The Guy Named Harrison: Book One

29

The Panthers were hunting Saints this weekend. As one of the team captains, Harrison led the team out of the tunnel and onto the field where they were greeted by 76,000 cheering fans.

From where Carrie stood on the sidelines, she took a few pictures of him jogging out under the blow up Panther, followed by the entire team. They were wearing all white for the third straight game. Harrison also was wearing a new helmet she'd never seen before. It had plenty of ventilation on the top, and even a hexagon like vent right on top. He was also wearing a smoke colored visor on his helmet so "quarterbacks can't see my eyes."

The running backs and receivers were the ones that usually wore the tinted visors. And that was so the defense couldn't read their eyes and figure out which way they were planning to run.

He jogged out to midfield with the rest of the team for the coin toss. It was revealed that New Orleans would be receiving the ball first.

❺❾

Harrison jogged onto the field after the kickoff. The Saints had the ball on their own 19 yard line. "Two deep zone in the 4-3 package," he heard over his helmet radio from the defensive coordinator.

His teammates were waiting in the huddle. "Gonna run a two deep zone. I got Peterson."

They set up for the snap with Harrison's eyes glued to the Saints new running back Adrian Peterson. "Hike!"

The ball was snapped. Peterson took the handoff from Saints quarterback Drew Brees and ran to the outside off the left tackle. Harrison jogged to his right, cutting off Peterson from going towards the middle of the field. He kept up with him until he started to run towards the sidelines. Harrison dove at him, grabbed his legs, and pulled him to the turf. The two men rolled out of bounds to the Panthers sidelines.

He ran back to his teammates. "Looks like they're passing. Nickel package. I got the tight end. Luke, number one receiver. And Thomas, I want you on Peterson."

Harrison paced behind the four defensive lineman lined up on the line of scrimmage. Their tight end Coby Fleener was down in the three point position with the linemen as he made his way over. The center snapped the ball, and Harrison ran down the field, side by side with him.

He realized it was a curl route when Fleener stopped and Harrison continued on. He quickly spun around and as the ball was delivered, wrapped up Fleener.

He had both arms around him as he started to run, shaking off Harrison's tackle and tossing him to the turf like a doll. He then carried the ball for another 19 yards after Luke missed a tackle.

❺❾

The Panthers were missing tackles left and right. The defense was lucky the offense managed to score points on every drive. Harrison jogged into the huddle. "Guys, we got to pick it up. This is unacceptable."

They were missing so many tackles, Harrison included. After delivering the next play call, he set up in the blitz. As the ball was snapped, he began to beat the right tackle to the quarterback.

All the working out was paying off. He'd gotten much stronger and was now able to push two offensive lineman back into the pocket. Harrison lowered his shoulder and pushed into the right guard, while fending off the right tackle with his hands.

At last he was through and into the pocket. Suddenly, someone's shoulder hit his knee and he was on the ground as Drew Brees threw another pass for a completion.

There was a flag thrown on the play. "Chop block, number 28 on the offense. 15 yard penalty, repeat first down."

The Panthers ran the same play again. This time though, he had a straight line to Drew Brees. He hit Brees hard, the impact knocking him off his feet and five yards back before he hit the turf. Harrison picked up his 4th sack of the season.

Panthers fans began the "HARRISON" chant after the sack, and the rest of the time they were on defense.

Sorry for the late update today. I was working on one of my summer assignments. I start school in 2 weeks and I'm already hating AP English.