Portis was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week on the strength of his 29 carry, 145-yard rushing effort against the Philadelphia Eagles. He also had 2 catches for 13 yards, to lead all NFL players with 158 all-purpose yards from scrimmage.
Believe it or not, it is just the third time in Portis’ career that he has received the weekly honor – two of them have come while he was a Redskin (Week 16 of 2007 was the other). He was AFC Offensive Player of the Week on December 7th, 2003 while he was with the Denver Broncos.
Going into the game, the Eagle defense was allowing a paltry 54 yards rushing per game. Portis gashed the defense for close to three times that, and all totaled, Redskin backs combined for 203 yards rushing against a defense that had only allowed 215 total in four previous games.
Arguably the best run of the game for Clinton was his absolute last. With under 3 minutes to play, the Redskins had the ball and a 4th and 1 when Portis asked Zorn to call a draw for him. Portis just tucked in behind Casey Rabach and started driving his legs, and though for a brief moment it looked like there was nothing there, CP just kept driving until he had the first down. Coach Jim Zorn said in his Monday press conference that Portis ‘willed it.’
Frankly, I thought it was one of the best pieces of running I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t EASY – but with the game on the line, it sure was impressive. You can check out the run in NFL.com’s highlights video from the game, at about the 4-minute mark.
Portis is also up for the FedEx Ground Player of the Week, you can vote for him here.
With the 145 yards on Sunday, Portis now has 514 yards on the season – second best in the NFL, behind Atlanta Falcon Michael Turner’s 543 yards.