ATLANTA — For most of Sunday afternoon, Arizona’s defenders figuratively heard Jason Snelling’s footsteps.
You wonder a little bit if Michael Turner started hearing them, too.
Turner stood almost forlornly on the sidelines in the second half of Atlanta’s 41-7 romp Sunday over Arizona, victim of a first-half groin injury.
For one, players really want to play when their team is beating the doors off an opponent, which is what Atlanta did without playing exactly lights out.
For another, it’s hard for players to watch their backups play as well as they did two seasons ago.
And Snelling plays like a first-team power back on a playoff-caliber team.
“I mean, what can you say about this guy?” head coach Mike Smith said. “He had over 180, I think 180 total yards … 182 yards and three touchdowns.
“He’s just a darned good football player.”
Nothing against Turner, but he looked a little slow for the second straight game. And as Roddy White said, Arizona’s defense has little in common with Pittsburgh’s.
Turner had a few nice runs and managed 75 yards on nine carries. But other than a 21-yarder and 16-yarder, he still wasn’t The Burner.
Snelling won’t get any invites to a track meet, but he seems to have matched Turner’s speed. Snelling doesn’t go sideways or backward, and he doesn’t have happy feet.
And he has a big fan in front of him, in the person of fullback Ovie Mughelli.
“The thing about Jason, he’ll make you look good as a blocker,” Mughelli said. “Some (runners), they don’t read your blocks. You may have a guy pinned outside, and he’ll run inside you, and your man makes the tackle.
“Jason sets guys up. And even if you miss your block, he’ll run right over a guy. Knowing that your tailback is going to fight for every inch and every yard, that makes you want to block for him.”
Mughelli said Snelling is just a hard-working football player whose goal is to make the Pro Bowl on special teams.
“He’s on every special teams,” Mughelli said. “He goes hard every single play. People will start noticing. Special teams, offense. The man, he has a motor.”
Snelling was a standout a year ago when he saw increased time with Turner sidelined, courtesy of a high ankle sprain. As often as not, Snelling was as effective as Turner, albeit with maybe a little more power at times.
“He did a great job for us last year stepping in and filling in for a number of different games and different situations for us,” quarterback Matt Ryan said. “You never like to see Mike or Jerious (Norwood) go down, but when they do, we’ve got confidence in Jason, and we can run our entire game plan.”
Last year, Turner averaged 4.9 yards, carrying 178 times for 871 yards and 10 touchdowns. Snelling, the third-stringer, ran 142 times for 613 yards — a 4.3 average — and four scores and is a bigger receiving threat.
Sunday, Snelling ran like a starter, hard and downhill, waiting for holes and hitting them, and catching passes.
The man, as Mughelli said, has a motor. Turner might start hearing that running, as well.
Contact Michael A. Lough at 744-4626 or mlough@macon.com
