mesaSteeler
10-26-2009, 11:44 PM
Steelers Woodley: My return better because I juked the guy
October 26, 5:55 AMPittsburgh Sports Examiner
Matt Pawlikowski
http://www.examiner.com/x-2703-Pittsburgh-Sports-Examiner~y2009m10d26-Steelers-Woodley-My-return-better-because-I-juked-the-guy
PITTSBURGH – LaMarr Woodley was all smiles as he fielded questions in the lockers after the Steelers 27-17 win over the Vikings.
The biggest of course was about his 77-yard fumble return of Brett Favre’s miscue for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. It came after Brett Keisel sacked Favre and tomahawk chopped the ball out of his hands.
Asked to describe it in his own words, here’s Woodley’s take on the score.
“Loose ball on the ground, pick it up or fall on it,” he said. ‘ So I was like Woodley pick it up, see what you can do with it. So I picked it up, stiff armed a guy and saw my teammates coming and they were throwing blocks for me. I looked to the left and saw an offensive lineman coming and I said I can’t let this guy catch me of all people. My team kept blocking for me, I got in the endzone and thought about doing a dance, but my legs wouldn’t let me.”
While many compared it to James Harrison’s interception return in Super Bowl XLIII, Woodley who threw a key block on that return, said unlike Silverback, he wasn’t out of breath by the 30 yard line.
“ Ohhh no,” Woodley said with a huge laugh. “I didn’t feel it until I got in. The thing that was going through my head was legs, don’t fail me, get me into the endzone, don’t fall off.”
Not long after though, it was another one of the Steeler linebacking corps time to shine, as Keyaron Fox, filling in for Lawrence Timmons, picked off Favre and returned it for a touchdown. Asked whose was the better of the two, Woodley of course said his.
“ Mine was because I juked him,” Woodley said. “He only had one person to juke, I had a few people juke and stiff armed them.”
The interesting thing was that while most players would be estatic about having a play like Woodley’s against a legend like Favre, Woodley was not. Instead it was all about doing it for the team.
“If it was against anybody, it is special, I don’t care who is on the other side of the ball,” Woodley said. “ It’s special because it helps the team win. He’s a legend, but It didn’t matter to me.”
Steeler coach Mike Tomlin called bth the returns on of the joys of the business.
"It's one of those slow motion moments that is a joy in this business," Tomlin said. " You do it enough, you end up on both ends of it. I think we had a few balls run back on us this year, its good to be on the good side of it."
Woodley said the most important thing wasn’t so much his score, but the fact the defense was finally able to close out a close football game.
“All year we hadn’t been finishing,” Woodley said. “ So the thing was to finally go out here and make a stand, and we lost a few games because the defense didn’t make a stand, so our thing was that if our offense put enough points on the board to go out there as a defense and do just that.”
October 26, 5:55 AMPittsburgh Sports Examiner
Matt Pawlikowski
http://www.examiner.com/x-2703-Pittsburgh-Sports-Examiner~y2009m10d26-Steelers-Woodley-My-return-better-because-I-juked-the-guy
PITTSBURGH – LaMarr Woodley was all smiles as he fielded questions in the lockers after the Steelers 27-17 win over the Vikings.
The biggest of course was about his 77-yard fumble return of Brett Favre’s miscue for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. It came after Brett Keisel sacked Favre and tomahawk chopped the ball out of his hands.
Asked to describe it in his own words, here’s Woodley’s take on the score.
“Loose ball on the ground, pick it up or fall on it,” he said. ‘ So I was like Woodley pick it up, see what you can do with it. So I picked it up, stiff armed a guy and saw my teammates coming and they were throwing blocks for me. I looked to the left and saw an offensive lineman coming and I said I can’t let this guy catch me of all people. My team kept blocking for me, I got in the endzone and thought about doing a dance, but my legs wouldn’t let me.”
While many compared it to James Harrison’s interception return in Super Bowl XLIII, Woodley who threw a key block on that return, said unlike Silverback, he wasn’t out of breath by the 30 yard line.
“ Ohhh no,” Woodley said with a huge laugh. “I didn’t feel it until I got in. The thing that was going through my head was legs, don’t fail me, get me into the endzone, don’t fall off.”
Not long after though, it was another one of the Steeler linebacking corps time to shine, as Keyaron Fox, filling in for Lawrence Timmons, picked off Favre and returned it for a touchdown. Asked whose was the better of the two, Woodley of course said his.
“ Mine was because I juked him,” Woodley said. “He only had one person to juke, I had a few people juke and stiff armed them.”
The interesting thing was that while most players would be estatic about having a play like Woodley’s against a legend like Favre, Woodley was not. Instead it was all about doing it for the team.
“If it was against anybody, it is special, I don’t care who is on the other side of the ball,” Woodley said. “ It’s special because it helps the team win. He’s a legend, but It didn’t matter to me.”
Steeler coach Mike Tomlin called bth the returns on of the joys of the business.
"It's one of those slow motion moments that is a joy in this business," Tomlin said. " You do it enough, you end up on both ends of it. I think we had a few balls run back on us this year, its good to be on the good side of it."
Woodley said the most important thing wasn’t so much his score, but the fact the defense was finally able to close out a close football game.
“All year we hadn’t been finishing,” Woodley said. “ So the thing was to finally go out here and make a stand, and we lost a few games because the defense didn’t make a stand, so our thing was that if our offense put enough points on the board to go out there as a defense and do just that.”