By Mark Gaughan
Bills linebacker Nick Barnett acknowledged today he needed to contain Tennessee running back Chris Johnson from bouncing outside and breaking away on the speedy back's 83-yard touchdown run in Sunday's game.
Barnett charged the gap between left tackle and left guard and met the Titans' fullback in the hole on the play. But Barnett allowed Johnson to bounce to the outside. If Johnson had bounced up the inside part of the gap, linebacker Kelvin Sheppard would have been there to make a tackle.
“For me it definitely was a wrong shoulder, No. 1," said Barnett, referring to where he attacked the fullback. "The technique I was trying to do, which I had done earlier for the first two plays that I wrong-shouldered it, I pushed the fullback in there and got around the outside. This time he kind of bear-hugged me, and I don’t care what you say, it was holding. The first time, Shep got over fast, too, and the safety was down (near the line of scrimmage). I kind of was trying to do that technique at the wrong time. I knew that I was supposed to be the hammer but just tried to make the play as well.
So I’ll correct that. That won’t ever happen again. But I’ll still try to make plays. I can’t do that. I can’t be a robot."
