I know we've all seen the highlight videos of Chris "Beanie" Wells stiff arming and powering his way over countless college spares but I was interested in seeing how he handled each and every carry. After some digging I came across what looks like a couple of videos that show every single time he touched the ball in a couple of key games for the Buckeye's last season. The first video that we'll look at is the Ohio State versus Michigan game in which Beanie had a decent game against the Wolverines with 15 rushes for 134 yards including a long TD. Here's the video and then we'll post some general thoughts after the jump....
- After four carries that resulted in roughly five or six yards, Wells burst through the right side of the line and scampered 59 yards for a TD (around the :30 mark). He didn't have to break any tackles or really make any moves but he showed some good vision to find a relatively small crease and patience letting the blocks develop.
- Beanie again show some good vision and some nifty feet as he makes a quick cut (almost a jump cut really) in the backfield and dives forward for about six or seven yards on a play where plenty of backs would have run into the backs of his offensive lineman for no gain (around the 1:25 mark).
- Beanie takes a pitch to his right and sees a decent hole opening up and get a taste of his ability to turn the corner. Once he starts to get square to the line of scrimmage again you can tell he's building some speed before a safety comes in and gets nice shoe string tackle as Beanie tries to hurdle him. I wonder how he'll respond when the safeties are actually trying to tackle instead of diving at his shoe strings. It could lead to longer runs if he's able to break some tackles now that defenders won't be afraid to take him on.
- This is one of the plays that gives Beanie the reputation of being soft. He breaks through another small crease and rumbles 40 yards down field (around the 2:20 mark). Around midfield he's pretty much bottled up as he's got a corner slightly trailing him and what looks like a safety coming to cut him off. The problem though is that instead of Beanie lowering a shoulder or jabbing the stiff arm, he practically takes a right turn and heads out of bounds. Now maybe he was already nicked up and didn't see the point of adding any unnecessary contact, but just watching the click looks bad. You'd like to see him at least make an effort deliver a blow but maybe when he's being paid instead of waiting on a pay day in a game that's already decided, his effort will be different.
Overall the Michigan defensive line looks like it lived in the Buckeye's backfield that day and were basically geared to stop Beanie. He ended the day with more rushing attempts and rushing yards then Terrelle Pryor had passing attempts for yards so basically Beanie was the offense. He got most of his yardage on two plays but he battled through backfield penetration for most of the game. One thing that did surprise me was how much Wells ran out of a single back formation with either double tights or multiple wide receiver sets. Given the offense that he's stepping into with the Cardinals, it's encouraging to see that he's comfortable operating without a true fullback all the time. Anyways watch the video and post some thoughts. Encouraged or discouraged?