Brandon Jacobs is big. Really big. He packs quite a punch when he’s in full gallop, ball tucked under his right arm and bad intentions tucked inside his hard head, the ringleader of the best rushing team in the NFL.
“OK, so what are you going to do, run from him?” Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis said yesterday. “I don’t look at somebody’s weight and say ‘Oh, guess what, he’s 260, I can’t run into him.’ Hell no, I’m chasing him. Size has never mattered in this game.”
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What matters most at the position Lewis plays is heart and intensity and instincts, and he’s got them all. There are plenty of individual confrontations each week to get the blood flowing, but few as scintillating as what will transpire Sunday at Giants Stadium, when the 264-pound Jacobs busts through a hole and sees the menacing Lewis standing his way.
“He comes downhill, he’s got on shoulder pads and helmet just like I do,” Jacobs said. “That’s the way the game goes, he’ll come downhill, I’ll come downhill and whatever happens, happens. I’m actually looking forward to the challenge. . . . I don’t care who’s out there.”
The Giants lead the NFL in rushing with 168.9 yards per game. The Ravens lead the league in run defense, allowing 65.4 yards per game. One trend will take a beating, along with many, many bodies.
“They like to run the ball, we like to stop the run,” Lewis said. “That’s a bottom-line fact. Our guys do a great job understanding what type of mentality that is, not let nobody come in and run the ball on you. The Giants do a great job with telling people they’re going to run the ball on them. Hey, we’ll find out Sunday, man.”
Figure both players will need to be toweled off before then.
Lewis on Jacobs: “He’s a physical back, he plays the game very physical. The only way to stop somebody like that is run into him full-speed. The name of football is hit or be hit.”
Jacobs on Lewis: “Ray Lewis plays linebacker the way I would play linebacker, if I was a linebacker, downhill, hard-hitting player. Nothing more, nothing less.”
The Giants have faced formidable defenses and heard they would not be able to get their running game launched. They struggled in Pittsburgh, gaining just 83 yards, the only time this season they’ve been held under 100 yards. They ravaged the Cowboys (200 yards) and Eagles (219) in back-to-back weeks.
Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw often face little resistance until they reach the second line of
defense. By then, it’s too late.
“Not to take no credit away from these backs,” Lewis said, “but they’re running through holes so big you’re
sitting there saying ‘What in the world?’ ”
Lewis, 33, is not the same player who in Super Bowl XXXV hunted down Tiki Barber from one sideline to the other, nearly shutting down the Giants running game by himself. But he hasn’t dropped too far, once again
leading the Ravens in tackles with 92. Lewis and Jacobs have a relationship, forged as they filmed Under Armor commercials together. “He’s a good dude,” Jacobs said.
The Giants may actually try to establish their passing game before they unleash their ground assault. Either way, the running backs are coming.
“They use their three running backs in ways you don’t see a lot,” Lewis said. “You kind of see why they are the defending Super Bowl champs, they have that old-school mentality that we are going to establish the run.”
School’s in session Sunday afternoon.