Martin fails to win rushing title
Ira Kaufman, The Tampa Tribune, published 4 January, 2016

Doug Martin racked up 108 total yards during the Sunday’s 38-10 loss to the Panthers, but only 48 came on the ground. As a result, he did not win the NFL’s rushing title. Martin entered the game 64 yards behind league leader Adrian Peterson of the Vikings.

“I just think they got real physical with us,’’ Martin said of the Panthers. “We played the better team and they showed up today. We didn’t play better than them and they shut the run game down a little bit.’’

Martin ran 15 times for 48 yards, 30 of which came on one run. It was his third-lowest output of the season and left him with 1,402 yards, 52 fewer than his career high of 1,454 as a rookie in 2012.

A week ago, Martin ran for just 49 yards against the Bears, meaning his output in the final two games brought his season average down from 93.2 to 87.6 yards per game.

Schedule to be an unrestricted free agent on the first day of the new league year in March, Martin said he doesn’t think he played his last game for the Bucs on Sunday.

“No, not at all,’’ he said. “That is going to be taken care of in the offseason. I would love to come back here. This is a young team and there are a lot of positive things that have happened this year. I would love to be around for when we blossom.’’