"This Leger Douzable kid, he can really play," Rex Ryan said during his Dec. 4 news conference, "but if he is sitting there on the bench the whole time because maybe he's not Mo Wilkerson, I think putting him in the mix helps us."
This past Sunday against Cleveland, Douzable played in a season-high 28% of our defensive snaps, and just as his head coach suspected, the 27-year-old D-lineman made an impact.
The Browns took over at the 39-yard line after Nick Folk's missed field goal (no, he is not a machine), but the Jets defense had no intentions of letting Cleveland's offense take advantage of some favorable starting field position with the game tied at 10 in the third quarter.
QB Jason Campbell dropped back on first down, but Douzable and LB Quinton Coples broke through the O-line protection and brought him to the ground for a sack. The following play, Campbell again dropped back, and again Douzable sacked him, this time assisted by Wilkerson.
"It was big," Douzable said, "but it wouldn't have been possible without the other three guys rushing in, 'Q' and Mo rushing really hard, and Calvin Pace on the other side. Without those guys I wouldn't have been able to get the 1-on-1's that I needed to get to the quarterback."
The back-to-back sacks were certainly impressive, but perhaps the most entertaining part of the game occurred in between those two QB takedowns.
Following the first one, Douzable did a dance that few have ever seen before, called the "Chopper City Jerk." (See the video above.)
"It's a Florida dance," the UCF alum told me. "We played really hard throughout the game, and I just wanted to have a little fun."
Perhaps Douzable's expectations of his own play should have been higher, though. He clearly had one sack dance prepared, but it didn't look like he was ready for another one — at least not on the very next play.
"I just had to point to my last name," Leger said after letting out a laugh. "That was it. Keep it mild on the second one.
"We knew we only had two games left, that the playoffs are out of the question. But this group of guys is going to fight hard every week and we wanted to play for each other and play for Rex, and that's exactly what we did."
