Yesterday Ryan Grant rushed 25 times for 119 yards and a touchdown, averaging almost 5 yards a carry. Two weeks ago he rushed for over 100 yards against Denver, but everyone knew Denver's rush defense was suspect. Going into the Vikings game many people thought he was a good stop gap for the Packers, but not a starting back.  After the game against the Vikings, it looks like Ryan Grant is an NFL starter, not just a fill in for a passing team.

Now, not all of the 119 rushing yards can be put on Grants shoulders, not at all. There were 5 things that contributed to his success:

1. Game plan. McCarthy saw that Minnesota was open to the run, and took his shot.
2. The offensive line. The line opened some great holes.
3. The fullback Korey Hall. Korey Hall was a great lead blocker on Sunday, taking out the linebacker in a lot of situations.
4. The passing game. Brett Favre going 3/4 to start the game really helped out the run.
5. The Vikings defense. They sold out against the pass so hard it opened up the run quite a bit.

That said, Ryan Grant did a lot of things right in Sundays game, and he did them against the number three rushing defense in the league. Grant did a great job of what McCarthy calls "one cut and up", meaning he made his cut and then hit the hole. He didn't dance around in the backfield looking for his spot, he made a cut and got upfield. Once he hit the hole, a lot of times he made the first defender miss, and after that often broke the second tackle. That is exactly what happened on his touchdown run, he blew by the first defender, broke the tackle of the second, and spun into the end zone. Grant also finishes hard. More often then not he keeps his legs pumping and falls forward onto the defender, and a few times on the sideline he turned into a Viking to deliver a blow rather than go out of bounds.

No one is saying he is Larry Johnson or even Clinton Portis, but Ryan Grant proved on Sunday that he deserves to and could start for just about any team in the NFL.