Super Bowl XLV: Why Rashard Mendenhall is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ X-Factor

January 26, 2011   ·   Charles Howe   ·   Jump to comments

Rashard Mendenhall had a pretty impressive regular season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He finished with the seventh most rushing yards in the league, and he had more yards than other premiere running backs such as Steven Jackson, Ray Rice, Darren McFadden and LeSean McCoy. His 13 touchdowns were bested only by Arian Foster.
In the AFC Championship game against the Jets, Mendenhall cut through New York's third ranked rush defense like a hot knife through butter. Even when New York seemingly had him stopped in the backfield, Mendenhall somehow made something out of nothing.
The Packers allowed almost 25 more rushing yards per game and more than one more yard per carry than the New York Jets. Green Bay did a good job bottling up Matt Forte in the NFC Championship game, but Mendenhall out-rushed Forte by 203 yards this season and scored seven more rushing touchdowns.
The Packers may have to drop a safety into the box to try to slow Mendenhall down. The problem...

Read Complete Article at Bleacher Report - NFL
Article is property of BleacherReport.com