Giant Running Game Running Out of Steam

Each time Ottis Anderson fails to pick up yardage for the New York Giants in a crucial situation, Joe Morris blames himself. When rookie David Meggett fumbles near the goal line, Morris turns inward and finds fault. And when rookie Lewis Tillman can’t make a quick enough read of the blocking scheme, Morris takes it personally.

Why all the guilt, when Morris hasn’t even played a down this season? It’s very simple, according to the Giants’ 29-year-old running back, who has missed the entire season with a broken foot.

“If we do poorly, I blame myself,” said Morris, who suffered his injury in the Giants’ final preseason game and was placed on injured reserve for the entire year. “I figure I could have done this, if I were healthy. I could have done that. But because I’m hurt, I can’t play. I realize that’s displaced energy, and I’ve got to put that towards doing what I have to do to get back in the lineup. But when we lose, I can’t help but get that feeling.”

Unfortunately for Morris, the guilt has continued to mount in recent weeks. The Giants have lost three of their last four games to fall to 9-4, and they’re perilously close to losing their bid to win the NFC East. Just four weeks ago, the only inner conflict Morris experienced was a sense of feeling left out. After all, when a team goes 8-1 without the most prolific running back in its history, it’s not a pleasant sensation. But Morris would just as soon experience a feeling of being left out rather than the misplaced guilt of recent weeks.

Recently, the Giants have confronted the very problems that Coach Bill Parcells worried about when he placed Morris on injured reserve Sept. 4: having to rely on Anderson, the 11-year veteran, and two rookies, Tillman and Meggett. Parcells, feeling Morris would need at least three months of rehabilitation, chose to take the calculated risk of placing Morris on injured reserve for the whole season. He could have put Morris on the regular-season roster and then placed him on injured reserve, thus allowing Morris a chance to play when fully healed. But Parcells did not want to risk losing another player to make the move.

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For a time, the gamble appeared to pay off:

--Anderson had re-discovered his former All-Pro form; after seven weeks he was on target for a 1,200-yard season.

--Meggett, an obscure fifth-round draft pick out of Towson State, beat out George Adams as the third-down back and offered an explosiveness the Giants have rarely known.

--And Tillman, the man who broke Walter Payton’s rushing records at Jackson State, showed flashes of becoming the heir apparent tailback to Morris and Anderson.

Lately, however, things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse:

--Anderson, who said he has been playing most of the season with a groin pull, has gained only 105 yards in his last five games.

--Meggett has lost three fumbles in the last four games.

--And Tillman has carried just 22 times for 80 yards in the last four games.

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Still, the Giants remain hopeful the rushing attack can be revitalized with the very same players who are now mired in slumps. But they know it will be difficult. In fact, Anderson knew how tough it would be even before he began his second-half slump this season.

As he sat in front of his locker after a 20-13 win over the Chargers in Week 7 in San Diego, Anderson had a grim look on his face. He had just rushed for 96 yards on 27 carries, so it wasn’t his performance that caused the concern. It was a third-quarter injury to tight end Mark Bavaro, who suffered a sprained left knee.

“When you lose a guy like Mark,” Anderson said at the time, “it’s a tremendous blow. He does so much for our offense, especially our running game. His presence means a lot to me personally.”

Anderson’s assessment proved almost prophetic. Through the San Diego game, Anderson had rushed for 543 yards, an average of 77.6 yards a game, and was on a pace to gain 1,241 yards for the season. But since that game, Anderson has rushed for only 281 yards, an average of 46.8 yards a game. At that rate, he won’t reach 1,000. And the groin injury won’t help.

“I’ve been playing with it all year,” Anderson said. “I haven’t said much about it, but it’s been bothering me. I’ve never been at 100 percent. I’ve had it since training camp. It’s just there.”

For a time, Meggett appeared to be the answer for the Giants. At 5-7, 180, his quick cuts and 4.45 speed offered a unique element to the offense.

“We’ve never really had anybody quite like him in my time here,” Parcells said. “We’ve used him in about as many situations as we can. He’s on (punt and kickoff) returns, we split him out, we put him in the backfield. There isn’t much more you can do with a guy his size.”

Meggett’s biggest -- and perhaps only -- problem is holding onto the ball. His three lost fumbles in the last four games have all come in crucial situations.

His most recent may have been the most damaging. In the second quarter of the Giants’ 24-17 loss to Philadelphia Sunday, he was hit by Andre Waters and fumbled at the Eagles’ 6-yard line. Instead of trailing 17-14 at the half, the Giants were down, 17-7.

“That’s going to have to be corrected,” said Meggett. “I don’t look at it as a problem. I have a tendency to go for the extra yard, and I sometimes forget the ball. That’s got to change immediately. There are a lot of defenses that try to strip the ball. That’s where it comes from.”

Tillman sees himself one day as becoming the Giants’ No. 1 tailback. “I’m a patient guy, and I hope that comes one day,” he said. “I’m still learning, but one day I’d like to get the ball 20 or 25 times a game. That’s what I do. I’m a running back. I get paid to run.”