It might sound crazy to praise an offensive player for making a horse-collar tackle at the end of a long interception return, but I’m about to do it.
Bears tackle Lance Louis demonstrated the kind of hustle that every Pop Warner coach should show his players when he tackled Raiders linebacker Kamerion Wimbley at the end of a 73-yard interception return. At the time of the interception, Louis was at the 17-yard line on the right side of the field. Louis immediately began sprinting downfield when he saw that Wimbley had the ball, shed a weak attempt at a block from Raiders linebacker Aaron Curry and finally dragged Wimbley down along the left sideline at the 8-yard line.
Pulling Wimbley down from behind by the back of his jersey resulted in a horse-collar tackle penalty, but Louis’s 80-yard sprint saved a touchdown, and the Raiders kicked a field goal on the possession. Louis weighs 320 pounds, while Wimbley weighs 255 and ran a 4.61-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine. To catch Wimbley, Louis had to be trucking.
“I tried to grab him and take him down,” Louis told the Chicago Sun-Times after the game. “I just put my head down and and went after him and I got him. The important thing is I got him down and we held them to three. I guess that’s good, right?”
It’s more than just good. It was one of the best plays of the day.