Arizona Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love had 14 first-half touches in the team's 27-14 preseason win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday. He injured his ankle on the final of his 24 offensive snaps, and now he could miss the start of the season. The team is hopeful that he will be ready or Week 1, but his preseason action is likely over.
Much has been said about this situation. Since he hasn't played an NFL game yet, head coach Mike LaFleur wanted to get Love some work and even said that double-digit carries was the hope.
However, there are two reasons why what the Cardinals did with Love didn't make sense, and it is costing him weeks of practice time and preseason game snaps.
He played mostly with and against backups
The offensive starters were in the game for one possession, getting 11 snaps on one drive that ended in a touchdown. In that first drive, he ran the ball twice and had a catch.
The rest of his snaps and touches came with the second-team offense and against the Raiders' backups.
Yes, Love could use the snaps, but there is a reason why teams basically never put their cornerstone players on the field in the preseason with backups. The execution is not as good, and opponent backups are battling for jobs and roster spots, and they are more likely to try and do more to show up, which leads at times to poor technique and potentially risky play.
That is what happened on Love's final play. The Raiders linebacker was trying to keep Love from scoring a touchdown and used questionable technique to tackle him, and that is what hurt his ankle.
If Love is going to be like a starter, he should have been given starter treatment. He should have had a handful of touches against the Raiders and then more while the starters play more against the Dallas Cowboys.
Previous usage vs. future usage
The Cardinals gave their expected star running back 14 touches in less than a half of a preseason game. That put him on pace for nearly 30 touches in an entire game. Over a 17-game season, that is more than 450 touches.
In college, his highest usage was last season with 199 rushes and 226 total touches.
Are the Cardinals preparing Love to get 30 touches a game when they have Tyler Allgeier and James Conner on the roster?
Perhaps there will be a game or two with that sort of plan and script, but is that the workload you want to give the No. 3 pick in the draft in their first preseason action?
If 400-plus touches is the plan, then that is a different conversation, as they will risk running him into the ground as a rookie.
But giving him that much of a workload in one half of a preseason exhibition, largely with and against backups, is almost irresponsible.
Getting him five to seven touches last week, 10-15 this week and more in the team's joint practice before their preseason finale would have been a more logical ramp-up.
Instead, he got 14 touches and now he might not be fully healthy to open the season.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Jeremiyah Love injury: 2 ways Arizona Cardinals mishandled him