Given the proliferation of committee backfields, each NFL defense usually faces two or three running backs each game. Turning in one of the best eight games allowed by a defense is an elite performance.
Below shows how often a player logged the best game allowed by a secondary (Top-1), one of the four best performances allowed (Top-4), and one of the best eight performances (Top-8). With 17 games played, a Top-8 game is “above average” among the best running back from each opponent.
The “Better than Average” (BTA) score is a weighting of those games.