posted
09/23/11
Hey, what’s up?
This week let’s talk about what it feels like to get decked on the football field, the new Gears of War video game, that Mayweather boxing fight last weekend, and why I feel the Panthers are very close to breaking out.
I had my first 100-yard receiving game against Super Bowl champs Green Bay last weekend. It was great to get the ball in space and turn upfield. As a running back, you just want the ball in your hands, in whatever way to help the team and get an opportunity to affect the game’s outcome. It was different, but since we’ve been successful passing and haven’t been running the ball much, I have to help any way I can. QB Cam Newton has had back-to-back 400-yard passing games, but at some point we’re going to bust out the rushing game!
While we’ve started 0-2, we’ve been competitive in both games. We have the tools, the players, and the coaching to get the job done. It’s just a matter of growing from the losses and executing in all phases—defense, offense and special teams. Once we all come around and gel, we’ll be a really good team.
I was asked how playing football can make you a better man. Football, like life, can be real humbling. You practice hard, you prepare intensely for Sundays, then you go out there and hope that everything falls into place and that the outcome is a win. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes you get knocked down on the journey to where you want to go. That’s what life is all about: getting knocked down, and then what are you going to do while you’re down? What are you going to do to get yourself back up? Think about it.
Someone showed me that a 200-pound DB combined with his 4.5 speed can lay 1,600 pounds of tackling force on a running back. So what’s that like? It really depends on whether you know it’s coming or not. If you don’t know the defender is about to lay one on you, it’s like a flash and stinging all over your body. But if I know it’s coming, I try to deliver the blow before he delivers it, get my shoulder and body into it, so that the impact isn’t so much on me but on him. As an offensive player it feels real good when you take a rival to the ground. That’s just brute force from my end, laying it on a defender. It’s always good to turn the tables on them whether you’re blocking down, driving through them, or stiff-arming them aside.
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