Wednesday, December 01, 2004

I'm not the only one questioning the "greatness" of Ray Lewis

Here's what the Boston Herald's Michael Felger wrote about Lewis's 12 tackle preformance:
(I decided to highlight one sentence)

What did the Patriots do last Sunday to account for one of the most feared defensive players in the NFL, Baltimore middle linebacker Ray Lewis? Nothing, really. The Pats simply got a single blocker on him on most running plays (usually Joe Andruzzi to the left and Stephen Neal to the right) and actually left him alone on some others. Running back Corey Dillon also spent much of his day running outside, with 19 of his 30 rushing attempts coming off-tackle or around end.
Lewis played on 68 of the Pats' 72 offensive snaps and was credited with 12 tackles. But only two came at or near the line of scrimmage. The first came on the 57th snap when he and Ed Hartwell combined to drop Dillon for a 1-yard loss in the third quarter. Three plays later, Lewis brought Dillon down in the end zone after a 1-yard scoring run.
Take out those two snaps, and Lewis' 10 remaining tackles came on plays that gained a total of 60 yards, averaging 6 yards per play. In other words, the vast majority of Lewis' work came after the Pats had picked up enough yards for the gain to be considered a successful play.
Lewis' biggest impact came when he dropped back on passing situations and either clogged Tom Brady passing lane or cleaned up on receivers with a hard tackle. His biggest hit came in the third quarter when he nailed David Givens following a 9-yard slant route. Givens got up laughing. . . .
It turns out Lewis wasn't even the best inside linebacker on the field. That distinction went to the Pats' Ted Johnson, who made nine tackles and consistently plugged up running lanes by throwing himself at on-coming guards.

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