Explanation/Introduction for "Breaking Down The Tape"

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Antonio Pittman - Jr. - Ohio State
Highlight Video

Break Down the Tape:
1st Run - 00:00 - Vs Iowa
Nice plant and go through the hole at 00:10; avoids an arm tackle, but doesn't get squared back around quickly; OK job lowering the shoulder and getting through the tackle at 00:11, but really could have been lower there to help brace against the hit

Replay of 1st Run at 00:12
Shows the nice balance after the hit at 00:14, but highlight cuts off there :mad:

2nd Run - 00:16 - At Minnesota - TD
Straight up the middle with no one there to do much more than flail at him; certainly has the speed and quickness there; excellent job splitting the two defenders before they could close on him and then out running the secondary player; shows excellent straight line speed on this run

3rd Run - 00:35 - Vs Penn State - TD
Gets excellent low pad level as he runs in a tight space through the line at 00:41; comes out of the pile fast enough to go by Dan Connor(40), a top 10 rated player for the 2008 draft; does a real nice job avoiding a hard hit from Justin King(7) by turning his body slightly and falls forward into the endzone; excellent run

4th Run - 00:46 - At Michigan State - TD
Great, great job lowering his shoulders and running straight up the middle; shows nice wiggle in the tight space and excellent balance to keep the legs churing and come out of the pile for a TD; You don't always need to have the power to move a pile if you can wiggle your way through it

5th Run - 00:56 - Vs Illinois - TD
Huge hole up the middle; barely needs to make a quick head fake and he's into the endzone; certainly doesn't dance around before hitting the hole

6th Run - 01:04 - Vs Cincinnati - TD
Very good speed to the corner and turns it without slowing down at all; outruns a player who has an angle at 01:09; outruns a defender from behind at 01:13; no moves, just pure speed and explosion, very impressive

7th Run - 01:18 - Vs Minnesota - TD
Nice quick cut outside at 01:21 when it looks like there is no hole, followed by a nice plant and go through a smaller hole at 01:22; Easy run to the endzone from there

8th Run - 01:30 - Vs Northern Illinois - TD
Quick cut upfield at 01:31 when it looks like he realizes there's no where to go outside; gets a nice low pad level and runs through a tackler at 01:32, moving and stretching forward into the endzone; very nice second effort here on the stretch

9th Run - 01:35 - Vs Illinois - TD
Pitch and very good speed turning the corner; nice job lowering his shoulder and keeping his balance at 01:38 as he hits the defender and keeps moving forward after a quick step sideways, however, he could certainly save some wear and tear if he would learn some open field moves; great balance turning up the sideline and then manages to keep his feet after running into a group of guys after scoring the TD; nice run

10th Run - 01:49 - Vs Bowling Green - TD
Follows a huge hole to the left side and runs untouched to the corner; shows the speed to do that, but he will almost never see a huge hole like that on Sundays

11th Run - 01:58 - Vs Indiana
Very quick through the line, nice read of the block and cut to the left at 02:00; turns it upfield and then makes a nice, fluid cutback outside right in front of the blocker to turn around the defender, that's one of his best (and only, lol) open field moves on this video, nice vision there; caught from behind by a defender that didn't really have an angle, lacks the long speed

12th Run - 02:15 - At Iowa - TD
No hole, but bounces it outside and scores untouched; nothing special, but there are backs in this draft that may not have made it outside there

13th Run - 02:26 - Vs Bowling Green - TD
Hard to see the run in the shadows, but does a good job recognizing that the hole is not there and bounces it outside to score; Keeping in mind that this is Bowling Green and not the Baltimore Ravens, he does a good job going parallel to the line and then turning the corner and scoring, that shows me the quickness and lateral speed that some other RBs don't have, of course it IS Bowling Green

14th Run - 02:37 - Vs Minnesota - TD
Makes a couple of pretty good backfield moves when the hole is full at 02:38, but gears down a little bit too much on the second one; shows good balance to elude a diving tackler, nice speed to the corner, and then good balance and field awareness to get into the endzone in bounds

15th Run - 02:51 - At Minnesota - TD
Finally another run without a huge hole; nice plant and go upfield at 02:53 behind the block; good job sniffing out the endzone, lowering his pads and getting there through and over traffic; seems to protect the ball pretty well there too

16th Run - 02:56 - At Michigan, 4th quarter, 29 seconds left, down by 2 points - No Pressure
Original hole (LG-LT) looks closed, quickly finds the LT-TE hole; lowers his pads to protect the ball, hits the pile and keeps his legs churning; real good job to slide off that pile and go into the endzone; against their biggest rival in the Big House; nice run even though it looked simple

17th Run - 03:13 - Vs Notre Dame, Fiesta Bowl, 4th Quarter, 2 minutes left, up by 7 points, to put the game away
Big hole outside left, gets through in a hurry; does a very nice job at 03:22 reading the WR block and turning it straight upfield; shows great explosion to get through the pile at the 50 yard line in time; outruns everyone to the endzone, although he would have been caught if he had to go about 10 more yards

Antonio Pittman Summary:
Unlike the Hunt and Bush videos, which showed some tougher running conditions, this video is a true highlight video showcasing Pittman's most impressive runs. Some of these defenses are very good and there are runs from both 2005 and 2006, showing that he is not a one season wonder. However, how many times did you see him untouched? That is not often going to happen in the NFL. NFL defenders will be faster and stronger and he will very likely not have such an impressive offensive line to run behind. We seldom see him running in tight spaces because of the OLine dominance (although he looked decent when he had to on this video) and he doesn't show much in the way of open field moves. On the positive side, he does show the speed and explosiveness (although I wouldn't call him quick) to make it in the NFL and has the nose for the endzone you like to see in a running back. His ability to run some laterally in addition to his normal North-South running style will really help in a zone blocking, cut and go scheme. But he will not be able to just lower his shoulder into a defender at the next level without paying for it. He needs to get stronger and a little more elusive in the open field to really succeed in the NFL because he is a bit of a tweener: not shifty or elusive enough to be a real 3rd back, but not powerful enough to be the goal line/short yardage back. He needs to make it as a primary RB to succeed. He'd be very lucky to be Green Bay's second round pick if they miss on Marshawn Lynch in the first round.