Quote:
Originally Posted by MASSIVE
Play "afraid"- I don't really understand what your trying to say.  If he gets hurt on that "one play" then the D-line is going to suffer. The risks far outweigh the rewards if you ask me.  |
I mean that players and coaches can't be letting the fear of injury entirely govern their decisions. If a team is ahead 40 to 3 in the 4th quarter then why not pull your starting QB, that makes sense. Being afraid that a player might get hurt by sticking him in for one play that could result in a touchdown that would largely stem from that particular players efforts, would be playing afraid. Consider the Patriots use of Vrabel as a tight end .. he's scored for the Pats more than once .. Billy Bellyache wasn't afraid to use him on O even though he is a key starter on their defense ..
If it wasn't the off-season I probably would never have started this thread, but thinking back to the days when William the "Refrigerator" Perry was used effectively on offense got me to wondering. Perry was unique in that for a 300 lb man (which was BIG back in the mid-eighties) he was an exceptional athlete with extremely quick feet given his overall size.
If the Bears were able to use him occasionally with success, this begs the question:Why didn't other teams follow suit and utilize similar schemes? For whatever reason coaches apparently saw more risk than reward ..
I think Ditka's use of Perry was originally very simple: Put a nasty 300 lb man on a 250 pound linebacker and chances were there would be a hole for the ballcarrier to run through. Perry's success eventually led to him getting a chance to carry the ball, and he subsequently became a household name back iin the day ..
Taking this theme a step further, perhaps if we were to leave Cliff alone to focus on becoming more adept within Haslett's D, and instead insert one of our nastiest backup guards as a lead blocker, we could still create the mismatch in goal line situations.
I have a hard time forgetting Perry's first opportunity as a lead blocker when he literally wiped out a linebacker in the endzone -- just flat out bulldozed the poor guy. The game was televised, and the announcers loved it, replaying the block several times along with their live commentary several times. Naturally the Bears scored off of Perry's block, and things would never be the same for William .. Unfortunately for Perry, he "ate" his way out of the league after a few more years ...
I must say I think Av's suggestion of utilizing Wroten is intriguing. Claude has to find a way to contribute in some way ...
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