|
| |
| ||
|
| ||
|
Busting the Broncos Falcons know to beat Denver, they have to stop Davis
Posted: Friday January 22, 1999 06:30 PM
By John Donovan, CNN/SI SUWANEE, Ga. (CNN/SI) -- Sure. Now they're happy. Right now, the Atlanta Falcons are having one heck of a time. Of course they are. Terrell Davis is still 1,400 miles away. The giddy, still-blinking Falcons are just now getting down to the business of their first Super Bowl. And, with it, comes the sobering realization that, to beat the Denver Broncos, they'll have to put the clamps on Davis, the best runner in the NFL. "We look at it as he has to go against us," said Falcons linebacker Cornelius Bennett, in a fit of bravado he may end up regretting after the Falcons play the Denver Broncos next Sunday in Super Bowl XXXIII. "We know what we can do to stop him. If we do what we did against Barry Sanders, I think we can have some success against him." The underdog Falcons are plenty confident about their ability to stuff the run -- and they have every right to be. Sanders, for instance, went for 95 yards against them in Week 16, on 25 carries. It's more than Garrison Hearst (in three tries), Robert Edwards, Marshall Faulk, Robert Smith or almost anyone else has run against them in the past season and a half. The only runner to top 100 yards against the Falcons in the past 26 games, in fact, was the New York Jets' Curtis Martin, who ran for 101 yards in a Week 7 loss when the Falcons' defensive front was riddled with injuries. The Falcons gave up 75.2 yards a game this season, second only to the San Diego Chargers, and the 3.3 yards per carry they allowed also was second to the Chargers. That's all fine and dandy. But this, as even the Falcons concede, is Terrell Davis.
Stat No. 1 : Davis is averaging 6.9 yards a carry in two playoff games this year. Stat No. 2 : He's run for 366 playoff yards, 199 against Miami, 167 against the New York Jets. Stat No. 3 : Two playoff games, three touchdowns. Davis, the league's leading runner this year with 2,008 yards, clearly is not Edwards or Faulk or Smith. Or, this year, even the great Sanders. "He's right now, I guess, the top back out there. And I actually know him, and he's a pretty good guy, too," said Falcons defensive end Chuck Smith. "But we're not other teams. We feel confident we can stop the run. We pride ourselves on it." As great as Davis is -- and you better believe the Falcons know how good he is -- he can be stopped, on occasion. The Chargers, for instance, did the best job on him this season, holding him to 69 yards and 74 yards in two meetings this season. He averaged 3.25 yards a carry against the Chargers this season -- almost two full yards a carry under his season's average. But then, of course, there was the 208-yard hurting he put on the Seattle Seahawks, followed by a 178-yarder against Seattle. And the 167-yard beating he put on the Oakland Raiders, and the 191 against the Dallas Cowboys, and the 147-yard smacking he laid on the New York Giants ... "He sees holes no one else can see," said Atlanta linebacker Jessie Tuggle. "I watch him on tape, and he's even better than he was last year. He has the ability to find the small creases and hit them, or make the cut back and find them. And if he sees nothing there, he's going to lower his head and get two or three yards every time."
So what makes the Falcons think they can stop this guy, who is only the fourth player in the history of the league to top 2,000 yards in a season? "It's just the fact that we've done it all year against great backs," said Falcons defensive coordinator Rich Brooks. "Our players play their responsibilities very well. We're physical, and we have good technique. And that's what it takes to stop a back like Terrell Davis. When it comes down to it, it's putting yourself in position, then shedding the blocker and making the tackle." Davis won the Super Bowl MVP last season with 157 yards and three touchdowns against the Green Bay Packers. This season, he averaged more than 125 yards and a touchdown a game. If the Falcons can keep him to his average, they figure, they have a chance at dethroning the Broncos. But if Davis does what no one else has done against the Falcons in the past 1 1/2 years -- run them into the ground -- then the Falcons will be in big trouble. And they know it. "You think, going into it, that you want to keep him under 100. You think, if you do that, you're doing pretty good," said Tuggle. "But you know they're going to run Terrell 40 times if they have to." The Falcons, who leave Sunday for Miami, know what's coming. All they have to do now is stop him.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
