Jamaal Runs Into The Record Books

From Invesco Field, Denver

“I still go out and play like a regular player. I want to prove to him that I want to be great.”

Jamaal Charles has proven a lot of things over the last two month and there’s little doubt on the part of anybody with the Chiefs that he wants to be great. He already may be.

He showed that Sunday afternoon when he raced around and through the Broncos defense for a team-record 259 rushing yards, and turned down the chance at the end for even more yards.

“I want to get it where I’m in the game and it’s competing time,” Charles said. “People give up at that time (of the game) and don’t really care. I could l have gone back in the game, I just told coach I’m satisfied right now. I’ll get it some other time.”

And how can anyone argue with that? They certainly can’t based on what Charles has done this season with 190 carries and 1,120 rushing yards, 1,417 offensive yards and 2,342 all-purpose yards. He became one of the most productive running backs in the league over the last half of the season.

It certainly was a different finish than what the season started like for Charles. It has been a frequently told and re-told story of him being inactive for Game No. 2 against Oakland and then fumbling the opening kickoff in Game No. 4 against the New York Giants.

By the time the eighth game of the season was over, Charles had 152 yards on 29 carries without a touchdown run. His season was going nowhere.

But then Larry Johnson got himself in trouble again, was suspended and then sent packing. Kolby Smith was still coming back from his 2008 knee injury and would end up on the injured-reserve list again. Opportunity came to Charles because he was the last man standing.

In the last eight games of the season, Charles ran for 968 yards on 161 carries, an average of 6.01 yards per carry with seven touchdown runs.

On Sunday in the mile high air of Denver, Charles was still standing, still fighting, running fast, running hard and that combination was impossible for the Broncos to stop. He started with 54 yards in the first quarter, and then 59 yards in the second period, for 113 yards at half-time. The third quarter brought 55 more yards, getting him past the 1,000-yard mark that everybody wanted to see him accomplish.

Then, the fourth quarter and Charles carries four times for 91 yards, including a 56-yarder for his second touchdown of the game.

“Coach Haley gave me a chance and I just tried to take advantage of it,” said Charles. “Everybody wanted to go for 1,000 yards and that was my goal. Coach wanted me to go for 200. I said 200? I just prayed on that. I didn’t believe. I thought he was crazy. I thought ’200, man this is the NFL? Well Jamaal, this is your last game (of the season) go out and give your all’.”

He gave it his all and ran his way into the Chiefs record books, shattering the old single game rushing mark of 211 yards set by Johnson in 2005 against Houston. There was so much more tied up in his 25 carries and 259 yards:

• He reached 1,000 plus yards on just 190 carries, the fewest of any K.C. running back to reach that mark.
• It was his fifth 100-yard game of the season and fourth in a row.
• His 2,342 rushing, receiving and returning yards was the second best season in team history, trailing only Dante Hall’s 2,446 yards in 2003.
• A per carry average this season of 5.89 yards was the second highest in team history. Only Ted McKnight in 1978 with a 6.03 average got more per carry than Charles did this season.

Charles would like to play some more.

“I would love to play. I feel like I’m getting stronger and stronger every week,” Charles said. “I feel like m