Turner led the
NFL in that category (913 yards) as well as broken tackles last season.
From the sounds of it, Channing Crowder and his friends on the
Miami Dolphins defense have heard enough about those tidy little factoids to make them want to, you know, yack.
Not just from the media. From a Dolphins coaching staff eager to whip them into a frenzy.
"It's inspirational," says Crowder, the Dolphins' second-leading tackler. "We're in defensive meetings, all together, and it's all about how great a running back [Turner] is and how one guy can't take him down and we've got to get to the ball."
Crowder shakes his head. His eyes bulge.
"You're already taking a shot at me as a man, saying, 'You can't take him down by yourself,' " he says. "Then you get to the linebacker meetings and [inside linebackers coach] George Edwards starts clicking that thing."
Here, Crowder lowers his voice to a coach's growl.
" 'You see that? You gotta wrap up. Gotta form tackle,' " he says, imitating Edwards. "That takes another shot at your manhood. It's like, man, you're going to tell me I can't tackle him too? It kind of gets you going with them trying your manhood, telling you what the guy does."
What Turner does, as the league found out last year, is break tackles.
Not just arm tackles and ankle swipes and weak efforts like that, but the straight-on, pads-down, form-perfect attempts as well.
At 5-foot-10 and 244 pounds, Turner is "real compact," Dolphins inside linebacker Akin Ayodele adds, with the benefit of "great vision" as well.
