Julius Peppers and Dontari Poe are splitting the Hoss of the Week award. Sorry folks, couldn't find a way to choose between these two guys, so I decided to split the pig ... so to speak.
Julius Peppers, Dontari Poe share Hoss of the Week honors
Every week of the season, retired NFL defensive end Stephen White hands out the coveted Hoss of the Week award. This week, it’s a tie with Chiefs DT Dontari Poe and Packers LB/DE Julius Peppers taking home the hardware.
Joel Auerbach
One of my first forays into sports blogging was a post years ago about Peppers. I felt then, and still do, that he has always been a better left defensive end, which is where he started off at in the NFL, but once he got paid it seemed as if his coaches decided he had to play right defensive end because it’s the “money” pass rusher spot. And hey, I get it folks want to see the high-priced right end versus the high-priced left tackle with the theme from Clash of The Titans playing in the background. Personally, I’m more about exploiting matchups, damn all that “best against best” just for the sake of it bullshit.
Having said that, it’s not like he was some slappy at right defensive end; after all, he currently owns the third highest career sack total out of all active players with well over 100, many of which came from the right side. However, I do think that if had he stayed at left end his whole career, his sack numbers would be even sicker than they already are.
Hoss of the Week
Now that he is playing outside linebacker for the Packers, Peppers finds himself rushing from the left side quite a bit because they already have Clay Matthews who tends to rush from the right. Peppers play as a linebacker so far has been a mixed bag, except for when he's pass rushing. As a pass rusher he is still torching fools, and Sunday against the Lions was a prime example.
I’ll concede the fact that he was rushing against a backup right tackle Corneilius Lucas, a rookie, but that’s not Peppers’ fault. The Lions really ought to be ashamed of themselves leaving that kid on an island like that all game. Pep gave him the business and had Matt Stafford running for his life and getting rid of the ball much earlier than he would’ve liked. Literally almost everything Pep tried to do worked, and thankfully, he didn’t try to get to fancy. He just kept pressing the edge with different moves and kept right on winning.
They had the nerve to bench Lucas for a series in favor of veteran Garrett Reynolds. I’m going to let you guess what Peppers did to Reynolds.
Nah seriously, go ahead and guess.
That’s right, he poured gasoline all over him and set his ass afire!
I’m talking a perfect pass rush. He ran right by the guy, swiped his hands to the side, finished with a rip and ended up with the hat trick on Stafford: sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery.
Then all of a sudden Lucas was back out there again the next series. El Oh El!!!
When was the last time you saw a defensive lineman get a lineman sent to the bench during the game only to have that guy brought back in when his backup gets whupped even worse?
Yeah, the Packers lost. Yeah, technically Peppers only had one sack, but if you watched the game you saw the kind of pass rushing performance that only a select few could ever pull off, which definitely makes him Hoss worthy in my book.
Do not let the final score fool you, It was 20-15 until near the end of the fourth quarter. As ugly as the game was, it was the Chiefs’ defense that kept them in it most of the game as their offense sputtered. A big part of that defensive effort was the constant pressure they were able to apply on Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill. That pressure never allowed him to feel comfortable in the pocket for very long.
Linebackers Justin Houston, Tamba Hali and rookie Dee Ford could be seen laying the smack down on Tannehill repeatedly during the game. One of the reasons they were able to rush around the corner and have Tannehill still be where they could reach him is because Poe was helping to clog the middle of the line, not allowing him to step up or take off running. Houston and Hali both came home with sacks of their own, but by the end of the game it was Poe who was the high sack man with one and a half, including one in the fourth quarter.
As a reminder, Poe is a 330+ pound nose tackle -- NOSE. TACKLE. -- With a sack and a half in hot ass Miami on a day when his team really needed him to show up. I tip my cap to you sir and hereby anoint you a Co-Hoss Of The Week recipient.
Don’t get too emotional now, you earned it after all.
See More:
