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Saturday, Oct. 04, 2008

Panthers now turn attention to Chiefs’ resurgent Johnson

CHARLOTTE — As long as he’s been in the league, all Larry Johnson has done is succeed when he gets the ball.

That’s why the first two weeks of this season were mystifying to him.

The sixth-year running back has bounced back from a sluggish start to help the Kansas City Chiefs do the same, getting a huge game and its first win last week against Denver. He rushed for 198 yards against the Broncos, after hanging 121 on Atlanta the week before.

For Johnson, the 111.5 yards per game difference from the first two games to the next two is directly connected to his carries — 34 against New England and Oakland and 52 against the Falcons and Broncos.

“I’ve been here long enough to know that if I’m not getting the ball, then I’m tired,” Johnson said after the Week 2 loss to the Raiders in which he had just 12 attempts. “If I’m not tired and I’m not getting the ball, something’s going on, and I’ve got to deal with it.”

So yes, he told reporters in Charlotte on a conference call, it was a statement for him last week.

“Sometimes people seem to forget how good I’ve been over my career, even when I started to start,” Johnson said. “I try to go out there and prove it on every play of every game that I have a chance to play.”

That wasn’t happening early, so he decided to nudge his coach a little, openly voicing his displeasure at not getting the ball more often.

“As long as we understand that for me to be successful, I have to get the ball more than 12 or 20 times during a ball game,” Johnson said. “I understand during some games if we are down a whole bunch of points, I still feel I need to be in there to try to contribute in some way with this offense.

“Last week, we understood that and tried to get the ball to me as many times as possible for me to make plays.”

Kansas City coach Herm Edwards acknowledged that Johnson was more pleasant this week: “Yeah, a win and when you run like he did, that should make you happy.”

“All good running backs want the ball more,” Edwards said. “But we got into some games in the second half where we were down by a deficit where we had to throw the football. Against the Raiders, we really had to throw the football a lot. Against Atlanta, in the second half, we got our running game going, and we really started to run the ball well. This game was a game where we were able to score and so we could continue to run the football.”

When Johnson’s been able to do that, the results are always good.

Stuck behind Priest Holmes when they drafted him in the first round of the 2003 draft, Johnson had to wait for his chance to start. When it came, all he did was break records.

Johnson posted 1,958 yards in the first 16 starts of his career, more than any back since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. He ran his way to two Pro Bowls and a contract extension last summer before a foot injury ended his season.

Then came his bucking-at-the-reins start, but since then, he appears back to his old form.

The Panthers have been under siege by quality backs, and Johnson presents a new challenge. Atlanta’s Michael Turner’s bigger, but the 6-1, 230-pound Johnson combines explosive speed with his power, making him a more dangerous runner.

“He’s a physical runner,” safety Chris Harris said. “He’s a north-south runner, and he won’t give you a lot of shake. He’s a one-cut guy and gets upfield. We’re going to have to make sure we’re in our gaps and lanes to keep that from happening to us this week.”

His size also keeps him from worrying about wearing himself out. He ran 752 times in 2005 and 2006 and already had put 158 attempts on the board in 2007 when he was hurt in the eighth game. His 416 carries in 2006 and 39 in a game against Seattle are franchise records. In 60 games and 40 starts, he’s had 13 games with at least 30 attempts.

All Johnson wants is more opportunities.

“Everybody is different,” he said. “I am not 5-8 and 215. I need carries to move me throughout the game. So, I don’t really care about how many carries I have.”

At least, as long as he’s getting enough.