MarShawn Lloyd — Week 1: Thirteen Carries, Thirty-Seven Yards

MarShawn Lloyd's most expensive carry Sunday was the first play of the drive that ended at the Green Bay one. First and 10 at the Green Bay 30, six 33 left in the fourth quarter, Minnesota ahead 25 to 22 for the first time all day: up the middle, −3 yards, worth −1.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −6.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it. Two snaps later Jordan Love had been sacked twice, the second one a fumble Minnesota recovered at the eight and carried to the one, and Jordan Mason scored on the next play. Three plays, −19 yards from the 30 to the 11, and the game had turned.

The line: 13 carries, 37 yards, no touchdowns, two first downs, five of the 13 successful, −3.8 expected points on the carries. The longest was 12, first and 10 at the Green Bay 14 with 14 54 left in the third quarter, up 19 to 10, left end to the 26. Before halftime he carried four times for six yards; after it, nine for 31, seven of them in the third quarter for 30. Five were on the one long drive of the second half, the possession that started at the Green Bay 13 with 10 55 left in the third and reached first and goal at the Minnesota seven: six yards, four, one, two, and then from the seven, left tackle for −1, ahead of two incompletions and a field goal that made it 22 to 10. His one target was deep left with two minutes left in the fourth, down 39 to 22, incomplete. He did not carry on a third or fourth down.

The split: Lloyd 13, Chris Brooks seven, Love one — the fourth-and-one at the Minnesota 17 that went nowhere — with Josh Jacobs on the Commissioner's Exempt list. Green Bay ran eight times before halftime and 13 after, and threw 19 pass plays and 27; 387 yards in the air against 66 on the ground. Lloyd's 13 carries were the most on the team, and none gained more than six yards after the 12-yarder that opened the half.

Back in June the preview called Lloyd a watchlist — the 60-fourth running back, pick two 12, a third-round talent with a two-year injury ledger, no production to rank and one question, availability, with the number-two job behind Jacobs and a competition with Brooks as the things to watch. Sunday answered the availability question for one week and put him at the top of the carry list, 13 to seven, at 2.8 yards a carry. One game with the most carries on the team is a role for one game; whether the body holds and whether the yards come are the questions the preview said would take a season. Green Bay is at the Jets on Sunday the twentieth.

_Data via nflverse._