The internet has been in something of a frenzy over a play involving Dee Ford that made his look quite silly. And based on the video, it almost looks like Dee Ford wants nothing to do with tackling running back Frank Gore.
The situation happened in the third quarter when the 49ers ran an option play and chose to hand the ball off to Gore who took off for the edge. It looked as if Ford had the angle on him but he suddenly peels away and starts running downfield. It almost looks like a bizarre Madden glitch or something.
Here’s the video:
Yeah, not very pretty. So what happened? Andy Reid hasn’t had a chance to talk to him yet but he thinks he has an idea of what Ford was doing on that play.
"Q: There was a play by Dee Ford yesterday that has made its way around. He looks like he went after (Frank) Gore then peels away from the play.REID: “Yeah, he probably thought it was a play action there, at least that’s the way it looked. I haven’t had the chance to talk to him on that, but I know it probably didn’t look the best, but listen, he did some good things too. He’ll look back on that one say and I’m sure he’d say the same thing you’re saying, what was I doing?”"
Watching the play you could see the idea of maybe a play-action pass being misread there by Ford. Especially with the way he just turns around and runs away.
Another possibility is he read a screen pass. San Francisco’s offensive linemen were so far down field and wedged together that it kind of looks like the offensive linemen are forming a wall for a screen.
All of this is part of the learning curve that happens for rookies. Keep in mind too that Ford is learning a new position as an outside linebacker. After playing on the defensive line his whole life he is now transitioning to new reads and new schemes while also trying to learn the ropes of being an NFL player. There’s going to be some moments like this.
This particular moment just happened to make the social media rounds. But every team and every player has a play like this every game. One where you’re just left scratching your head and wondering what he was doing. The fact Ford is a controversial first round pick who hasn’t seen a lot of playing time only adds to this particular moment/play.
Still, ‘no excuses’ or whatever. Ford looked incredibly silly on that one.
Add us as a preferred source on Google