Bhayshul Tuten — Week 2: Thirteen Carries and the Goal-Line Snap

Nothing to nothing, 12 17 left in the second quarter, first and goal at the Denver one. Wyatt Milum reported in as an extra lineman, the snap went directly to Bhayshul Tuten, and he took it around right end for the touchdown. +0.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 2.6 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. The snap before, Parker Washington had caught 32 yards down to the one. It was Jacksonville's only touchdown of the day.

The line: 13 carries, 65 yards, one touchdown, four first downs, six of the 13 successful, +1.2 expected points on the carries. They went three, three, three, six, the one-yard score, 16, 11, nine, two, two, two, eight, −1. Five before halftime for 16 yards, eight after for 49. The middle of that list is one drive: the first snap of the third quarter from scrimmage, right end, pushed out at the Jacksonville 47 for 16; two plays later up the middle for 11 to the Denver 24; then third and four at the 18, out of the shotgun, right end again, pushed out at the nine for nine and the first down. 36 yards on three carries, and the drive ended in a 23-yard field goal after first and goal at the three. His last five carries gained 13. The passing game gave nothing back: two targets, two catches, −3 yards, one of them no gain on second and five at the Denver five. A 14-yard catch before halftime came back on an illegal block penalty.

The split: Tuten 13 designed runs, Chris Rodriguez six, Ameer Abdullah three, Trevor Lawrence two. 24 in all, 10 before halftime and 14 after. The three third downs with two yards or fewer to go went to Rodriguez, to Lawrence and to Rodriguez again on a direct snap, all in the first quarter. Inside the 20, Jacksonville ran three times: Tuten's touchdown, Tuten's nine, and Rodriguez for −2 on first and goal from the three.

Back in June the preview's line on Tuten was that the price was paying for a job he had not won — a rookie season that finished 50-first among backs, built on touchdowns rather than volume. Week 1 was 15 carries to Rodriguez's six, with none of the red-zone work or the short third downs. Sunday was 13 to six, the same shape, and this time the snap at the one was his, while the short third downs still went elsewhere. Two games with the same split are the start of an answer on the carries, and two games settle little about the goal line. Jacksonville is home to the Patriots on Sunday the 20-seventh.

_Data via nflverse._