Jets vs. Bills: Who Are You and What Have You Done With Bilal Powell?

Pro Football Focus is out with its stats for yesterday's game. A few notable stats come from one of yesterday's most notable Jets performances.

They crunched their numbers and found Bilal Powell averaged 3.1 yards per carry after contact. They also credited him with forcing 5 missed tackles on 27 carries. That is a ratio of .18 missed tackles forced per carry. I know these are unfamiliar stats, but to give you some context, those are comparable to the numbers Doug Martin put up with Tampa Bay last year. He was at 3.1 yards per carry after contact and a little under .16 missed tackles forced per carry in his 1,454 yard, 11 touchdown season last year. There were only six backs in the league who averaged 3.1 yards after contact per carry and got at least a quarter of their team's carries.

In 2012 and the first two games of 2013, Powell averaged 1.6 yards per carry after contact and .07 missed tackles per carry. Know how he forced 5 missed tackles yesterday? He forced 10 missed tackles TOTAL in all of 2012 and the first two games of 2013.

Why are these stats significant? They are a good way to separate what the back actually does from his blocking. If the line is producing gaping holes, any running back in the NFL can put up good numbers. The ability to grind out extra yardage after contact and make people miss is the value of a running back.

What say you? Is Bilal Powell suddenly a dynamic back, or was this just one out of context game? I lean to the career game side. I'm not sure we can expect to see Bilal produce like that again. We haven't seen anything close to that kind of elusiveness in two plus years from him.

We can hope, though, right?