Sooner in Tampa
9/13/2012, 10:36 AM
Gerald had a monster game against the Carolina kitties...he was in the back field on almost every single play. It was a thing of beauty.
2687
TAMPA -- It wasn't about his draft number. It wasn't about the big contract or the injuries, finally. It wasn't about third year, Bust this, Bust that. It was just a happy young man, feeling blessed, flying around.
"It was a blast," Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said.
Good, great — super, in fact.
"That was one of the best games I've seen a defensive tackle play in quite a while. And you know I watch."
That was someone named Warren Sapp talking about Gerald McCoy.
Here is Sapp talking, too:
"Now you got one. Go do it again."
Gerald McCoy excelled in the Bucs' season- and eye-opening win against Carolina. He controlled the line of scrimmage. He chased and sacked Cam Newton once and barely missed on a couple of others all the while helping stuff the run. He looked exactly like what the Bucs wanted when they picked him third overall in the 2010 draft. It was his best game as a professional.
"It did feel good, but what felt better is the thing I was doing was helping my team," McCoy said.
We've been waiting, sometimes patiently, sometimes not, for him to break through, only to see him miss nearly half the games his first two seasons, a pair of biceps injuries, freaky, but it's a zero sum deal, and when the contract says five years, $63 million, well, you know.
Yes, we've been waiting for McCoy's game to catch up with his smile and personality, which are off the charts. He'd be king of the world if only he could cast, and sustain, a shadow like 99 on the field.
"Performance is everything," McCoy said. "Nothing else matters. Because nobody is going to say, 'Oh, he's a great guy.' People are going to say, 'He didn't perform.' I've been smiling since I got here, but people also say I haven't been performing since I got here. Nobody cares that I'm smiling. Nobody cares that I'm a great guy. They care if I'm not performing."
What about injuries?
"They happen. But the reality is performance is everything, nothing else matters," he said.
McCoy mattered Sunday against Carolina. The Bucs held the Panthers to 10 rushing yards. McCoy had two tackles for loss and two hits on Newton.
"I think the biggest thing is just his explosiveness off the ball," Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan said. "… He really was physically pushing the line of scrimmage back in the run game and the pass game."
"His get-off is better, his recognition is there," Sapp said.
Sapp talks with McCoy at least once a week. They talk chess.
Huh?
"Sapp, he said you play a game of chess," McCoy said. "It's chess moves. You're trying to set this guy up for what you want him to do, then checkmate. Know what I'm saying? Sapp put it that way and that's kind of how I'm approaching the game now.
"… If you focus on too many different opinions or too many different things, it can really bug you, it can affect your performance. I can't help injuries. Injuries happen. All I can control is what I do and how hard I work, how hard I work in the classroom, how hard I work when nobody's looking, how hard I work when I practice and then take all that I went through and fought through and take it into the game."
He admits there's some pressure this season, but what else is new?
"You shouldn't be playing the game, period, if you don't want pressure," he said.
There was only joy Sunday, McCoy playing, his fans watching.
"I love the kid. He's the best kid I know," Warren Sapp said. "But I still tell him when you step on the field, you got to be vicious. Put your smile and that personality in a case that says, 'Break only in the case of emergency' for when you get home. What I want to see on that field is a monster, an absolute monstrosity, someone who will come in and kill everything on the field and leave only one thing to tell the story — the film."
Gerald McCoy, now he's got one. Go do it again.
2687
TAMPA -- It wasn't about his draft number. It wasn't about the big contract or the injuries, finally. It wasn't about third year, Bust this, Bust that. It was just a happy young man, feeling blessed, flying around.
"It was a blast," Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said.
Good, great — super, in fact.
"That was one of the best games I've seen a defensive tackle play in quite a while. And you know I watch."
That was someone named Warren Sapp talking about Gerald McCoy.
Here is Sapp talking, too:
"Now you got one. Go do it again."
Gerald McCoy excelled in the Bucs' season- and eye-opening win against Carolina. He controlled the line of scrimmage. He chased and sacked Cam Newton once and barely missed on a couple of others all the while helping stuff the run. He looked exactly like what the Bucs wanted when they picked him third overall in the 2010 draft. It was his best game as a professional.
"It did feel good, but what felt better is the thing I was doing was helping my team," McCoy said.
We've been waiting, sometimes patiently, sometimes not, for him to break through, only to see him miss nearly half the games his first two seasons, a pair of biceps injuries, freaky, but it's a zero sum deal, and when the contract says five years, $63 million, well, you know.
Yes, we've been waiting for McCoy's game to catch up with his smile and personality, which are off the charts. He'd be king of the world if only he could cast, and sustain, a shadow like 99 on the field.
"Performance is everything," McCoy said. "Nothing else matters. Because nobody is going to say, 'Oh, he's a great guy.' People are going to say, 'He didn't perform.' I've been smiling since I got here, but people also say I haven't been performing since I got here. Nobody cares that I'm smiling. Nobody cares that I'm a great guy. They care if I'm not performing."
What about injuries?
"They happen. But the reality is performance is everything, nothing else matters," he said.
McCoy mattered Sunday against Carolina. The Bucs held the Panthers to 10 rushing yards. McCoy had two tackles for loss and two hits on Newton.
"I think the biggest thing is just his explosiveness off the ball," Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan said. "… He really was physically pushing the line of scrimmage back in the run game and the pass game."
"His get-off is better, his recognition is there," Sapp said.
Sapp talks with McCoy at least once a week. They talk chess.
Huh?
"Sapp, he said you play a game of chess," McCoy said. "It's chess moves. You're trying to set this guy up for what you want him to do, then checkmate. Know what I'm saying? Sapp put it that way and that's kind of how I'm approaching the game now.
"… If you focus on too many different opinions or too many different things, it can really bug you, it can affect your performance. I can't help injuries. Injuries happen. All I can control is what I do and how hard I work, how hard I work in the classroom, how hard I work when nobody's looking, how hard I work when I practice and then take all that I went through and fought through and take it into the game."
He admits there's some pressure this season, but what else is new?
"You shouldn't be playing the game, period, if you don't want pressure," he said.
There was only joy Sunday, McCoy playing, his fans watching.
"I love the kid. He's the best kid I know," Warren Sapp said. "But I still tell him when you step on the field, you got to be vicious. Put your smile and that personality in a case that says, 'Break only in the case of emergency' for when you get home. What I want to see on that field is a monster, an absolute monstrosity, someone who will come in and kill everything on the field and leave only one thing to tell the story — the film."
Gerald McCoy, now he's got one. Go do it again.