ALLEN PARK -- Ameer Abdullah averaged just 3.3 yards per carry last season. He was far from the only problem with the Lions' running game, but he was the face of it, and the club finished the season averaging just 3.4 yards a pop.

This year, Kerryon Johnson is averaging 5.55 yards -- after contact alone.

My, what a difference a year makes.

The rookie running back has become the talk of the city after rushing for 101 yards in Sunday night's win against New England, breaking the second-longest 100-yard rusher drought in the modern history of this league. He now has 161 yards on just 29 carries for the year, an average of 5.6 yards a pop, which ranks sixth.

Just like that, his stock is soaring. He now has the seventh-best odds of winning rookie of the year, at 18-1, trailing just Baker Mayfield (5-2), Saquon Barkley (11-4), Sam Darnold (3-1), Josh Allen (10-1), Calvin Ridley (16-1) and Josh Rosen (16-1). And Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has certainly noticed heading into Sunday's game against Detroit, noting all that yardage Johnson picks up yardage after contact.

"He's just a very productive back, and he clearly has a really good feel for running, he has good vision, he makes people miss," Garrett said. "He's very hard to tackle, and you need more than one guy to bring him down."

Johnson is averaging 5.55 yards after first contact, according to ESPN. That's sixth best in the league, trailing only Matt Breida (8.56), Austin Ekeler (8.15), Phillip Lindsay (6.00), Christian McCaffrey (5.89) and Ezekiel Elliott (5.71).

He says he learned how to fall forward by necessity. At 5-foot-11, he's a taller back and falling upright or sideways can lead to injury because he's so exposed. That's exactly what happened at Auburn, when he was caught upright at the end of a run and suffered an ankle injury that bothered him throughout his sophomore season.

"In my opinion, falling forward is the safest way to get tackled," Johnson said. "If you're standing up or going backwards people land on you and nobody wants that. If you're standing straight up, people swipe your ankles and bodies are flying on the ground. In my opinion, falling forward, just getting a good body lean, it's easier to take the hits that way, and as you know, you're gaining more yards at the end.

"In college, I was standing straight up and go tackled and got swiped -- and, boom, ankle injury. So from that day on, I was, like, 'Yeah, that's not fun.' That ruined my whole sophomore year."

Whatever he's doing seems to be working. Johnson led the SEC in rushing in his final season at Auburn, and Lions GM Bob Quinn liked what he saw so much that he traded away one of his picks to move up for Johnson in the second round of this year's draft.

And three games into his pro career, Johnson has already helped restore legitimacy to the league's worst running game. It all came to a head Sunday night, when each of his first five carries gained at least 5 yards, and four moved the sticks.

He carried the ball 16 times overall that night, 10 of which gained at least five years. He never gained more than 15 yards on a carry, but still managed to finish with 101 yards overall, a feat that is a testament to his consistency at finding holes and then squeezing out yardage once the defense met him.

"I think he just does everything well," said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who had benefited from just six 100-yard rushers in his career. "He can catch the ball out of the backfield, he's a smart player, he's got good vision. He's a slippery runner. He's got probably a little bit more strength than people give him credit for, a little bit more speed. It doesn't maybe jump off the page to you, but when he's out there, he's really efficient and does some really nice things."