When you think of Carnell Williams you surely don't think of a big, powerful back. Williams has great vision and some quick steps, but is 5-11, 215. In this weeks slow-motion rewind you will get a glimpse while even after 2 knee surgeries Williams remains as the starter of the Bucs.
We look at a 2nd and 5 from about the 8 yard line (in High Quality, Slow Motion. Enjoy).
Pre-Snap: The Bucs line up in their most used set (from observation, not from facts) 3 WR SingleBack Formation. One of the tip-offs that this is probably a run to the right hand side is that John Gilmore is in. Clayton is lined up-top to the short-side with Stroughter and Stovall at the bottom of your screen.
On the other side of the ball, the 'Fins are lined up in a 4-3 (I believe they run a base 3-4) with Jason Taylor at RDE. In this set they have shifted Crowder to the Mike, brought Yeremiah Bell up as the Sam and shifted Reggie Torbor over to Will. They have a LB shift on to the wide-side of the field, mainly because Tyron Culver shades the open area. They are in a soft man coverage from what I can tell.
Play: Remember the philosophies of zone-schemes? There is no hole that Williams is going towards. Instead he is using his excellent vision to figure out what the defense is giving him. While the line does a good job, Williams is at an extreme disadvantage. They crashed the zone he was looking to use. Davin Joesph and Jeremy Trueblood put a great double team on Randy Starks who does everything in his power to get off of it. Faine squares up to his left and seals off Phillip Merling. Zuttah pulls and finds the first man, Channing Crowder. This may look routine, but it is a very heads up move by Zuttah. He could have easily continued on and gotten to Bell, who looked as if he had the best chance to make the play. He understands though that Bell is coming from the backside and will have to get his entire body on Williams if he wants to make the play. In slow-motion you can almost see Zuttah's thought process. He looks towards Bell and quickly cuts back up into the hole. Donald Penn is 1 on 1 with Jason Taylor, which he completely shuts down. If you want a Buccaneer to vote into the pro-bowl, Penn is the guy. He is absolutely dominant this year in the pass-blocking and the Bucs rank 5th running the ball off the Left Tackle. Penn is an absolute stud.
Williams goes to the only opening he sees without bouncing it (which is staying disciplined. Not something you see often in running backs). I have pointed this out before, but watch the fundamentals of Williams. He knows he's going to get hit so he get's low. "Low-Man wins." He puts his shoulder pads right into the chin of Tyron Culver and absolutely demolishes him. It helps that Faine stays with his block and essentially tackles his man into Culver (If you watch closely I am pretty sure Starks wraps up the legs of Culver, possibly thinking it was Williams. Regardless, Williams knows how to win those physical battles. He also knew that he had about 3 yards to finish the play, and he stretches for the end-zone, but not before taking another shot from Vontae Davis. I don't recall this play being reviewed, which is probably a good thing. Williams was a yard short, but who cares.