NFL Late Hits: Week 14

I've been meaning to pull this over from my own blog at Thunderingblurb.com and post it here at B/R but I kept getting thwarted by technology, life, and other things.

Better late than never, right?

:crickets:

We've got a couple of topics here for this edition of Late Hits so let's get to it.

Tackling: Lost Art or Ignored Skill-set?

Watching the Giants and Eagles play last night was painful.

Not just for the officiating which was admittedly atrocious—that's been an ongoing problem not just attached to this game.

Not for the drops by New York receivers, though they were frequent and contributed to a season-shattering loss for the Giants.

No, the single most painful thing was the horrific tackling efforts made by the players on both teams.

When did tackling become a lost art form? When did players just decide that running into someone and hoping they will fall over is more effective than wrapping a player up?

It's been suggested to me that I do an in-depth article or series on this subject and I may. For now though I'll keep it to just a few thoughts.

This reminds me a lot of how I felt about basketball, halfway into Michael Jordan's career. Every Sportcenter highlight of Jordan seemed to be him making one spectacular dunk after another.

Now, anyone who has ever watched more than five minutes of Jordan—or basketball in general—knows there is more to both Jordan and the game than a dunk.

Yet for years, most of the Jordan plays ESPN seemed to show were dunks.

Know what I noticed? Years later, a generation of players seemed more intent on getting Sportcenter-worthy dunks than working on fundamentals.

It didn't destroy the game or anything, but I remember thinking it changed the game for a while.

Flash-forward to the last few seasons of NFL football during which we've had in-depth segments on ESPN such as "JACKED UP".

During that time—and you can't tell me there isn't a correlation here—players stopped tackling and started looking to clobber opponents.

Sure, sometimes the ball carrier gets blown up and the play ends. Sometimes a fumble occurs.

Often—dare I say more often than not—the ball carrier shifts, the "big hit" glances off him, and the player continues to run down the field.

Last night was a debacle when it came to tackling. So many times players just bounced off of the ball carrier instead of trying to wrap the guy up and, if not pull him to the ground, at least slow him down for another defensive player to catch up.

Am I saying this is all the fault of sports highlight shows? No, of course not. Coaches from Pop Warner to the NFL are supposed to teach and reinforce proper tackling technique.

Yet, consider that many of these players have grown up in the age of Sportcenter and its ilk. They've learned that, from a defensive standpoint, it's the spectacular big hits which gain you air time as much as anything else.

For the guys in the trenches and the fellas in the secondary who might not be quite as able to generate a dynamic interception, it's a way to stand out.

I think there is a connection here. Maybe my reader was right—maybe this is worthy of a longer article.

Post-game shows are already talking about shifting the focus away from the giant killer hits, in part because they are becoming more cognizant of the damage caused by the blows, especially in regards to concussions.

It will be interesting to see how things change in this increasingly cautious climate.

Until then I merely propose this to anyone who reads this and plays football at any level -WRAP THEM UP.

Chris Johnson, Heading Towards Elite?

At some point, Chris Johnson shifted from very good running back to phenomenal running back.

It's been happening for weeks. Doesn't matter if Kerry Collins or Vince Young is behind center (though Young seemed to improve things even more), Johnson aka "Coach's Dream" just puts up numbers.

There are backs who are very good backs behind a solid offensive line. Guys who, with blocking, can break some long runs and look fantastic. Or who, with a scary pass game, find themselves not facing eight men in a box on every play.

Some backs don't need that. Well, perhaps "don't need it" is too strong. More like they can overcome not having it.

LaDainian Tomlinson did in his earlier Charger days. Barry Sanders did it pretty much his whole career with the Lions.

Now, it's still early to call him "Hall of Fame", and the Titans offensive line can play better than either of the above did, but the Titans' Johnson is a guy who transcends his situation, which is admittedly better now than it was a few weeks ago.

Still, I don't think anyone calls the Titans pass game "threatening".

Johnson has tremendous speed but he's more than just a fast set of legs. He knows when to use that speed and has incredible vision, allowing him to find the holes he needs to bust lose.

On top of that, Johnson is a demon when he cuts. He makes folks just flat out embarrass themselves when they try to rein him in. Sometimes he just blows by them—sometimes he blows through them.

Johnson is on pace to break Marshall Faulk's record of 2,429 total yards and he is looking like a great bet to top 2,000 yards on the ground.

I think you add Johnson to the MVP debate, though his team has struggled so much this year that the argument for him is hard to make.

Many voters will point to the fact that while his numbers are great, before Vince Young came back into the picture, the Titans weren't winning.

So how important could Johnson be?

I say this: if it was LenDale White and the now departed Chris Henry in the backfield, I don't know that they are having the success they've had the latter half of this season.

Screens, Clips, and Chop Blocks

Carolina Panthers were apparently saying Pats wideout Randy Moss was dogging it during the game yesterday. To respond to this I will refer to Pats coach Bill Belichick who said that for a team who lost again, they sure do have a lot to say.

Moss doesn't seem to be happy, and getting sent home for tardiness would be the sort of thing to exacerbate that so it wouldn't shock me.

I just don't know that the Panthers need to be talking about it. They have bigger fish to fry.

The AFC playoff race is a big fat mess. Isn't December awesome?

Maybe December isn't awesome for the Cowboys though. Romo and his minions once again slip and slide through the month and, while they can still see the playoffs, that picture is only visible via the Hubble scope.

What is the problem with the Cowboys? At least some of it is play-calling and yesterday they fell in part because they lost DeMarcus Ware.

But what does it say about a team that year after year folds late? In baseball, you'd start looking at the top of an organizations coaching/GM staff (and the team would be called the New York Mets).

I think you might need to here as well. Garrett, Phillips—it might be time for a change.

I've heard some muttering about Bucs coach Raheem Morris maybe losing his job. I'll admit I'm far from his biggest fan or supporter. I'll also admit that 1-12 is awful.

But the Bucs blew their team up and made some late changes to coaching staff (maybe at Morris' behest). It takes a while to rebuild.

Give the man a few years here folks.

I'll end with some Heisman thoughts

I really wanted Ndamukong Suh to win the Heisman, in part because it's about time we started paying more attention to the defensive side of the ball for this trophy.

I can't quibble with Alabama running back Mark Ingram's selection—he's a tremendous running back and it's the Crimson Tides' first Heisman. I might have yelled myself horse if it was McCoy or Tebow, but at least with McCoy it might have been half-hearted.

We know the award is mostly going to go to the sexier offensive positions. Even when Charles Woodson won it, it was on the strength of his kick return abilities as much as (if not in spite of) his defensive capabilities.

I hope voters start giving more thought to the guys in the trenches. I hope they look past the records at the best player rather than the best player on a large university team which is in the National Championship a lot, which echoes some remarks I have heard from voters.

Not all of them, but some.

And I hope the Heisman organization finds a way to make the voters wait until at least the Conference Championships are done. I don't know if it would have mattered, but knowing that votes were cast before Suh's performance against McCoy rubs me the wrong way.

But maybe that's just me.