacobs ran 35 times, Ward ran 46 times and Bradshaw ran 51 times.

Jacobs pounds the defense in the first quarter, Ahmad Bradshaw runs all over a tired defense in the fourth quarter and Derrick Ward helps each along the way.

Bradshaw rarely ran in the first three quarters, then ran it more times than any other Giants runningback in the fourth quarter.

Ward ran 84 times in the second half of games compared to 97 attempts in the first half of games, which is a fairly even split per half. It amounts to less than 1 carry more per game in the first half.

Once the runningbacks mastered their roles, Coughlin and Gilbride went to their strengths allowing each to do what they do best.

Jacobs was the best short yardage runner on the team running 26 times inside the opposition's ten yard line for 13 touchdowns for an incredible 50 percent success rate.

Ward was the best receiving back. Ward had 54 targets while Jacobs and Bradshaw combined for just a third of that at 18 targets-a shade more than one per game. Ward averaged a whopping 9.57 yards per catch tops in the NFL.

Bradshaw posesses a combination of speed and wiggle that the others don't averaging nearly six yards per touch in the fourth quarter.