Tony Pollard — Week 3: Seventeen Carries, Seventy-Four Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Pollard carried 17 times for 74 yards, his most carries this season and the most rushing yards by anyone in the game, with 63 of them on 12 second-half carries, and caught all 4 of his targets for 22. His 18-yard catch on third and 7 with 2:16 left, down 12–7, was the largest win-probability gain on any Titans pass or run, in a 12–7 loss to the Giants.
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12 to seven, Giants, two 16 left in the fourth quarter, third and seven at the Tennessee 38. Cam Ward threw short right to Tony Pollard, a ball caught at the line of scrimmage, and Pollard was pushed out at the New York 44 after 18 yards. +1.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 10.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. That was the largest win-probability gain on any Titans pass or run of the day. The drive reached the New York seven, and Ward's throw on first and goal with 24 seconds left was intercepted in the end zone.
The line: 17 carries, 74 yards, no touchdown, three first downs, six of the 17 successful, −1.4 expected points on the carries; four targets, four catches, 22 yards. The carries went five, nothing, three, one, two, nine, six, four, two, 12, five, 16, −1, three, one, three, three. Five before halftime for 11 yards, 12 after for 63. The 16 was the longest run by either team: first and 10 at the Tennessee nine with 12 43 left in the fourth, down 12 to nothing, off right tackle to the 25, the first snap of the only Titans touchdown drive. Near its end he ran up the middle for three to the New York five, took a direct snap off left tackle for one more to the four, and on third and four Ward found Wan'Dale Robinson for the touchdown. The third-quarter drive was his as well: nine, six, four and two on its first four snaps from the Tennessee 25, and later a four-yard catch, 12 yards up the right guard to the New York 12 five to the seven. He touched the ball on seven of that drive's 12 snaps, and it ended on three incompletions and a turnover on downs. The catches were −1, four, one and the 18. No third-down carries.
Tennessee called 21 designed runs: 17 for Pollard, three for Tyjae Spears, one for Ward. Among the running backs that is 17 of 20 carries; Nicholas Singleton, not on the inactive list published on the Giants' team site, did not get one. Six of the 21 came before halftime. His 74 yards were the most by any runner in the game, ahead of Cam Skattebo's 60 on 20 carries. His four targets tied Gunnar Helm for third on the team behind Robinson's 11 and Carnell Tate's nine.
Back in June the preview called Pollard a workhorse with a workhorse's mileage: 275 touches and a thousand 82 rushing yards last season, a line built on volume and availability rather than explosiveness. Week 1 was seven carries in a game the Titans trailed from the first quarter. Week 2 was 14, and that episode said his share of the backfield had sat between 56 70 percent. Sunday it was 85 percent, in a week Robert Saleh had said the Titans would give Singleton more carries, per CBS Sports. Three games, 38 carries, a hundred 73 yards. The volume half of the June read is holding, and the 4.4 yards a carry on Sunday is the ordinary efficiency it described. Tennessee is at the Ravens on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
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