Ladies and gentlemen, retired NFL defensive end Stephen White presents the best and brightest in the trenches from the 2015 NFL Divisional round of games, the Hoss Honor Roll.
Well its time once again to give some love to the big fellas up front who put in major work for the NFL Divisional playoff weekend. Instead of naming just one Hoss of the Week, I figured I would instead have an Honor Roll to point out a few outstanding performances by some guys in the trenches.
The OG
Let's start off with the OG, Packers outside linebacker Julius Peppers. Peppers racked up six total tackles, including one sack, and caused two fumbles in the Packers' 26-21 win to help his team move on to the NFC Championship game. The second fumble he caused, on Demarco Murray with 11:11 left in the third quarter, may have been the play of the game in hindsight. If Murray doesn't fumble there, he had nothing but green grass in front of him. At the time, the Cowboys were already up 14-10. After the Cowboys defense stopped the Packers on their first drive of the second half, a touchdown by Dallas at that point would have shifted all the momentum to the Cowboys' sideline.
Instead, the Packers recovered that fumble, which set their offense up on the Dallas 44-yard line. They cashed in with a field goal at the end of that drive. You are talking about what was probably a 10-point swing on just that one play.
*peeks at final score again*
Yeah, I'd say Mr. Peppers made a definite impact on the outcome of that game.
Thomas Davis
Next up on the list is Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis, who I swear has to wear a li'l jet pack inside his pads every game because that dude is always all over the damn field. It was no different Sunday. Davis ended up with nine tackles, one of which was sack and two others were for a loss, but just throwing out his stat sheet numbers never does Davis' game justice. You have to be able to see him come on a blitz then turn and sprint full speed all the way down field to get a piece of a wide receiver who has caught a 5-yard out, as Davis did in the first quarter against the Seahawks, to understand the kind of passion and effort this guy plays with every single down.
You have to see him come off the edge on a blitz on third-and-3 on the Panthers' 7-yard line only to find himself staring down one of the most elusive quarterbacks in the game today in Russell Wilson on a bootleg play with open room in every direction. Davis did not panic, unlike most defenders in the same situation, he mashed the gas harder and actually ran through Wilson before the quarterback could try to make a move to escape. He didn't even get a good lick on him, but he was going at such a high rate of speed that even a glancing blow was enough to bring down the usually uber elusive Wilson. That was a next-level play when his team sorely needed one to keep from going down 11 points just before the start of the fourth quarter.
Then you have to see Davis come from all the way across the field to chase down a screen for a minimal gain. This old guy is out there passing up cats five years his junior like it's nothing.
Oh, and you need to see him, Thomas Davis, a 10-year NFL vet, the only player to ever come back from three ACL tears, running like his hair is on fire on the onside kickoff team at the end of the game, trying to recover the kick because that's intensity ... on a play most guys of his tenure would be watching from the sideline. It showed just how much Davis was trying to win that game.
He and his team weren't quite able to get it done, but it damn sure wasn't for lack of trying.
The Colts OL
The entire Colts offensive line -- consisting of, from left to right, Anthony Castonzo, Jack Mewhort, Khaled Holmes, Lance Louis and Joe Reitz -- gets a shoutout this week for pitching a shutout against the Broncos' vaunted pass rush last Sunday. If you told me before that game that Colts quarterback Andrew Luck would throw 43 passes and the Broncos wouldn't sack him a single time, I would have told you that you were effing nuts. But the non-PG version, of course.
How in the hell were Castonzo and Reitz supposed to keep the likes of DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller off of Luck's ass when they had no running game to speak of, on the road in a usually loud environment and going against a Broncos secondary sporting three Pro Bowlers?
Even after watching the coaches tape, I'm still kind of in awe of their performance.
It wasn't always pretty, but they got the job done and that's really all that matters. The bottom line is for the Broncos to have had a real chance to win that game, they needed to put constant pressure on Luck to try to force him into making some bad decisions. That was especially true when it became apparent that Peyton Manning was going to have a rough day trying to push the ball down the field, meaning that they wouldn't be able to just outscore the Colts. That the Colts were able keep Luck upright against such great competition and in such a desperate situation for the opposition is a great reflection on that offensive line working together and refusing to be intimidated by the outstanding individual rushers they faced on Sunday.
Hats off gentlemen. Now, get ready for a Patriots defense that had trouble rushing a mishmash Ravens offensive line last week.
Mr. Elastic Man
Last but not least is Mr Elastic Man himself, Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins. He put on an absolute show as a dynamic weapon on defense for his team against the Ravens. Collins lined up all over the field creating all kinds of mismatches in coverage, most of which went in his favor. He was able to get his hands on two balls for pass breakups, including a play where he covered Ravens fullback Kyle Juszczyk all the way down the field to the end zone on a wheel route, which he also probably should have caught for an interception.
Collins led the team in total tackles with 11 and came close to notching a huge sack/caused fumble/fumble recovery late in the third quarter with the score tied at 28-28. #WellActually he did sack Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and he did make him fumble and he did recover said fumble, this after he initially went with the running back to the flat in coverage. Unfortunately for Collins, Darrelle Revis was flagged for holding Steve Smith prior to the sack, taking his big play off the board.
No matter, Collins was still able to affect the game by all but taking away the short routes near the middle of the field. By forcing Flacco to look deeper for options in the passing game, Collins probably helped his team to a few third-down conversions on defense on that alone.
As big a game as Collins had, I don't think the Patriots used him nearly enough as a pass rusher/blitzer, and it almost cost them the game. They couldn't find a way to generate much pressure on Flacco with a four-man rush. On most of those plays, Collins was back in coverage instead of being one of the four rushers. After watching the Colts offensive line shut out the Broncos' fantastic pass rushers, the Patriots had better think long and hard about using Collins more as a rusher than a cover guy this weekend. If their other pass rusher Chandler Jones continues to struggle to get pressure on the quarterback, they might not be so lucky this time around.
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