The Championship Quest: The Trenches, Defense, and Using The Whole Pig!!
I am dabbling with the idea of a weekly column, focused on these Aspects that, in my opinion, weigh more vitally than all other considerations in any team's Pursuit of Super Bowl Glory.
The Trenches ~ NT Vince Wilfork!!
"It All Starts In The Trenches" ~ Fanatical Yankee, a Great-Looking American!!
No individual Position commands as much potential Impact on the course of a Game or a Season as does that of Nose Tackle...and
NT Vince Wilfork ~
The Greatest Nose Tackle in All The Land ~ was
dominant.
1 ~ 00:16:45 on your Tape. On the Game's first Drive, Planet Hoosten quickly went right after us, first blasting a 12 Yard Run ~ bewilderingly reversed on an Illegal Procedure Penalty on my man
LT Duane Brown (perhaps because his hand wasn't on the ground??) ~ and then ripping off an impressive 15 Yarder.
The Hoosten O Line and
Flex Back Arien Foster exploded out'f the Gates, and had quickly seized the Initiative.
It is no exaggeration to suggest that we were staggering from these initial Blows...and then
NT Vince Wilfork simply
took charge, battling through a terrific Block by
OC Christopher Myers to single-handedly
reject Foster's surge through Left Guard, and redirect him towards the Center. And there
Dragoon Trevor Scott, who had beaten
RT Ryan Harris, pounced on Foster for a 1 Yard Loss.
Two Plays Later, Planet Hoosten found itself Punting. I can't help but imagine that they were
quite surprised.
Those who play less than 60 minutes usually rue their lack of sustained Focus...But that doesn't change the fact the opening minutes of a Game wield
far more lasting Impact on the rest of the Game than...the rest of the Game.
And Planet Hoosten, looking, at first, like they were about to seize command of the Game right from the beginning...saw their Momentum suddenly and startlingly annihilated on a
single Play.
FootBall is an
extremely emotional Game.
The vast and far-reaching Impact of that one Play can not
possibly be exaggerated.
2 ~ 00:32:20. Two On One
Fails: Second Hoosten Drive. Patriots up,
7-0. Hoosten with a 2nd & 14 at the Patriot 49. The Hoostens go with a Zone Block Off Left Tackle, and Wilfork first
crushes RG Ben Jones, and then casually shrugs off
RT Ryan Harris, before pouncing on
XB Arien Foster for an
extremely expensive 2 Yards!!
3 ~ 00:33:45. Same Drive. 1st & 10 from the Patriot 23.
OC Christopher Myers chips Wilfork, before heading downfield, and then
RG Ben Jones tries to CutBlock
Big Vince, but Wilfork just
plants'm. Jones next reaches up from the turf where Wilfork had just deposited him, and grabs at Wilfork's ankles, hauling'm down with him...
...But
too late: Wilork snatches
XB Arien Foster for yet
another weak 2 Yard Gain.
At this point, the Texan Running Game ~ which had exploded out'f the Gates for a 12 and then a 15 ~ had now scraped together a mere 8 Yards on 4 Carries, since then...and were looking at a 2nd & 8.
That doesn't quite
force a Pass...but it certainly strongly suggests it,
doesn't it??
And
QB Matt Shaub's 2nd & 8 Pass from the Patriot 21 was
complete...to
FS Devin McCourty!!
It was only
7-0, mind you...
From that moment, on...there was something exquisitely
ominous in the Air.
4 ~ 00:46:30. 14-0, Patriots. Late in the 1st Quarter. 3rd Texan Possession. Planet Hoosten is rapidly taking on water ~ thanks in great part to
NT Vince Wilfork's blowing up
both of their first two Drives with his Demolishing ways!! ~ and is facing a 3rd & 12 from their own 39.
Yet
again, the Hoostens Double Team Wilfork with
RG Ben Jones and
OC Christopher Myers.
Yet
again...they
fail.
Wilfork ~ I guess somebody forgot to tell
Bill The Mad (Genius) that he's supposed to
pull Wilfork on 3rd & 12's!! ~ corrals Jones, ignores Myers...and
contemptuously swats the FootBall out'f
Matt Shaub's hands!!
The Hoostens were fortunate that Myers ~ can't say I'm not impressed with this kid's Athleticism & Fire!! ~ was able to beat everyone else to the FootBall ~ 20 Yards upfield, mind you!! ~ which allowed them at least the Dignity of a Punt...but at this Point, Planet Hoosten is now officially
Shell Shocked.
It is
very well.
5 ~ 00:59:10. Now it's
21-0, Patriots, early in the 2nd Quarter, and Shell Shocked Planet Hoosten is
reeling...But they've just picked up 6 on 1st Down, for a 2nd & 4, and they're in a position to start gaining some Traction, and maybe start to work their way back into this thing.
Or
not.
I'm going to perpetrate a Syntax Error, here, but that's OK:
NT Vince Wilfork, Super Beast, is a
walking Syntax Error.
Hoosten tries to run it right up the Middle, and
XB Arien Foster clearly thinks that his best bet is between Center and Left Guard, as he surges, thither...But at the last moment, Wilfork, after rejecting
OC Christopher Myers, takes on
athletic 340 Pound RG Brandon Brooks and ~ again: at the very last moment, as if he'd been
toying with'm ~ hurls Brooks
directly into Foster's Path,
destroying the Play.
One Play later, a shaken Planet Hoosten Punts yet
again.
The phenomenal
Core Strength, Fluidity, and
Core Power that
Vince Wilfork displayed on that Play, in deftly ~ yes:
deftly!! ~ hurling the extraordinarily Huge, Powerful and Athletic
Brandon Brooks aside like a simple sack of Potatoes...was nothing short of
awesome.
A man as Huge and Strong as
Vince Wilfork has
no business being "deft"...but deft, he
be...and
astonishingly so.
This is when it happened, Ladies & Laddies.
This...is when and how the
Game was won.
And this...is where
It happens.
Championships are not
Events.
They are
Processes.
And
this ~ if I may be forgiven the Presumption of declaring it ~ is when they are
forged.
6 ~ 00:59:50. The very next Play. Hoosten, 3rd & 4, tries ~ one might say:
desperately ~ to convert a simple 3rd Down, by passing it over the middle...and
NT Vince Wilfork, Great American,
swats it down.
3 & Out.
Unbelievable.
7 ~ 01:10:35. 21-0, Patriots. On the next Hoosten Drive, they were finally Moving The Chains, and had gotten down to the Patriot 38 with a 1st & 10...
Of course, they had done so in Wilfork's
absence.
As soon as he reentered the Game, things suddenly and immediately
changed.
First,
DR Chandler Jones rudely
rejected QB Matt Shaub's Pass, bringing it to 2nd & 10...And then, on 2nd Down, my man
LT Duane Brown pulled from the left side, quickly got around in front of Wilfork, got squared up, got
low...and got blown
UP!!
It was a
perfectly executed Play...
...and by arguably the best Left Tackle in the
Galaxy.
...right up until the part where he got
destroyed!! 
Wilfork corralled young
TailBack Justin Forsett, and held'm long enough ~
all the while hauling all 320 Pounds of Duane Brown around on'is back, mind you!! ~ for
Will MidFielder Jerod Mayo to sail in and finish'm off!!
And suddenly Planet Hoosten's fledgling Offensive was on Life Support: 3rd & 12 from the Patriot 40.
And it, too, would
fail.
NT Vince Wilfork, Ladies & Gentlemen.
The Greatest Nose Tackle in All The Land!!
What I Saw!!
Despite the overwhelmingly prevalent misconception that this "Passing League" has greatly reduced the Impact of what happens In
The Trenches, the disturbing Truth remains that when the
Eloi battle the
Morlocks in
The Only Games That Really Matter, in the Grim, Dark Depths of Winter...it's the teams that win in
The Trenches that, more often than not, end up emerging Victorious...and sometimes despite
staggering Odds against them.
The
ridiculously unheralded Defensive Tackles remain the most
crucial Components of
every Team's Defense.
Vince Wilfork is perhaps
the best of them all.
And the Impact he had on this Game was simply
dominant.
35Likes
Through The Looking Glass ~ Patriots Demolish Planet Hoosten, 42-14!!
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