Barry Sanders is all time leader is lost yeards from scrimmage. Did he gain them back? Yess. Does that make him a far superior running back? No! He was never benched, so what? He still lost a ton of yards from scrimmage. Detroit is also a loser franchise, what they deem acceptable doesn't mean it would fly if Snaders played for another team. YPC doesn't tell the whole story. Guys like Emmitt Smith were often called upon for short yardage. Thats going to kill anyones YPC.
LMAO at what Detroit deems acceptable would not fly with another team. Are you saying other teams would bench Barry, despite gaining 100 yards per game and 5.0 yards per carry and averaging 1527 yards per season? These are better numbers than any running back in all of NFL history (except for Jim Brown). Barry was named to the Pro Bowl each season and also was named All-Pro in all 10 seasons (6 times 1st team and 4 times 2nd team). Do you have any idea how retarded you sound right now? Again, I can tell you with strong confidence that Barry only lost a few more yards per game than other great running backs. The difference between Barry and Emmitt is Barry loses yardage on 1 more carry for 3 more yards. The fact that Emmitt Smith played with the greatest run blocking offensive line in league history and Barry played with a line that was mediocre at best, pretty much evens it out. Barry also ran for 19 more yards per game, 304 yards more per year and .84 yards more per carry than Emmitt. Barry performed substantially better than Emmitt, despite playing for a substantially inferior team and offensive line. Here is a breakdown of an average game between Barry and Emmitt:
Emmitt
2 carries for -4 yards
18 carries for 85 yards
Overall: 20 carries for 81 yards (4.16 yards per carry)
Barry
3 carries for -7 yards
17 carries for 107 yards
Overall: 20 carries for 100 yards (5.0 yards per carry)
You would have to be retarded to bench Barry and take Emmitt over Barry just because Barry loses 3 more yards, since he gains 22 more yards (a net total of 19). Again if Barry had Emmitt's line, he would not have lost nearly as many yards since he would not have a defensive lineman or linebacker in the backfield to almost take the handoff with him. The Lions, with the run and shoot offensive, would have just 5 offensive lineman to block with no tight end or fullback. Because the Lions had no passing game because of poor quarterback play, teams would not respect the pass and would often stack the line with at least 7 defenders. This and poor blocking is why at least one defender would often be in the backfield the moment Barry took the hand off. Emmitt did not have this problem and had he switched places with Barry, we would not be having this conversation. The fact that Barry performed as brilliantly as he did with what he had to work with in the most difficult era to run the football is what makes him the GOAT.
Regarding Emmitt Smith in short yardage, Barry was also called on for short yardage in 6 of his 10 seasons (I have all of his games on DVD and also watched Barry live and can tell you this with 100% confidence) . He was a very good short yardage and goal line runner. The retard that is Wayne Fontes decided to remove him from goal line situations because he did not want Barry to take clean shots and get hurt. For example, during Barry's first four years (1989-1992) he was in 100% of short yardage and goal line situations and he averaged 4.8 ypc. This is still substantially better than Emmitt's ypc of 4.16. Also your point is insignificant because if you removed all of Emmitt Smith's short yardage carries, Barry would still have a better yards per carry.
