MVP Texas | Arian Foster the Man the Texans Have Been Looking For

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Arian Foster the Man the Texans Have Been Looking For

Written by Travis Pulver

Sunday, 29 August 2010 10:50

That battle became a two way fight when rookie Ben Tate went down for the season with a broken ankle, an injury that he suffered against the Arizona Cardinals in the team’s first preseason game.

After Saturday night’s preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys Arian Foster may very well have locked down the No. 1 spot for the Texan’s backfield.

Foster ran the ball 18 times for 110 yards and one touchdown against a solid Dallas defense for an average of more than six yards a carry in the 23-7 win over the Cowboys. Last year the team averaged just 3.5 yards a carry the entire season.

Steve Slaton had been the starter since getting drafted out of West Virginia in the third round of the 2008 draft. His rookie season gave the Texans reason for hope when he ran fro 1282 yards on 268 carries, but then Slaton had productivity and fumble issues in 2009. He was well on his way to losing the starting spot when he was placed on the IR in early December.

Foster ended up coming on strong in the final two games of the 2009 season and showed enough promise that he was dubbed the No. 1 man going into training camp with every expectation that he would have to fight to retain the job.

Fight the second-year pro out of Tennessee did. Against Arizona he only had four carries for 31 yards, but started off with a dazzling 21 yards scamper on his first carry. In the following match-up with the defending Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints, he had just six carries for 28 yards and a touchdown. The 110 yard effort against their in-state rival was the nail in the coffin for Slaton’s hopes of getting his old job back.

Slaton came into shape healed and ready to contend for the starting job; he had even trimmed down a little in order to add some quickness to his game. He was unable to do much with the carries he got gaining only 22 yards in 10 carries against Arizona, and 19 yards on five carries against the Saints.

What perhaps did Slaton in was not his run production, but a fumble at the goal line in the Cardinals game. After only putting three on the ground in his rookie campaign Slaton fumbled seven times in 2009, losing five, including a fumble in each of the first four games.

Head coach Gary Kubiak will likely look to use Slaton as a change of pace back with Slaton being a little quicker and close to 30 pounds lighter than Foster.

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