BRANDON'S BEASTS: Week 8

This week’s edition of Brandon’s Beasts represents a few guys who helped their team gain a lot of yardage on the ground.

When we think about a team gaining that many yards, we usually envision a running back or quarterback with a lot of speed running down the field for a few big gains of 60, 70 or 80 yards that end with touchdowns.

We don’t usually envision the guys in front of them paving the way to pay dirt.

But think about it for a minute.

These guys get down in a three-point stance and can’t get out of it until the ball is snapped. When it is snapped, they are trying to stop a defensive lineman that typically weighs between 230 and 270 pounds running at them at full speed.

They stop the defensive linemen – or at least slow them down enough to keep them from getting to the ball-carrier. But sometimes they also have to stop a linebacker, who may be a little lighter but is coming in a lot faster and a lot tougher to stop.

They’ve fought two guys off not knowing what’s going on behind them or beside them only to find out that ball carrier has made it three yards down the field or 30 yards. Either way, positive yardage is positive yardage.

But it’s a little sweeter when the back has gone 30 yards, but they still have a few seconds to get 30 yards down the field themselves and get into the three-point stance to repeat the process.

Here are this week’s Brandon’s Beasts.

Dustin Baker, Camden: The Lion graded out at 84 percent blocking for an offense that rushed for more than 300 yards. Also on defense, he had seven tackles and caused two fumbles.

Cortney Banks, Peabody: The defensive tackle had 11 tackles, with three of them coming from behind the line of scrimmage.

Benji Smith, Adamsville: The senior lineman graded out at 95 percent with seven pancakes.

Andy Steele, Crockett County: The senior lineman helped the offense rush for 250 yards and helped defensively with six tackles and a sack as the Cavaliers picked up a needed region win.

Brandon Shields, 425-9751

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