I really don’t think he cares about stats, and if defenses are locking him down, they’re leaving passing lanes open. Part of his success was a result of defenses scheming against Brown and Smith. Plus, you need a spy on Hurts to keep him from running roughshod over the defense.

It’s exactly what happened in the Superbowl. The Chiefs clearly had a gameplan that neutralized Barkley, but that doesn’t mean he was a “nonfactor” as so many pundits described. The opposite was happening during the regular season, which helped him run all day. But when he had a chance to set the record, he said “no” because getting injured would have hurt the team, and it wasn’t worth it to him.