The Greatest 11-game stretch in NFL history!

From Game 6 through game 16 in The Houston Oilers 1980 season Earl Campbell put up this insane stat line:

323 - 1710 - 5.29 - 11

323 Carries in 11 games!

The start of this 11 game stretch included the truly mind-numbing 6-game stretch of 195 carries for 1076 yards and 7 Tds!

10/12 at KC 38-178-1

10/19 TB 33-203-0

10/26 Cin 27-202-2

11/2 at Den 36-157-2

11/10 NE 30-130-2

11/16 at Chi 31-206-0

11/23 at NYJ 15-60-0

11/30 Cle 27-109-1

12/4 Pit 21-81-0

12/14 at GB 36-181-2

12/21 Min 29-203-1

!!** Four 200+ yard games in a 10 game stretch! The CAREER RECORD for 200 yard rushing games is 6 (Simpson, Peterson) and Campbell had FOUR in TEN games!!

Some notables who came close:

Adrian Peterson's miraculous 2012 had a nearly as impressive stretch of 1677 yards in 11 games, but with 6.65 yards per carry!!

Walter Payton's 1977 season included this 11-game stretch: 290-1609-5.55-12. Considering 1977 was lowest scoring season since WWII and this is an amazing stretch.

Eric Dickerson's 1984 11-game stretch of 260-1629-6.27-11 is also eye-popping and helped get him to his still standing 2105 yard season.

OJ Simpson, Barry Sanders, Jim Brown, Jamal Lewis, Terrell Davis, Chris Johnson also had very, very good stretches, but they spread their damage out in a more balanced way, so that although the end result was spectacular, they never approached an 11-game stretch like Campbell.

Although it was just his 3rd season, that 11-game stretch (followed by 27 more carries in a playoff loss to Oakland) may be the very reason that he was merely good for the next 3 years, done in another 2, and now famously crippled.

Oh, yeah, he missed all of one game in 1980, and most of the one prior...so it could have been Campbell Dickerson was chasing...but that's just idle speculation.

Back when Running Backs were studs. Now it's run by committee for the most part and most don't last more then 3-4 seasons.

I miss those days so much.

...and sadly it's why more than any other running back that I can remember from his era, he's for all intents and purposes a cripple. Having said that, I really appreciated his approach to the game. It's just really sad to see him in the state he's in and has been for a long time.

His problem was he'd run into tackles. Guys like Sanders and Smith ran away from tackles for the most part and lasted much longer.