With his "Thunder and Lightning" tandem of Ron Dayne and Tiki Barber sidelined by injuries, New York Giants coach Jim Fassel surveyed a dwindling bench and considered his lone remaining tailback option last Sunday afternoon, and then sent untested Damon Washington into the close game against the Washington Redskins.

As the New York coaching staff held its breath, Washington held his own, and his 90 yards on 25 carries helped to secure the Giants' third victory of the young season. Given that Washington had carried the ball just one other time in his short NFL career, and that virtually all his previous game action had been on special teams, his clutch performance was nothing short of sensational.

	Damon Washington, who was waived in NFL Europe, turned in a clutch performance Sunday for the Giants.

"Being able to produce like that when my team needed me the most, I learned something about myself," said the itinerant Washington, who since '99 had been waived by Chicago and St. Louis and even by the NFL Europe League, and who wasn't even a starter during his senior season at Colorado State.

Coincidentally, the Giants and the rest of the league re-learned this important lesson: In the NFL, you definitely need a go-to runner as the starter, but you can never have enough quality tailbacks in reserve.

That point has been hammered home nearly every week of the current season, as injuries increasingly nudge backup tailbacks into the spotlight, where they are expected to play as well as the starters in some situations. Last weekend alone eight backup tailbacks, led by Seattle second-year pro Shaun Alexander who rushed for 176 yards in replacing injured Ricky Watters, ran for 70 yards or more.

Three of the No. 2 tailbacks -- Alexander, Correll Buckhalter of Philadelphia and Denver standout Mike Anderson -- rushed for 100-plus yards. Another player who wasn't even in camp at the beginning of the summer, the venerable Terry Allen, went over 100 yards for the Baltimore Ravens and at least temporarily silenced his detractors. Former starter Mike Alstott, elevated to the first unit because of an injury to Warrick Dunn, saved a sputtering Tampa Bay offense with a game-winning, 39-yard touchdown run.

"There's going to come a time every season where your backup (running back) will have to play, and to produce as well, for you," said Bucs coach Tony Dungy. "It's the nature of the position. It's pretty hard to play running back in this league and get through the year without some kind of injury. If you're playing every game, you're usually playing hurt."

None of this is to suggest that teams adopt the tailback-by-committee approach that some coaches use out of desperation. To the contrary, the statistics indicate that most successful franchises have one featured tailback rather than a time-sharing program.

Since 1990, there have been 132 playoff teams and 75 of them had a 1,000-yard rusher in the starting lineup. Forty-two of the clubs had a back who carried the ball 300 times or more. Thirty-nine of the teams had a tailback who logged more than 80 percent of his club's rushing attempts On the flip side, just 15 of the 132 playoff qualifiers advanced into postseason play with two backs who had more than 150 rushes each, in essence the committee approach to running the ball.

Not since the league adopted the current 12-team playoff format in 1990 has there ever been a season in which there were fewer than five 1,000-yard runners. There has never been a season where more than three clubs that used the committee formula advanced to the playoffs. Of the 22 franchises that went to the Super Bowl since the '90 season, 18 possessed a 1,000-yard runner.

The road to the championship might be paved with well-intentioned rhetoric about dividing the running workload over the course of the season, but the clubs without a principle running threat usually detour long before Super Bowl week. And the teams that can't sustain an injury at the tailback spot during the regular season typically aren't around for the playoffs.

"Running back is the position which has the shortest life expectancy in the league," said former Washington Redskins personnel director Vinny Cerrato. "Those guys get beat up, it's just a fact of life. Someone always has to be ready to step up."

During his tenure with the San Francisco 49ers, Cerrato recalled, the team always had a reliable backup tailback, like Derek Loville. In Washington last year, Cerrato made sure that workhorse Stephen Davis had adequate support in Adrian Murrell and Skip Hicks.

	“	There's going to come a time every season where your backup (running back) will have to play, and to produce as well, for you. It's the nature of the position. It's pretty hard to play running back in this league and get through the year without some kind of injury. If you're playing every game, you're usually playing hurt. ”
		— Tony Dungy, Bucs head coach

In 1999, after their wondrous Super Bowl season, the Atlanta Falcons lost Jamal Anderson to a season-ending knee injury and spiraled to a 5-11 record because replacements Ken Oxendine and Byron Hanspard weren't capable of assuming the lead-back role. Despite last week's collapse against Chicago, the Falcons seem better prepared to deal with Anderson's loss this time around, having signed promising Maurice Smith as an undrafted free agent last summer and veterans Rodney Thomas and Travis Jervey this spring.

Smith, who has even better straightline speed than Anderson, has rushed for over 150 yards in the seven quarters since Anderson went down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

"Look, I know that I'm just keeping the position warm for Jamal, until he comes back," allowed Smith. "But this gives me a chance to shine, too. It might not be the way I wanted to get a chance to play, but I'm going to make the most of it while I'm in there."

That seems to be an attitude shared by most of the backup running backs, even those who feel they might be starters with lesser teams, but who understand their coaches count on them for very little performance dropoff when they enter the game. In turn, coaches and scouts seem to be always seeking out the talented back who can maximize his production if he gets six carries a game or 26 attempts.

Washington last week was the rarity, a guy who developed a niche as a special teams player, but who was cast into an unusual but opportune circumstance because of injuries to both tailbacks listed on the depth chart ahead of him. Despite an early-game fumble and a sore shoulder, he carried on 22 of the Giants' last 35 snaps and earned a game ball.

This week, with Dayne likely to return, he might not earn a single snap from scrimmage.

"Doesn't matter, though, because I'll be just as prepared to play," Washington said.

Unlike the afterthought Washington, the tough-running Buckhalter was selected by the Eagles specifically to provide a viable backup to starter Duce Staley, who was retuning from foot surgery that ended his 2000 campaign after only five games. The Philadelphia scouts saw talent in Buckhalter, even though he split time with Dan Alexander last season at Nebraska, and started just nine times during his Cornhuskers career.

A fourth-round draft choice, Buckhalter was only the 121st player selected overall and 13 running backs went off the board before him. Through four games, however, he has 285 rushing yards, eighth-most in the league and more than every rookies except LaDainian Tomlinson, the San Diego first-rounder.

His 134 yards in last Sunday's loss to Arizona represented the most by a Philadelphia rookie since Charlie Garner in 1994.

In the Philadelphia-area media, at least, there has developed a mini-tailback controversy as Staley continues to struggle through his injury problems and has logged just a dozen carries so far. Eagles coach Andy Reid has made it clear Staley is the starter, but allowed Buckhalter has earned more playing time.

And Buckhalter, who has seen how the Broncos' Anderson has seized every opportunity as he fills in for Terrell Davis, seems to understand you make hay, and yards and, yeah, the big money, by producing when you are called upon.

"Just like in the NBA, you have to come in shooting," Buckhalter said. "And that's what I want to do."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.