Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gore out for season
Leading rusher in walking boot after foot injury
DAVIE — The Miami Dolphins will be forced to play the final two games of the 2018 season without veteran tailback Frank Gore, the team’s leading rusher.
Gore, who has 722 rushing yards on 156 carries this season, injured his left foot in the first half of Sunday’s 41-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings and is in a walking boot.
According to a league source, Gore won’t play again this season, ending his league-leading streak of playing in 126 consecutive games.
Dolphins coach Adam Gase didn’t clarify Gore’s status or the extent of his injury Monday, but acknowledged he will be auditioning another featured back for this Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (1 p.m., CBS).
Gore handled the bulk of the Dolphins’ carries this season, while Kenyan Drake served as a scatback, catching 44 passes for 394 yards and five touchdowns out of the backfield.
The Dolphins might have Drake, who has rushed for 469 yards and four touchdowns on 103 carries, handle more carries despite nursing a shoulder injury the past three weeks that has limited his practice participation.
Drake only had one carry for six yards against the Vikings, but caught three passes for 28 yards.
“I’m just doing my job. I just run plays,” Drake said when asked about his lack of carries.
Rookie tailback Kalen Ballage, a former Arizona State standout the Dolphins’ selected in the fourth round of this year’s draft, got an extensive look as Miami’s featured rusher in Gore’s absence Sunday. He gained 123 yards on 12 carries, including a 75-yard touchdown run.
The Dolphins like Ballage’s combination of size (6 foot 2, 237 pounds) and speed (ran a 4.46 40-yard dash time at the NFL combine), and have been grooming him this season.
“They both took their turns and it kind of worked out the way it did,” Gase said of Drake and Ballage. “I think Ballage did alright.
“That long run he had, that’s how he runs every day [in practice],” Gase said. “That is how he finishes every day. There’s a reason why he’s able to do that, his confidence . ... Every day in practice we watch the same thing. When he gets a carry, he finishes it in the end zone.”
Miami could also lean on Brandon Bolden, who has 82 yards and two touchdowns on four carries this season, and Senorise Perry (no carries or catches this season) to handle some of Gore’s workload.
If Gore is placed on injured reserve, he’ll finish 154 yards shy of becoming the third player in NFL history to produce 1,000 yards of total offense 13 times. The only other players to reach that milestone are 49ers legend Jerry Rice and Cowboys great Emmitt Smith, who each reached 1,000 total yards 14 times.
Gore, 35, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and as of last week, said he has no plans to retire.
Gore’s 14,748 career rushing yards ranks him fourth behind Smith (18,355), Walter Payton (16,726) and Barry Sanders (15,269), who are all Hall of Famers.
“You don’t want to lose somebody like a Hall-ofFame running back — scrimmage yards, he can catch it, run. Frank can do everything,” Ballage said. “Moving forward, I’ll just be ready to step into whatever role they need me to be in.”