For the second season in a row, Seattle Seahawks running back Rashaad Penny exploded for a huge game at an entirely unexpected time. This time, however, his performance helped lead his team to a victory.
Last year, Penny hardly contributed through Seattle’s first eight games before taking off for 108 rushing yards (on 12 carries) against the Rams in Week 10, a game the Seahawks narrowly lost, 36-31.
This year, Penny was even quieter through his first seven games, but he had a huge game on Sunday against the Eagles, carrying the ball 14 times for a career-high 129 yards.
Most of his damage came on a 58-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, which gave Seattle a 17-3 lead and put the game on ice.
Penny exploded through the tackles on a first-and-20, and used his blazing speed to outrun the rest of the Philadelphia defense.
The second-year running back out of San Diego State has been frustrated with his lack of playing time this season, but instead of sulking he has worked hard to improve his conditioning, and his work impressed coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer enough to give him an extended look this week.
“We expect our guys to be frustrated,” Carroll said after the game. “They all want to play. They all deserve to play, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. It’s how you deal with it. What he did is he got better, he’s trimmer, he’s faster, I mean look how fast he looked today, he looked like he was shot out of a cannon. That’s because of the hard work.”
Penny’s performance merited our offensive player of the week award, and it will be interesting to see if it gives him more opportunities going forward, especially after starter Chris Carson fumbled twice in a row and only finished with 26 yards on eight carries.
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