Tony Pollard — Week 2: Fourteen Carries, Stopped at the One
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Pollard carried 14 times for 64 yards, double his Week 1 workload, with an 18-yard run and 39 yards on six fourth-quarter carries. His carries reached the Philadelphia 5 and the Philadelphia 1 on the two touchdown drives, and Cam Ward scored both from a yard out. Tennessee called 27 designed runs after running 14 times in Week 1, in a 24–20 loss to the Eagles.
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10 to 17, Eagles, two 26 left in the third quarter, first and goal at the Philadelphia six. Tony Pollard ran behind the left guard for four yards to the two. On second and goal, a minute 45 left, he ran left tackle for one more and was stopped at the one. On third down Cam Ward scrambled around left end for the touchdown, and the kick tied the game at 17. The first Tennessee touchdown had the same shape: after an interception return to the Philadelphia 10, Pollard ran right guard for five to the five, and three snaps later Ward took it in from the one on fourth down. Pollard did the carrying near the goal line on both drives and the quarterback scored both.
The line: 14 carries, 64 yards, no touchdown, three first downs, six of the 14 successful, −0.2 expected points added on the carries — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position. One target, one catch, one yard. The carries went −2, five, 13, one, three, nothing, four, one, two, 18, −2, nine, nine and three. Five for 20 before halftime, nine for 44 after, and six for 39 in the fourth quarter alone. The 18 was second and eight at the Tennessee 21 with 14 26 left in the fourth, tied at 17, off left tackle, +1.8 expected points. The 13 converted third and one from the Tennessee 38 in the second quarter. The back-to-back nines opened the last Tennessee scoring drive from the 17 with six minutes left, and that drive ended in the field goal that made it 20 to 17. His other third-down carry was third and 14 at the Philadelphia 22 with 30 seconds left in the half, three yards, and the field goal followed. A two-yard run in the fourth quarter came back on a holding penalty.
The split: Tennessee called 27 designed runs — Pollard 14, Tyjae Spears seven, Nicholas Singleton four, Ward two — nine before halftime and 18 after, against 22 pass plays. Among the running backs that is 14 of 25 carries. In Week 1 the Titans ran 14 times in total, four of them Ward scrambles.
Back in June the preview made no call on Pollard — the thirtieth running back off the board at pick 80, a workhorse with a workhorse's mileage, 275 touches on a bad offense — and it said to watch the carry split with Spears, and Singleton's arrival. Week 1 was seven carries in a game the Titans never led, and that episode said the number to watch was Tennessee's rushing attempts before his share of them. Sunday the attempts doubled in a game that was tied or within one score for all 60 minutes, and his carries doubled with them: seven of 10 running back carries then, 14 of 25 now. Singleton's arrival was four carries on one drive. Two games, two scripts, and his share of the backfield has sat between 56 70 percent in both. Tennessee is at the Giants on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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