Dion Lewis is a highlight reel waiting to happen
COMMENTARY
Kevin Faulk. Danny Woodhead. Shane Vereen. Dion Lewis.
The names change, the strategy remains. Get these players the ball out in space and watch in awe as they make plays.
On Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, though, Lewis proved that he can be so much more than just a gadget player. He is a highlight reel waiting to happen — and he “happened’’ no less than three times on Sunday.
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He put together a 13-yard run on 3rd-and-1 with 4:00 remaining in the second quarter, which is roughly 14 yards more than he probably should have gained on the run. Defensive end Jack Crawford had Lewis dead to rights in the backfield, but Lewis slipped out of the arm tackle with a stiff-arm and turned on the jets to get to the corner before safety Barry Church could stop him.
Three tacklers had a chance to stop him from scoring and only the last one was able to get the job done.
Scatbacks like Lewis typically aren’t asked to carry the ball straight out of the backfield in single-back formations, but Lewis’s elusiveness and speed give him the ability to make defenders miss and then make them pay by reeling off a long gain.
Of course, his work was far from done.
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Lewis might have had the Patriots’ play of the year on his 10-yard touchdown catch with 9:55 remaining in the third quarter.
Tom Brady faked a handoff to Julian Edelman on a jet sweep, which got the defense flowing one way while Lewis ran the opposite way. What followed was a spinning one-handed catch followed by a juke, a duck, and a mad dash for the goal line. Lewis took the five D’s of dodgeball — dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge — and applied them all to football in one fell swoop.
This time, four tacklers had a chance to keep him from scoring. None could do it.
He wasn’t done there, though.
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Lewis had one more exciting play left in him, with a seven-yard catch on 2nd-and-6 with 13:18 left in the third quarter. The play design itself wasn’t anything special, just a quick pass to Lewis in the flat. A linebacker and a safety both had a shot at stopping Lewis for a short gain, but the running back juked the safety out of his path and dodged an arm-tackle attempt by the linebacker.
In one game, Lewis forced eight defenders to miss tackles (two rushing, six receiving). According to stats website Pro Football Focus, that was the third-most by any running back in Week 5, but the other backs had far more opportunities than Lewis. Chargers running back Melvin Gordon forced 11 missed tackles but had 22 touches. Buccaneers running back Doug Martin forced nine missed tackles but had 27 touches.
Lewis’ eight missed tackles were tallied on 14 touches.
Looking back on transcripts of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s press conferences last week, there’s one exchange that stands out. In an almost eerie foreshadowing of what was to come, a reporter asked Belichick about Lewis’ stop-start quickness.
“He’s got good short-area quickness, good change of direction,’’ Belichick said. “I think for his size, he’s got good power. He’s never going to be a 240-pound power back, but for his size he’s got good power and explosiveness. You see him put his shoulder down and pick up a couple extra yards or run through those light tackles, as well as his ability to make guys miss in space and change direction. He’s got a number of ways he can get extra yards and his ability to catch the ball, his ability to run inside and outside gives you a lot of options with a guy like that in the game. He makes the most out of what he’s got. He’s got a good skill set.’’
We all know what “good’’ means in the Belichick vernacular, but even Belichick might have to admit that “good’’ is putting it lightly.
Photos: All 13 times Tom Brady has beaten the Colts
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