Steve Slaton has been nominated for NFL Rookie of the Week honors for the fourth time this season after his impressive performance at Indianapolis. The 5-9, 201-pound running back from West Virginia totaled a rookie-record 156 rushing yards on 14 carries (11.1 avg.) with a franchise-long 71-yard touchdown run in the 33-27 loss to the Colts.
Voting end Friday at 11 a.m. CT, and the winner will be announced Friday evening on NFL.com.
The third-round draft pick (89th overall) already has won NFLPLAYERS.COM’s Rookie of the Week award this year after the Texans' first meeting with the Colts at Reliant Stadium on Oct. 5. After gaining 93 yards on 16 carries (5.8 avg.) with two touchdowns in the 31-27 loss, Slaton was nominated for NFL Rookie of the Week honors for the third time.
Slaton's second nomination for NFL Rookie of the Week came after the Week 4 game at Jacksonville. In the 30-27 overtime loss, he totaled 83 receiving yards on eight catches with one touchdown and carried the ball 10 times for 33 yards.
{QUOTE}He first was nominated for NFL Rookie of the Week honors after his first-career start at Tennessee in Week 3, when he had 116 rushing yards with his first career touchdown.
Among all rookie running backs, Slaton ranks third in rushing yards (701) behind Chicago's Matt Forte (777) and Tennessee's Chris Johnson (787). But Slaton ranks first in yards per carry (5.1) among all rookie running backs with more than 100 carries.
Coach Gary Kubiak had this to say about Slaton following the rookie's latest performance:
"Well, first off, there's talk about a lot of rookies in this league, but this kid has got to be having as fine a season as anybody around. Man, he was thrown into the fire in Week 2. It's not like we brought him along slowly. We threw a lot on his plate, and he has really responded, even responded to the point where he got worn down, which I think we talked about that enough. But he was fresh yesterday (at Indianapolis). He looked like his old self. There's still a lot of football to play this year, but he's putting up some very good numbers. When you average 11 yards a carry in this league, I don't care where you play or where it happens, that's a special day. It's sad because he had a special day as a player, it's a shame we couldn't hand him a (game) ball and win a football game."
