ANALYSIS/OPINION:
They may not have been Butch and Sundance, but Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris were the bookends of a beautiful story in 2012: The resurrection of the Washington Redskins.
They were opposites — Griffin the high-profile Heisman Trophy winner from Baylor who cost the franchise three first-round picks and a second-rounder just for the privilege to draft him, and Morris, a sixth-round afterthought from Florida Atlantic.
Yet they were the two rookies who led the Redskins to that glorious 2012 season — the NFC East division title and the foundation for what appeared to be a bright future for a franchise that operated in the dark.
RG3 and Alf, like Joe T. and Riggo.
Now, though, it looks as if neither one of those bookends will be more than any memory of a moment in time when things were briefly different for the Redskins. For Griffin, there will always been 2012, the offensive rookie of the year and the division title. Morris will go down in the Redskins’ record books, for now, as the team’s fifth-leading rusher of all time.
But that 2012 feeling, when it seemed as if the two of them would lead the Redskins to success together for years to come? Gone, like Morris’ 4.8 yards-per-carry average.
Griffin is wallowing in the land of NFL inactives, and with every performance like the one Kirk Cousins had Sunday in a 31-30 comeback win over Tampa Bay, he appears to be stuck there.
Morris is running his way to the bench. After the opening loss to the Miami Dolphins, when he carried the ball 21 times for 121 yards, it has been downhill. The last three weeks, he carried the ball 25 times and gained just 41 yards.
On Sunday, it was so bad — five yards on six carries — that the conversation about Morris has been about bad luck and not giving up.
If you’re Morris, that’s not what you want to hear from your coach when there is a young, newer, maybe better version of you available in the form of a 6-foot-1, 230-pound rookie powerhouse named Matt Jones.
“Alfred has just been unlucky,” Jay Gruden said after the game. “They didn’t have good looks, and Matt has had a couple good looks. If we can’t run the ball with any consistency, it’s going to be hard to get either one of them touches, or let alone both, so we’re not down on Alfred, we’re not down on Matt, we’re not down on the running game. We’ve got to keep working. It’s a major part of our offense moving forward.”
Bad luck, from 4.8 yards per carry in that wonderful rookie season, to 4.6 yards the following year, to 4.1 last season and an abysmal 3.3 yards per carry so far this year.
So, it’s come to this. Gruden spoke Monday to reporters about not giving up on Morris.
“We’ve got to get Alfred going, no question about it,” Gruden said on Monday. “He didn’t get many looks again yesterday. The last three weeks … have been rough outings for him. As far as the touches that he gets, they haven’t been pretty.
“I still intend on using both of them, though. I think Matt [Jones] does a great job of coming in here and giving you a different little flavor as far as the running backs. He’s a little bit bigger. I think both of them will get their touches, but we do have to get Alfred going. But, we’re not giving up on Alfred just because he’s had three tough weeks in a row. It’s not all on Alfred, obviously.”
No, it’s not. But if may be on Alfred and his partner in 2012, Griffin.
The way Griffin played in 2012 made everybody better on that offense — perhaps Morris most of all. Like we saw with our very own eyes, the threat of Griffin running the ball that year opened up the door for what was really a mediocre Redskins offense at best — certainly not one as talented as the one that now has a 3-4 record.
Griffin’s 815 rushing yards led to Morris’ 1,612 rushing yards that same season. And as Griffin has descended into the land of inactives, so has Morris’ production, year after year.
No Butch, no Sundance.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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