By Rich Tandler
It is obvious that the Redskins aren’t having much success running the ball this season. They are, in fact, historically bad through the first nine games of the season.
The Redskins have rushed for 780 yards this year. That is tied for the sixth-lowest total through nine games in team history and is the second-worst total since the 1966 season.
That one season since the LBJ administration came in 1994. Norv Turner’s Redskins started off with 747 yards through nine. For the season, Ricky Ervins ended up as the leading rusher with 650 yards, Brian Mitchell had a career-high 311 and Reggie Brooks kicked in 297.
They kept up the lackluster rushing pace for the rest of the year, finishing the season with 1415 yards on the ground, ranking them 24th in the NFL.
Redskins lowest rushing totals through 9 games, 1940-2011
| Rushing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Year | Att | Yds | |
| 1 | 1961 | 213 | 539 | 2.53 |
| 2 | 1965 | 221 | 699 | 3.16 |
| 3 | 1994 | 230 | 747 | 3.25 |
| 4 | 1966 | 242 | 766 | 3.17 |
| 5 | 1944 | 0 | 772 | |
| 6 | 1964 | 224 | 780 | 3.48 |
| 7 | 2011 | 203 | 780 | 3.84 |
The performance this year is worse when you look at Mike Shanahan’s career as head coach with the Broncos. His teams had fewer than 1000 yards rushing through nine games only twice, in 1999 (976) and 2008 (965). His team had more than 1400 yards rushing at this point in the season four times.
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