San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Oakland holds Miami’s Gore in high esteem
The Kansas City Chiefs used the 15th pick in the 2005 NFL draft on a linebacker out of Texas, Derrick Johnson. Fifty selections later, the 49ers plucked a running back out of Miami, Frank Gore.
In the ensuing years, as Johnson became the Chiefs’ all-time leading tackler and Gore one of the most productive rushers in NFL history, the two opposed each other a handful of times. Now 35, at an age when many of their contemporaries have long since retired, the two will share a field again Sunday when Johnson and the Raiders face Gore and the Dolphins at Miami.
“My hat’s off to him,” Johnson said during the week. “I love playing against guys like that.”
Gore, who averaged 248 carries and 1,079 rushing yards over 13 seasons with the 49ers and Colts, has assumed a different role in his first season
inMiami. Gore has played just 34 percent of the Dolphins’ offensive snaps in two games, with third-year back Kenyan Drake shouldering most of the backfield reps.
Still, Gore has averaged 4.8 yards on 18 carries, adding a catch for 19 yards. And last Sunday, he passed Curtis Martin for fourth on the NFL’s career rushing list; Gore’s total now stands at 14,112 yards.
“He’s been, the last few years, in a two-back system, where he comes on and off the field,” said Johnson. “But he’s a guy that can still tote the rock. Of course, he’s not as fast as he used to be. But you talk about a guy that can get some tough yards for you and run between the tackles …
“Frank Gore is a guy that everybody respects. When he’s in the game, you don’t say, ‘OK, the old guy’s in there, let’s look the other way.’ You’ve got to keep your antennas up, because he’s a downhill runner. He’s always been that way.”
Consistency is a hallmark of Gore, who trails only Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders in career rushing. Gore has never led the league in rushing — yet he owns the record for consecutive seasons with 1,200plus yards from scrimmage (12) and has started 110 games in a row.
That has earned him a fan in Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, who during the week described Gore as “one of the top five or six football players that I’ve ever seen.”
“He has been able to adapt and prove that he can play in any offense,” Gruden said. “He’s been one of the great two-back, I (formation) runners that I’ve seen in my time as a coach. Then Alex Smith came along and they (the 49ers) morphed into a shotgun operation.
“He played with (Colin) Kaepernick, he proved that he could play in that style of offense. He did some really good things, quietly, in Indianapolis, I think. It’s really cool to see him back in Miami where it all started.”
Gore won’t be the only running back on the field Sunday still going strong in his 30s.
Marshawn Lynch, 32, has 29 carries for 106 yards and two touchdowns in the Raiders’ first two games. But his longest carry last Sunday against Denver, a 31-yard burst to the right side, was reduced to 11 yards by a downfield holding penalty on receiver Seth Roberts. Lynch’s only carry in the preseason, a 60-yard touchdown run, was called back because of holding.
“I know this, he’s extremely hard to tackle still,” Dolphins head coach Adam Gase said during the week on a conference call. “He almost popped out a big one last week again. He’s a dangerous guy to deal with. He’s a big man that does not like to touch the ground.”
That was on display in Week 1, when Lynch scored from 10 yards out despite being stood up by the Rams’ defense near the 3-yard line. Lynch kept his feet churning and got help in the form of a push by his offensive linemen.
Right tackle Donald Penn this week said the line could be helping Lynch “a lot more.”
“He’s looked good,” Penn said. “We’ve just got to be more consistent. We’ve kind of got that little roller-coaster thing going again like we have in the past. But when we’re consistent he’s looking real good, he’s doing a lot of good things for us.
“Our main thing is just, try to get him to the second level. When he gets into the second level, I’ll bet on him against anybody.”
Lynch, famously reticent with the media, gave a one-word answer in passing when asked his opinion of Gore this week: “Solid.”
Gore was more effusive to Miami reporters when asked about Lynch.
“That’s my man,” Gore said. “Marshawn’s my man. I know him, he’s a friend of mine. I love the way he plays the game of football. I’m happy that he came back, because I knew that he still could play the game. I’m happy that a dude who came in back when I came in is still going.”
Johnson, the linebacker in his first season with Oakland, is another of those dudes. And should he peer across the line of scrimmage Sunday and lock gazes with Gore, Johnson said, he’ll anticipate an element of recognition.
“It’s more about when I see him,” Johnson said. “Shaking hands, and just having that mutual respect, that eye contact, between us, like, ‘Just keep going, man. Just keep going.’ ”