‘OVER THE TOP’

Running backs hurdle tacklers on instinct

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jessie Bates knew he’d be hearing from friends and family.

He wasn’t the first NFL defender to find himself caught beneath a Kareem Hunt hurdle. In fact, the Bengals rookie safety out of Wake Forest wasn’t even the first line of defense against Hunt with 8:32 to go in the first quarter of Cincinnati’s Week 7 loss to Kansas City.

But when Hunt spun out of Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick’s tackle, Hunt charged forward, broke two tackles and leaped over Bates.

Bates’ Wake Forest group text lit up after the game. “Hey Jessie,” Bates told USA TODAY one friend wrote. “You’re a human hurdle now?”

Hunt smiled when he heard the jab. “Honestly, it’s just an instinct,” the second-year running back said. “The only way sometimes is over top.”

Running backs across the league agree.

Rookie first-round running backs the last four years have wowed with highlight reels of hurdles, from the Rams’ Todd Gurley in 2015, to the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott in 2016, to the Panthers’ Christian McCaffrey in 2017 and now the Giants’ Saquon Barkley.

Monday night, two of the league’s most prominent hurdlers in Gurley and Hunt face off with their high-octane 9-1 offenses in Los Angeles. Defenses, beware.

“It’s a huge challenge,” said Cowboys safety Jeff Heath, who caught Gurley mid-hurdle last season. “It’s a whole other way they can make you miss.”

“It makes you second guess on how to tackle them,” said Chiefs safety Ron Parker, who will keep his eyes peeled for Gurley. “If it do happen, you just like can’t believe it happened to you.

“Can’t believe he’s trying to hurdle you.”

But increasingly, league stars are. Hurdlers say their decision is spontaneous. But they identify catalysts that encourage them to jump.

Barkley studies how low defenders tackle during film review. Elliott seeks out one-on-one matchups when the chance drops that he’ll be tackled midair or on landing. Hunt hits top speeds that preclude a juke or cut, and crowded lanes when, as he said, the only clear way is up.

“You picture people like Saquon, Zeke — they’re thicker guys,” Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who doesn’t hurdle, told USA TODAY. “DBs get tired of tackling those guys.”

The muscle memory is there, says Hunt, from early hurdling days. Take Elliott, who began hurdling on the track team in middle school. His mom hurdled in college at Missouri. He won state titles in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles.

“Ezekiel was, right off, just natural,” his mom, Dawn Elliott, told USA TODAY by phone.

But through middle school, high school and two years at Ohio State, Elliott sequestered hurdles to the track. He told Dawn repeatedly he wanted to hurdle a person. As a junior on the Ohio State football field, he finally did.

Hunt and Barkley each hurdled defenders as early as high school, Barkley’s first jump landing in the end zone.

This season, Barkley has hurdled the Saints, Eagles, Jaguars and 49ers. Hunt jumped Bates with the Bengals and, three weeks later, Broncos safety Will Parks for six points. Elliott hurdled Eagles rookie Tre Sullivan in a division matchup Nov. 9. The acrobatics took the Cowboys from the 40-yard line to the Eagles’ 8, setting up a field goal to send the Cowboys ahead 6-3.

Dawn’s phone blew up, texts “rolling” in.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Dawn said. “Then they kept showing the replay, and I was like, ‘I don’t believe this kid.’ ”

Neither did Cowboys pass rush great DeMarcus Ware.

“I told Zeke he needs to stop jumping,” Ware said. “We need him the whole season.

“But if he can do those things and make those big plays, that’s the reason why they brought him in here — to move those chains.”

Hurdling, as Ware worries, invites danger.

Barkley’s mom doesn’t like when he hurdles; Hunt’s family tells him they “don’t want me to do it that much.” Dawn Elliott says she gets nervous, though Zeke insists she’s more “one of those moms who’s like, eh, rub some dirt on it.” Then there are the offensive linemen. It’s impressive, Cowboys center Travis Frederick (who is out with an illness) and Chiefs right tackle Mitch Schwartz say. But “those are people that are our charges to protect,” Frederick adds. “We cringe a bit.”

Defenders are beginning to anticipate the move, reminding each other to tackle strong and hit with solid technique the heavier backs who can escape from arm tackles like Hunt did against Cincinnati.

Bates jokes he’s “0 for 1” all time vs. NFL hurdlers thanks to Hunt, though in college he did grab a hurdling Tulane back’s foot and trip him.

Hunt learned what that felt like last week against Arizona, when Cardinals safety Budda Baker reacted quickly enough to essentially body-slam him in midair, limiting Hunt to 6 yards on 2ndand-16, forcing the Chiefs to punt on the drive.

“I ain’t never been caught before like that,” Hunt told Baker after the play, impressed. “You watched film.”

Then Baker told Hunt not to try it again, Hunt said, laughing, “talking his little smack.”

“You got it, you won,” Hunt responded. But not trying it again?

“I’m back,” Hunt said.

REED HOFFMANN/AP The Chiefs’ Kareem Hunt hurdles Bengals safety Jessie Bates after spinning out of one tackle, charging forward and breaking two other tackles.

KIRBY LEE/USA TODAY SPORTS Giants running back Saquon Barkley has hurdled against four teams, including 49ers defensive back K’Waun Williams on a 23-yard run last Sunday.