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Thread: Middle Man A Rough Role

  1. #1
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    Default Middle Man A Rough Role

    We talk a lot about the 3-4 defense and so I understand some times things have to be merged but I hope this thread will be allowed stand on its own because it's as much about Rubin Carter as it is about the nose tackle in a 3-4 defense.

    http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_11762940

    terry frei
    Middle man a rough role
    By Terry Frei
    The Denver Post
    Posted: 02/23/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

    Josh McDaniels wasn't yet 1 year old when the Broncos switched to the 3-4 defense in 1976. So as McDaniels and his Broncos staff peruse draft prospects and survey the possibilities in free agency, looking for a suitable nose tackle, perhaps the new Denver head coach doesn't even know he's trying to find another Rubin Carter.

    The stumpy Carter did the grunt labor for the "Orange Crush." Even then, the position required a rare willingness to subjugate ego; in this era, it's even harder to find a talented D-lineman who can be both good at the nose tackle job . . . and be happy in it.

    From his home in Albuquerque on Sunday, Carter said he had heard of the Broncos' return to the 3-4.

    "The nose tackle has to be very unselfish, a role player, understanding that the scheme will not work unless he's capable of defeating man-to- man blocking, if you get it, but also facing up to double-teams and unfocused blocking," he said. "You can get hit by tight ends and by fullbacks, too, and in zone blocking schemes, it requires lateral footwork to keep a low center of gravity and keep the center off the inside linebacker. So it's a very demanding position. Just being able to anchor and hold the point when the blockers are trying to get to that second level, to the linebackers, is critical to the position."

    One reason Carter didn't mind that often unsung role in his 1975-86 stay with the Broncos was that he was indoctrinated in hard work, long before making football his profession. Since retiring as a player, his coaching career has included stints with several NFL teams, including the Broncos, plus three seasons as the head coach at Florida A&M; and now has taken him to the University of New Mexico, where he recently joined new head coach Mike Locksley's staff.

    As a youngster, Rubin often worked on East Coast farms with his parents, Charlie and Susie Mae.

    "It certainly was a humbling experience," Carter said. "My parents were very strong- willed, and my mother had a tremendous faith through all the adversity we had to go through as a family."

    The family had settled in Maryland when Rubin's father suffered a fatal heart attack while picking mangoes. Susie Mae took her two youngest children, Charles Jr. and Rubin, to Florida, and beginning at age 14, Rubin did odd jobs in the summers at a steel mill. As a star football player at Stranahan High in Fort Lauderdale, he also was a school janitor.

    "I cleaned the same classrooms where I had been all day long," he said.

    After he was an All-American as a senior for the Miami Hurricanes, he came to the Broncos as a 1975 fifth-round choice. He was available that late because at 6-feet and 256 pounds, he didn't fit the NFL front-four prototype. After Lyle Alzado, then a defensive tackle, suffered a season-ending knee injury at Cincinnati in the 1976 regular-season opener, Denver switched to the 3-4 and Carter found a home at nose tackle.

    Under defensive coordinator Joe Collier, the Broncos weren't the first to play an adaptation of the college game's "Oklahoma" 5-2, but they helped popularize the alternative to the traditional 4-3. (Sound familiar? Football history is cyclical.) Barney Chavous and Alzado were the ends.

    Behind them, linebackers Randy Gradishar, Tom Jackson, Bob Swenson and Joe Rizzo got much of the ink. When the Broncos blitzed, it most often was Jackson coming from the weak side, but offenses couldn't be certain that he'd be the extra body going after the quarterback in what at least looked like a conventional four-man rush. In the running game, the linebackers reacted and pursued. If Carter drew a double-team, even when it involved a glancing blow from the guard, the three defensive linemen often were doing the same thing as the traditional four-man front — occupying four of the five offensive linemen. Immediately behind (or around) them, there were four linebackers, not three.

    Gradishar isn't where he belongs, in the Hall of Fame, because of an anti-3-4 snobbery among some football writers. One influential scribe, both at the time and later, argued that both the defense itself and (alleged) exaggerated tackle counts meant the Denver linebackers really weren't that great.

    They were. And they got a lot of help from Carter.

    With the right players, including a man in the middle who doesn't mind getting his nose dirty, it can work again in Denver.

    Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com

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    This goes a ways toward making up for some of his previous crappy articles.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fan in Exile View Post
    This goes a ways toward making up for some of his previous crappy articles.
    I was thinking the same thing. It reminds of what Wesley Snipes said in "White Men Can't Jump": "The sun has to shine on a dog's ass every once in a while."
    Last edited by TXBRONC; 02-23-2009 at 12:20 PM.

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    Terry Frei is only good with historical stories. He can write about the 70s, or the birth of hockey, or whatever and be just fine. Interesting even.

    It's when applying his skills to what's happening now, to analyzing the current instead of documenting the past, that his bag of tricks spills out all over the stage in a messy heap.

    ~G
    "Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you'll die today."
    -- James Dean


    My novels Mason's Order and its sequel Mason's Pledge are now available at Amazon in both paperback and kindle versions.

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    Carter is still the "blue print" for what we're going to need in a nose tackle.

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    accept for the whole "6 ft 256 lbs" part.
    I wasn't watching football in those days due to being a toddler (and English). Did Carter get heavier as his career went on?

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    Quote Originally Posted by SoCalImport View Post
    accept for the whole "6 ft 256 lbs" part.
    I wasn't watching football in those days due to being a toddler (and English). Did Carter get heavier as his career went on?
    I don't know, however in his era he was big enough and did exactly what you expect out of nose tackle.

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    This job in a 3-4 is insanely important.

    I don't like Raji, don't trust his motor.

    I do like Grady Jackson, I think he has moved forward from his troubles, a perfect stopgap at a decent price.

    But I love Terrance Cody next year........alot.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Blah Blah Blah View Post
    This job in a 3-4 is insanely important.

    I don't like Raji, don't trust his motor.

    I do like Grady Jackson, I think he has moved forward from his troubles, a perfect stopgap at a decent price.

    But I love Terrance Cody next year........alot.
    It's hard to say if we'll even be a position to draft Cody next season.

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    You can't plan for a draftee a year away. I'd love to have Eric Berry, but if Safety is a need now, we need to get a Safety now.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SmilinAssasSin27 View Post
    You can't plan for a draftee a year away. I'd love to have Eric Berry, but if Safety is a need now, we need to get a Safety now.
    It would be nice plan ahead like that but it's not realistic.

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    In all the games I saw Alzado was always a DE.. I can truly say I never saw him line up inside when there where 4 down line men..

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jrwiz View Post
    In all the games I saw Alzado was always a DE.. I can truly say I never saw him line up inside when there where 4 down line men..
    You want to why you never saw him line up inside? Because he never did defensive tackle he was always defensive end for us.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TXBRONC View Post
    You want to why you never saw him line up inside? Because he never did defensive tackle he was always defensive end for us.
    Quote Originally Posted by TXBRONC View Post
    After he was an All-American as a senior for the Miami Hurricanes, he came to the Broncos as a 1975 fifth-round choice. He was available that late because at 6-feet and 256 pounds, he didn't fit the NFL front-four prototype. After Lyle Alzado, then a defensive tackle, suffered a season-ending knee injury at Cincinnati in the 1976 regular-season opener, Denver switched to the 3-4 and Carter found a home at nose tackle.

    [/email]
    I was stating/correcting what I remembered from the post article..

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jrwiz View Post
    I was stating/correcting what I remembered from the post article..
    I was agreeing with you. I believe the DP has it wrong. His career stats have listed as defensive end from start to finish.

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