Robert Griffin III loosened his stranglehold on the Offensive Rookie of the Year title last weekend. Or maybe two other contenders just forced their way into contention.
Realistically, this thing is coming down to RG3 and Andrew Luck. Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson would be in the mix with 575 rushing yards, 240 receiving yards, six combined touchdowns and basically being the entire offense, but the Browns have two wins. You have to run away from the others statistically to overcome so many losses.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin has to get a mention after 251 rushing yards and four touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders. (Nice job Raiders defense, by the way.) He put up a combined 214 yards the previous week and the Buccaneers won both games. If those trends continue, Martin will challenge the top two picks of the draft. However, the "Muscle Hamster" averaged 68 rushing yards in the six previous games as the Buccaneers started 2-4.
Griffin had the numbers and the wins three weeks ago. Now he only has the numbers -- barely. Luck set the NFL rookie single-game record with 433 passing yards Sunday and the Indianapolis Colts would be in the playoffs if they started today. The Washington Redskins are 3-6 and coach Mike Shannahan is talking about 2013 - kind of.
Let's look side-by-side.
Griffin: 172-for-262, 65.6 completion percentage, 1,993 passing yards, 8 passing touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 93.9 QB rating, 529 rushing yards, 6 rushing touchdowns
Luck: 190-for-336, 56.5 completion percentage, 2,404 passing yards, 10 passing touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 79.0 QB rating, 148 rushing yards, 3 rushing touchdowns
Griffin gets the edge in exciting plays and charisma. The numbers *do *favor RG3 - for now. He'll hold on if the Indianapolis Colts miss the playoffs. But if the Colts get in and Luck keeps the numbers close, the trophy will head to Indy. And it looks like Luck's team is trending upward whereas the Redskins are headed in the opposite direction.
With eight weeks remaining, it's a two-man race for the Offensive Rookie of the Year. We expected nothing less.
Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.
