Frank Gore nominated for Week 17 offensive player of the week, FedEx Ground Player of the Week

The 2014 season is a wrap, but there is still some business to take care of for the final week. First up, Frank Gore was nominated for NFC offensive player of the week and FedEx Ground Player of the Week in  Week 17.. He was nominated last week, but lost out to Marshawn Lynch and BeastQuake 2.0. Not exactly a shocker. I expected voting this week to last until Thursday, but it appears to have ended a day early. Gore lost out to Miami Dolphins running back Lamar Miller, who rushed for 178 yards and a touchdown.

Gore closed out the season with 144 yards in the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals. After a season of struggles behind a questionable offensive line, Gore finished strong with 158 yards in Week 16 and 144 yards in Week 17. Gore averaged 3.1 yards per carry after contact, which came after averaging 3.6 yards per carry after contact in Week 16. Those are his two highest figures of the season, according to Pro Football Focus.

It is worth noting that those two big performances came in two of the games in which Anthony Davis was active and in the starting lineup. In those two games, Frank Gore had 20 carries outside the right tackle, and he rushed for 166 yards. He had 85 yards on 13 carries outside the right tackle in Week 17. This is not a coincidence. The 49ers had just about their healthiest offensive line of the season those final two games. The previous healthiest game was Week 4 against the Philadelphia Eagles, when Daniel Kilgore was still in the starting lineup. The 49ers rushed for 218 yards on 42 carries in that game, with Gore getting 119 yards.