Vince Wilfork looks to end strong season with NFL title

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Try to shove massive Vince Wilfork out of the middle. Tough to do, isn’t it?

The 325-pound Pro Bowl tackle keeps sticking around.

Wilfork is the only defensive starter left from the New England Patriots last Super Bowl team four years ago. This season, he’s rarely come off the field. And why should he?

He’s earned all that playing time by crunching runners, charging quarterbacks and clogging holes that offensive linemen struggle to open.

“He’s been huge,” coach Bill Belichick said. “Vince has had a great year for us. He’s had obviously a great career, had an outstanding year last year, but this year it’s even gone a step higher.”

Now he has a chance to reach the top in one climactic game.

Wilfork, as usual, will be in the center of the action at the Super Bowl against the New York Giants on Feb. 5.

“I don’t care how many Super Bowls you’ve been to or won. Every chance (you) get to play at this level is the biggest game of your career,” he said, but “it’s still a football game and they’re going to have to line up between the lines and play.

“I think the more we can focus on that end and just block everything else out the better we’ll be as a team. But it’s no question in my mind, these guys will do that.”

The leadership and inspiration Wilfork provides as a captain — with his hard-hitting play as much as his soft voice — pushes teammates to compete despite season-long criticism of their defense that allowed the second most yards in the regular season.

But runners who challenge the heart of that defense encounter Wilfork’s wide body.

“He is definitely hard to move,” Giants running back Brandon Jacobs said. “He is strong and he is quick for his size. You can’t (figure out) one way where he is going to this or he is going to that. He is not one-dimensional. He makes it really hard for people to figure out how they are going to block him.”

In the 23-20 win over Baltimore in the AFC championship game, Wilfork had one sack and six tackles, including a stop of Ray Rice for a 3-yard loss that might have pushed the Ravens out of field-goal range with about 3 minutes left.

Wilfork has been primarily a nose tackle since being drafted out of Miami with the 21st pick in 2004. But this season he also lined up at end and tackle in a 4-3 alignment. And he has developed into an every-down player.

“You rarely see a defensive lineman playing 90 percent of the snaps,” linebacker Jerod Mayo said. “He’s one of those guys, I don’t want to say his weight on camera, but he’s a big guy, you can all see that. That’s very impressive in its own right.”

So are his imitations of fleet, 180-pound cornerbacks.

Wilfork, athletic and fast despite his size, had the first two interceptions of his career in the first four games this season. He rambled 36 yards with the first to set up a field goal on the last play before halftime of a 35-21 win over San Diego. Two weeks later he grabbed another pass, returning it 19 yards in the fourth quarter of a 31-19 win over Oakland.

“Legendary,” Belichick called those picks.


(washingtonpost.com)