It's not that Hawk was great, it's that Barnett wasn't very good this season. With Hawk, you had a linebacker who didn't over pursue and held his own. You had a backer that actually wrapped up instead of going for the big hit. Barnett would over pursue and go for the big hit instead of wrapping up. He was playing way to aggressive for whatever reason.
Hawk was vice versa.
"porky88" wrote:
I have to disagree a little with you porky, I think in Barnett's earlier years he did over pursue, but this year he wasn't aggressive.
Instead of running into the hole to meet the RB like he did so much of last year, this year Barnett waited for the RB to get in the hole and come to him.
I think the lack of aggressiveness vividly stood out in the Atlanta game, where a RB (Turner, I think) had Barnett solo on the outside, and Turner was shaking and trying to get Barnett to bite. Barnett just stood there, stayed back and waited for Turner to pick the direction and start running towards him.
On NFL Replay they showed last year's match-up against the Chargers in week 3. LT had Barnett in a similar position (outside, solo) and was trying to do what Turner did, shaking to try and get Barnett to bite. As LT started to shake, Barnett just flat out attacked him, and got LT for a minimal gain.
Perhaps it's as simple as Barnett thinking he was backed up on the LT play, and not on the Turner play, which led to the hesitation. But that's sort of the difference between this year and last year, Barnett seemed to lack the aggressive instinct of going after the player, instead chosing to meet him as he came out of the gap.
Hawk was, even in the Nickle LB package, far more aggressive in attacking the line of scrimmage. He over pursued at times too (Z captured one such moment in his highlight video), but it was nice to see that aggressiveness again.
Although I have to say that IMO the past couple of weeks Barnett was returning to that aggressive style of the previous year.
The NFL: Where Greg Jennings Happens.