Knapp's Playbook: When John Carlson Failed

by John Morgan on Sep 8, 2009 4:44 PM PDT

The Seahawks ran a fake end around pass through Deion Branch and to Deon Butler. It didn't work and doesn't need to be broken down. The play functioned, but Branch's pass was poor.

2-10-DEN 38 (12:29) 44-T.Duckett up the middle to DEN 34 for 4 yards (92-E.Dumervil).

Elvis Dumervil is awarded the tackle for first contact, but T.J. Duckett was running through Dumervil's arm tackle. The real tackler was D.J. Williams. Williams was free because of a blown block by John Carlson.

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Branch motions tight before the snap. Butler and Branch are blocking, but neither seriously block. Seattle's right offensive line, from Chris Spencer to Ray Willis, is pulling right and powering forward. Sean Locklear is alone on the left. Rob Sims pulls underneath and blocks the outside edge vacated by Carlson. He is joined by Owen Schmitt. Carlson pulls to the second level and attempts to block Williams. Duckett picks the proper hole, hits it with force, continues through Dumervil's arm tackle and collides with Williams after four.

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Essential details: Duckett picks the right hole and hits it with power.

Locklear holds grounds and ties up the right defensive end and the right outside linebacker (Dumervil).

Sims executes a pull block.

Seattle again gets good movement out of its right offensive line.

Carlson hesitates to engage and does not block, tie up or even delay Williams.

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Blasphemy!

JC can’t fail, we can only fail Him.

Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.

by ninjasocks on Sep 8, 2009 4:49 PM PDT reply actions

JC appears to be a monster as a receiver, but it may take a while to learn to block.

Didn’t he learn fundamentals in college? Or is it just a matter of NFL players being bigger and faster?

by djafrot on Sep 8, 2009 5:03 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm not sure

I thought that he was supposed to be more of a well-rounded TE than the pure receiving TEs, but he still has to work on his blocking. I guess all rookies/sophomores need to develop their skills to succeed in the NFL, but his blocking skills are taking longer to develop than his receiving skills. The reasons for this could be that (a) he’s just not as good of a blocker or (b) the learning curve for NFL blocking is steeper than NFL TE receiving.

Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.

by ninjasocks on Sep 8, 2009 5:07 PM PDT up reply actions