‘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 first NFL defender to find himself caught beneath a Kareem Hunt hurdle. In fact, the Bengals rookie safety out of Wake Forest wasn’t even the first line of defense against Hunt with 8:32 to go in the first 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 about what 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 first-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 McCaffrey in 2017 and now the Giants’ Saquon Barkley.
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,” Chiefs safety Ron Parker said. “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 film 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.
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 field, he finally did.
Hunt and Barkley each hurdled defenders as early as high school, Barkley’s first 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 field 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 it 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 offensive 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 tripped 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 2nd-and-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 film.”
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.