Monster Game For Portis

There’s a great hockey analyst in Canada named Pierre McGuire, who hosts a segment on TSN (the Canadian major sports network) known as McGuire’s Monsters. His Monster of the Week (or Month or Year) is a distinction going to the player with the highest combined total of hits, blocked shots, and goals. It may seem like an eclectic combination of factors, but really, it just means that it takes both skill and HEART to win the award. Had Mr. McGuire witnessed the Washington Redskins’ 22-10 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday, he would have surely chosen Clinton Portis as his monster performer. What a game CP had. I know he ran for 126 yards on 25 carries and had a touchdown, which alone would be great, but that doesn’t really even begin to describe Clinton’s ‘monster’ performance. Never in my armchair quarterback career have I witnessed such a text book display of blocking from a running back. In fact, never have I had so much occasion to just WATCH the back to see what he’s going to do from a blocking standpoint. I think my favorite block was on Justin Tuck who was coming on a moderately delayed inside blitz. Portis not only picked him up, he blew him up. Clinton just smacked him in the chops with absolutely no regard for the fact that he was giving up more than 50 pounds. Tuck looked completely surprised as he scraped himself off the grass. It was blocking poetry. Truth is, I could pick out a half-dozen or more terrific blocks from Portis on Sunday alone. It just seemed that when Clinton wasn’t earning valuable ground yardage, he was eating up blitzing defensive linemen on almost every play. The tenacity with which he plays will undoubtedly shorten his career, and I’m sure he knows that – he just doesn’t care. Clinton is just being Clinton. What an animal. What a complete football player. What a monster. My 2…