By Mike Heika / Reporter
mheika@dallasnews.com
4:55 pm on December 26, 2012 | Permalink
Cowboys linebacker Brady Poppinga has been in the league long enough to know that a good part of defensive play is intimidation, so he was clear that if the Cowboys have a chance to change the decision-making of the Washington Redskins and quarterback Robert Griffin III when it comes to running, they need to do just that.
“I think one thing you have to do with him, especially when you have an option quarterback who’s exposed, is you have to inflict him with pain,” Poppinga said when asked about stopping Griffin, the Heisman Trophy winner from Baylor. “Not that you’re trying to knock the guy out or anything, but you have to tackle him, and you have to hit him and you have to make it to where the coach says, ‘Look, we need to protect our guy a little more’ and then they implement certain other kinds of running plays and things of that nature.”
Griffin leads the NFL in average yards per carry at 6.6. He has 752 yards and six touchdowns on 114 carries. However, he had 29 yards rushing on seven carries against the Cowboys in a 38-31 win on Thanksgiving, and instead threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns. So, the Cowboys will have their hands full either way.
Still, if Griffin tries to run an option play, Poppinga says the best answer is a hard, clean tackle.
“That’s a lot of the reason that option football isn’t really utilized in the NFL, because the quarterback is exposed. At the end of the day, when he’s running and you don’t know if he’s going to pitch the ball or not, you’ve got to take a clean, legal shot on him and let him know that ‘hey, this is football’,” Poppinga said. “He’s a tough kid now. This isn’t a guy who is going shy away from contact and he’s not a guy who I would say one of those smaller kind of guys who tends to get injured a lot. I mean, he’s a hand full. But from a defensive perspective, if he’s going to be exposed in the option, you want to get some good shots on him and you want to test his toughness. He is tough, but you want to test it.”
mheika@dallasnews.com
4:55 pm on December 26, 2012 | Permalink
Cowboys linebacker Brady Poppinga has been in the league long enough to know that a good part of defensive play is intimidation, so he was clear that if the Cowboys have a chance to change the decision-making of the Washington Redskins and quarterback Robert Griffin III when it comes to running, they need to do just that.
“I think one thing you have to do with him, especially when you have an option quarterback who’s exposed, is you have to inflict him with pain,” Poppinga said when asked about stopping Griffin, the Heisman Trophy winner from Baylor. “Not that you’re trying to knock the guy out or anything, but you have to tackle him, and you have to hit him and you have to make it to where the coach says, ‘Look, we need to protect our guy a little more’ and then they implement certain other kinds of running plays and things of that nature.”
Griffin leads the NFL in average yards per carry at 6.6. He has 752 yards and six touchdowns on 114 carries. However, he had 29 yards rushing on seven carries against the Cowboys in a 38-31 win on Thanksgiving, and instead threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns. So, the Cowboys will have their hands full either way.
Still, if Griffin tries to run an option play, Poppinga says the best answer is a hard, clean tackle.
“That’s a lot of the reason that option football isn’t really utilized in the NFL, because the quarterback is exposed. At the end of the day, when he’s running and you don’t know if he’s going to pitch the ball or not, you’ve got to take a clean, legal shot on him and let him know that ‘hey, this is football’,” Poppinga said. “He’s a tough kid now. This isn’t a guy who is going shy away from contact and he’s not a guy who I would say one of those smaller kind of guys who tends to get injured a lot. I mean, he’s a hand full. But from a defensive perspective, if he’s going to be exposed in the option, you want to get some good shots on him and you want to test his toughness. He is tough, but you want to test it.”
