FanPost

Anthony Spencer: The next Lawrence Taylor?

I made a bet here prior to the 2012 season. I didn't think Anthony Spencer would have double digit sacks. BtB member "MFoster" did. Spencer did indeed amass 11 sacks on the season, and thus, as a penance, I have to write a fanpost praising Spencer for his tremendous (1) season, while being complimentary at least 20 times.

And so, I figured we'd do that in a form of a film breakdown, with visual aides.

Here's a sack from the Seattle game. Spencer is such a scary (2) player that opponents are afraid to even bother blocking him:

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Here's another one from the Seattle game. Once again, Spencer is so fearsome (3) that nobody bothers blocking him:

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Spencer could simply just take the easy sack here, but that's not what badass (4) Anthony Spencer is all about. When it's 3rd down and you're behind 27-7 in the 4th quarter, you don't just sack the QB. You grab the QB's facemask and rip:

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Because that's the smart (5) thing to do. Sure, the Seahawks will get a first down, but... message sent.

Here's another example of Spencer's intimidation (6). I don't now where they teach the "jump out of the way" pass blocking technique employed by Logan Paulsen here, but that's what he does:

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That's fear. Fear of being pummeled by a man beast (7) in Anthony Spencer. Spencer gets a free run at the QB:

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Because he puts fear in his opponents (8).

Here's another example of Spencer's viciousness (9). The Redskins run a play action rollout, leaving Anthony Spencer unblocked, because again, fear:

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The ferocious (10) Spencer closes in:

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Facing certain death, in a "fight or flight" situation reminiscent of people lifting cars to save someone, RG3 sidesteps Spencer.

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DeMarcus Ware shuts off RG3 running lane and Spencer is able to get a hold of RG3 like a cheetah on a zebra (11):

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Spencer could just throw RG3 to the ground, seeing as he outweighs him by a 40 pounds, but that's not good enough for Spencer, who likes to torment his opponents (12). It looks below like RG3 drags Spencer 9 yards for a mere loss of 1 instead a loss of 10:

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But we know better. Spencer was telling RG3 which member of his family he was going to kill as he was bein dragged for 9 yards to the untrained eye. And he had plenty of time to do so. Fierce! (13)

Here's my favorite Spencer sack ever. Andy Dalton doesn't see anything he likes downfield, so he runs out of the pocket and out of bounds. Spencer is the closest defender, so he gets credit for the sack:

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It would appear to the naked eye that Spencer got a cheap stat here. Not so. He made the opposing QB fear for his life (14). Frankly it should have counted for 8 sacks (15).

Here's DeMarcus Ware sacking Ben Roethlisberer, and Spencer jumping on top as he's going down:

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No full sack for you Mr. Ware. You have to share that one with the player who made you, sir (16).

Another sack that Spencer had took 6.6 seconds from snap to sack against the Redskins Week 17. That just shows a great motor (17).

You can be darn tootin' I'll never bet against Anthony Spencer again (18), and the $20 million the Cowboys are paying him last year and this year is unquestionably money well spent (19).

I'd be surprised if Spencer didn't break the sack record in 2013 (20).

Fin.

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