Porter Wins Weekly Hard Hat Award (Game
#1, @ Jax)
Stiller ROLB Joey Porter is the winner of my weekly Hard Hat Award, given to the Stiller player who best embodies the iron-tough, hard-as-steel attitude of the steel workers inside the blast furnace of a still mill.
Porter played like an animal in the otherwise miserable loss to Jax, leading all Stillers with 8 solo stops.� Porter, facing one of the NFL�s best LT�s, Tony Boselli, fought tooth-and-nail and consistently shut down Fred Taylor�s repeated attempts to that side of the field.� In fact, this most likely was best job of run-stuffing that I�ve seen in Porter�s 17 career games of starting at ROLB.� What cemented this award for Porter was his sterling play on a 3rd down & 3 in the 3rd quarter.�� Taylor ran the ball up left tackle.� In the meantime, Porter was actively engaged with Boselli, and not only did Porter hold his own against the behemoth tackle, he had the guile to spin away from Boselli and make the hit & wrap of Taylor.� Then, to add icing to the play, Porter kept an intense leg drive, while the 230-pound Taylor was doing the same, and Porter was able to hold his ground and wrest Taylor to the ground/sideline short of the 1st-down marker.� This is the kind of play that, unlike a meaningless slop sack, will never show up on any �stats sheet� of any kind, but it�s precisely the kind of play that wins football games and wins championships.� Porter also had a tremendous pressure on Brunell on the 3rd and goal play from the Stiller 4-yard line in the 4th quarter.� Porter came in on the rush, and slashed & vaulted his way past the blocking back, thus clearly forcing Brunell to rush a hasty, off-target throw to Brady that was incomplete.� Again, this play won�t show up on any stats sheets, but it unquestionably is the kind of play that wins you football games.�
Kudos to Joey for winning the weekly Hard Hat Award. Wear the Hard Hat proudly, Joey !!
The Still Mill