Beast Mode - the Anatomy of an All-Time NFL Run

The Situation - If this were Hollywood, this script would be tossed into a garbage can. A 7-9 underdog at home, versus arguably the greatest feel-good Super Bowl champion ever? Next.

Yet, this was exactly the case. The New Orleans Saints, the Super Bowl champions who'd only managed to erase decades of franchise futility and simultaneously lift the spirits of the entire region following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, were visiting the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks, the first sub-.500 division winner in NFL history (hell, anyone's history...and no, I'm not paid well enough to look the matter up. When I'm rich, famous, and have the Elias Sports Bureau on speed-dial, I'll look it up. Until then, I'll let you sort it out...but I digress.). The underdogs, of course, were winning. The Saints, of course, were walking them down. It was the fourth quarter. There was enough time for the Saints to pull off one more miracle. Should the Seahawks give up the ball without scoring, it might well be the end of their season.

Second and Ten - Marshawn Lynch, the guy that the Seahawks had basically traded their franchise for, had been stoned on the previous down. He'd had a typically enervating game up to this point (16 rushes, 55 yards), one decent run and a whole lot of "What?" Worse, former Seahawk Julius Jones was playing out of his mind for the Saints. At this point in the game, Jones had racked up 120 yards of rushing/receiving offense and a touchdown, ironically providing the very kind of dual threat one Reggie Bush had been drafted to provide for the Saints. So, it's second down, ten yards to go, 3:37 left in the game.

Boom.

The Burst - Watching the video, the play starts with Lynch going to the left. Lynch follows his blockers, where he's met by the first of many ineffective Saints defenders. Three guys had a shot at him at the line of scrimmage, and none of them did more than caress him. He was out. Fully channeling Earl Campbell/Jim Brown/Walter Payton at this point, he simply ran through anyone stupid enough to attempt to lay hands upon his person. Which leads us to...

Tracy Porter - You are Tracy Porter. You play in the defensive backfield for the New Orleans Saints. Your job is to prevent runs like this from ever reaching the end zone. You are the last line of defense. You have an angle on Marshawn Lynch (which, at this point, is like saying you have the angle on a freight train, but I digress again), and you close in on him, all Deion Sanders-like business decisions made in favor of putting the wood to this guy and saving your team's season.

And then you get pie-faced, the worst pie face in the long, sad history of pie-facing.

Marshawn Lynch didn't merely stiff-arm you. Marshawn Lynch threw a Larry Holmes Jab at you that hit you in the mouth and easily knocked you almost eight yards (!!) off of him...and in front of him. That's right, Lynch hit you so hard that you ended up in his immediate future, and he was still carrying the ball and looking for someone else to punish.

The replay will show that you made initial contact with The Beast at the Saints 39 yard line. The replay will show you getting thrown to the Saints 31 yard line. The replay will show that you recovered your feet in time to make a second attempt at Lynch at the Saints 21 yard line, long before he actually reached the end zone. The same replay will show that you had the angle again, and pulled up.

Skurred.

Nothing like getting your manhood taken in prime time, is there?

And to anyone who thinks I'm overstating the point for dramatic purposes, watch the tape. It takes a lot of something to make an NFL player quit on a play, and Porter quit. He was having no more of what Lynch was dishing out, period. That's how dominant the run was.

The Finish - Having run through any Saint defender stupid enough to challenge his authority, Lynch's biggest remaining challenge was negotiating the wall of teammates that surrounded him as he crossed the goal line. It seems that his mates were fired up by his display of machismo and decided to get in on the act, running downfield and generally bashing anything that wasn't wearing Seahawk green. Yes, sad to say, but some Saints defenders got smacked in the jibs two or even three times on that same play.

Ball game.

In the annals of NFL history, this run just got spliced onto that great all-time run reel, the one that has guys like Jim Brown just knocking the slobber out of people, Walter Payton vaulting over a goal-line stand, Barry Sanders doing something that only Stephen Hawking can explain with a straight face, Earl Campbell roaring through the defense and shedding his jersey like some Jurassic predator stomping through a swamp in anger, Franco Harris scooping up the Immaculate Reception, and Tony Dorsett breaking one off from 99 yards out. It is that good. It is equal parts brilliant and brutal, showing the speed and power of an NFL back in full-on beast mode.

By all means, go to NFL.com and enjoy one of the greatest plays in the history of the NFL.

Sources:

NFL.com