Roger Craig
| Roger Craig | |
|---|---|
 |
|
|
Position (s): running back |
Jersey numbers: 33, 22 |
| born July 10, 1960 in Davenport , Iowa | |
| Career information | |
| Active : 1983 - 1993 | |
| NFL Draft : 1983 / Round: 2 / Pick: 49 | |
| College : University of Nebraska | |
| Teams | |
|
|
| Career statistics | |
| Gaining space through running play | 8,189 yards |
| Average per run | 4.1 yards |
| Touchdowns | 73 |
| Stats at NFL.com | |
| Stats at pro-football-reference.com | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
|
|
Roger Timothy Craig (* 10. July 1960 in Davenport , Iowa ) is a former American American football poker players in the position of running backs . He played for the San Francisco 49ers , Los Angeles Raiders, and Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL).
college
He spent his college years at the University of Nebraska , playing for the Cornhuskers . In a 1981 game against the Florida State Seminoles , he set a school record for the longest run (94 yards ). He ran a total of 234 yards in this game, which made him only 10th on the college's record list in 2006. That season he ran 1,060 yards and six touchdowns at an average of 6.1 yards per run. Judging by his later performance in the NFL, only a meager 86 yards from trapped passes added to his overall performance that year.
NFL
After his good but not outstanding college career, he was selected in 1983 in the second round of the NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers . Roger Craig played in his professional time from 1983 to 1990 for the San Francisco 49ers, 1991 for the Los Angeles Raiders and from 1992 to 1993 for the Minnesota Vikings . During his time with the 49ers, he won the Super Bowl three times alongside quarterback Joe Montana .
The 49ers added a new dimension to his game. Coach Bill Walsh used Craig's good catching abilities to integrate the running back more and more often into the passing game and emphasized an essential feature of his young West Coast offense with the short pass to one of the tailbacks . In the 1985 season, Craig became the first NFL player to run over 1000 yards and catch passes for over 1000 yards in one season. In total, he ran 1050 yards in 214 attempts with nine touchdowns and caught 92 passes over 1016 yards with six touchdowns. He was no longer able to repeat this feat and neither was any other NFL player until 1999. Only Marshall Faulk was able to repeat this performance 16 years later at the St. Louis Rams , but even he only made it this one time. The 92 passes caught in the 1985 season meant an NFL record for running backs at the time, and Craig even outperformed all wide receivers that year .
In the preseason Super Bowl on January 20, 1985 (Super Bowl XIX), Roger Craig ran 58 yards, caught 7 passes for 77 yards, and was the first NFL player to score three touchdowns in a Super Bowl. During the 38:16 win over the Miami Dolphins , the San Francisco 49ers set another Super Bowl record with 537 yards. The team record for the most run yards in a season Craig set in 1988 with 1502 yards. This was only broken ten years later by Garrison Hearst with 1570 yards. Together with his captured passes over 534 yards, he was able to break the 2000-yard mark for the second time in his career and was voted Offensive Player of the year . In the following final (Super Bowl XXIII) on January 22, 1989 against the Cincinnati Bengals , Craig won his second Super Bowl title. In the game, he ran 71 yards in 17 tries and contributed another 101 yards from eight trapped passes.
After the following season, the 49ers were able to defend their Super Bowl title (Super Bowl XXIV). In the 55:10 win against the Denver Broncos , Craig ran 69 yards in 20 attempts and scored the touchdown to 54:10. Another 34 yards with eight pass catches were added. Due to the outstanding performances of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice , Roger Craig was able to win the Super Bowl three times, but not even achieve the title of Super Bowl MVP (Most Valuable Player of the Final). The hunt for an unprecedented third Super Bowl in a row ended tragically for Roger Craig. In his last game for the 49ers, in the NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants , he of all people lost the ball ( fumble ) in the last quarter when his team led 13:12. Lawrence Taylor took the ball for the Giants and substitute quarterback Jeff Hostetler led his team 33 yards into half of the 49ers. Shortly afterwards, when the clock ran out, the Giants won the game with a field goal from Matt Bahr (his fifth in the game) over 42 yards to make it 1:15 pm .
In his last season with the 49ers, but also in the three seasons that followed, Craig was unable to build on his previous performances. He played one more season with the Raiders and two more for the Vikings before retiring from professional sports. He finished his career with 8,189 yards run from 1991 attempts with 56 touchdowns; 4911 yards from 566 passes caught in 17 touchdowns. With another 43 yards from three kickoff returns, he scored a total of 13,143 yards and 73 touchdowns. He was elected to the Pro Bowl four times (1985 and 1987 to 1989) and managed to play in each of his eleven professional years in the play-offs. To date (2006) he is the only running back to complete an NFL season with the most passes caught and the only running back to catch passes for more than 100 yards in a Super Bowl.
Craig is a member of the National Football League 1980s All-Decade Team and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame . He was nominated for inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
After the career
Craig now works for a software company.
Web links
- Roger Craig in nndb (English)
- Roger Craig's website
- Statistics of his professional time
- Biography ( Memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- Roger Craig in the 49ers
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Craig, Roger |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Craig, Roger Timothy (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American football player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 10, 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Davenport , Iowa |