If he lays an egg tonight, I dunno how you could have any expectations for him and keep a straight face.
I think you have to recognize the distinction between
playing well and
having good stats. Those two things often overlap, but sometimes they don't. I've seen several backs this preseason who have played well and had ugly stats. Tre Mason is one example. On paper it looks like he's really struggling. If you've watched the games, I think he has shown pretty good promise. Much of his struggles can be attributed to contextual failures such as bad blocking. When there is literally no hole, it's very hard to get good yardage.
In a similar vein, I thought Trent looked fairly good last game. I wish the clips were online so people could watch for themselves, but I didn't watch him and think, "OMG this guy is brutal." The Colts suck at blocking in general and it doesn't seem like that has changed. If you want to blame that all on Richardson then that's fine, but for me he looks more like a promising back in a horrendous context rather than a guy who obviously lacks any and all merit. I've seen worse backs like Rashad Jennings generate a positive buzz this preseason and I think a lot of the difference is just down to the playcalling and the quality of the blocking that's in front of them.
We already know what's going to happen tonight. If Trent averages 3.X YPC or worse, it's going to be the same crowd with the "OMG he sucks so bad! LOL!" stuff. If he comes out and lights it up, there will be a few true believers playing the "I told you so" card and then a lot of haters playing the "It's just one meaningless preseason game" card. Everyone will go to sleep having interpreted the events of the game in a way that supports whatever opinion they already hold. I think instead of just looking at the box score, it's probably better if you also look at the actual performance in addition to that, but of course that introduces a lot of subjectivity into the mix. Unless it's
obviously slanted one way or the other, chances are you're going to get some people thinking he looked promising and some people thinking he was dog ####.
So basically this thread will continue to be a porto-potty
until several years have passed and the verdict of his career has been decided beyond a reasonable doubt.