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Game
Slants
Sunday, October 7, 2007
By Denny O'Brien |
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Johnson special against
Knights
By
Denny O'Brien
©2007 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
GREENVILLE – Conference USA better find
somewhere for Chris Johnson's name when it hands out postseason
superlatives. Surely there will be a spot on the awards list for the
league’s most dangerous open-field runner.
If there isn’t an appropriate honor, they
ought to invent one. Some sort of hybrid superback would be an appropriate
label.
In the Pirates’ 52-38 win over Central
Florida Saturday, that most accurately described the guy who shattered the
East Carolina single-game record for all-purpose yards with 372. Johnson
again dazzled fans with his blurring speed on kickoffs, in the passing game,
and as the Pirates’ backfield workhorse.
In baseball terms, Johnson came dangerously
close to hitting for the cycle. Had Pirates coach Skip Holtz let him throw a
pass and play defense, perhaps Johnson would have scored in every phase of
the game.
On a day when East Carolina inducted new
members into its athletics Hall of Fame, Johnson played as if he were worthy
of enshrinement. He scored between the tackles and in the open field, using
a combination of speed, power, finesse, and determination.
“I thought Chris Johnson was really
special,” Holtz said. “Not just running the ball, not just catching the
ball, and not just on kickoff returns.
“I thought that he was really impressive
with some of the things that he’s doing right now. I kind of bragged and
boasted on him in the spring, and really praised him during camp. He’s just
a totally different back right now than he has been the past couple of
years.”
He hardly looks like the player who often
tap-danced his way into the scrum at the line of scrimmage. And Johnson
doesn’t remotely resemble the running back that routinely got leveled by the
slightest amount of contact.
Even more impressive is the critical times
that Johnson seemingly hand-picks to dazzle his teammates and fans.
“Chris is a player,” Holtz said. “You talk
all the time about great players make plays in big games.
“We talked about this being a huge game for
us, being a conference game. Some people were really going to have to step
up. Chris is a senior. He wants to win, and he’s putting everything out
there on the field. He’s taking his game to a whole new level.”
He definitely seemed on a different level
when he darted 72 yards to the end zone after snaring a screen pass from
quarterback Rob Kass. Ditto on his 96-yard kickoff return to open the second
half, a play that tilted the momentum back in ECU’s favor.
And on both rushing scores, Johnson showed
his diverse ability to run with vision, newfound power, and NFL speed.
“He’s a beast out there,” Kass said. “When
he hits the corner, there’s nobody who can catch him on this field.
“He’s a great athlete, and he’s a hard
worker, too. More than anything, he prepares harder than any person that
I’ve seen.”
But as brightly as Johnson shined, UCF
still spent much of the first half exploiting several glaring deficiencies.
Curtis Francis’ 93-yard kickoff return to
open the game was a painful reminder that ECU’s coverage units have been
abysmal of late. It marked the second straight kickoff that was returned for
a score against the Pirates, and it is a glaring weakness that could spell
doom in these historically tight C-USA games.
Penalty flags again littered Bagwell Field,
too many of which were the result of personal fouls that extended UCF
drives. That’s hardly the sort of discipline that you can ride to a
conference title.
Then there were the mix-ups in the
secondary, which has been the Achilles’ of the defense since the season
opener. The Pirates were bitten several times on 3rd-and-long, and that was
against a mediocre quarterback by almost every measure.
That goes without mentioning the poor
tackling that continues to plague the ECU defense. This time it was a mix of
UCF’s receivers and running back Kevin Smith who bounced off would-be
tacklers like pinballs at the local arcade.
Had the Pirates not forced five turnovers
on five consecutive possessions, the outcome likely would have different.
Because it was a rare occasion when the UCF offense stalled, as evidenced by
495 yards of offense.
Granted, much of that can be attributed to
the Pirates’ nicked-up defense and youth movement in the secondary. Even so,
these are areas that severely require attention.
Among the areas that don’t are any that
include Johnson. After enduring years of criticism from the media and fans,
it’s clear that he is now operating on a completely different level.
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10/07/2007 06:06:14 AM |
