As Colts quarterback Curtis Painter's pass intended for halfback Jacob Tamme flew through the air in the third quarter of Thursday night's game, Tracy White pictured exactly what linebackers coach Bill Shuey instructed his players to do in practice. Keep your eye on the front tip of the ball. Keep the tight end on the outside of him.
And sure enough all of the practice paid off as White intercepted the pass at the 1-yard line. He fell into the end zone, which made many people think that it was a touchback. However, according to the NFL Rule Book, if a "player intercepts a pass with both feet inbounds in the field of play and his momentum carries him into his own end zone. Ball is put in play at spot of interception."
Still, the defense was able to come up with a turnover as the opponent was on the verge of scoring.
"Everything that we went over happened," White said.
White appeared to have suffered an injury on the play, but he actually incurred the strained rib muscle injury a few plays before.
Signed off the street in the middle of the 2008 season, White is in his seventh season out of Howard University. A noted special teams player, White's play on defense will go a long way to help make his case for a roster spot. If the Eagles keep six linebackers, you have the current starters - Chris Gocong, Akeem Jordan and Joe Mays. Omar Gaither is the nickel linebacker. After those four, you have newly acquired Matt Wilhelm. You have rookie Moise Fokou who has been outstanding thus far. Charleston Hughes has seen a lot of snaps in the preseason and Tank Daniels is another devout special teams player.
Even with the amount of 'backers on the roster, they all are aware of the impact the loss of Stewart Bradley has had on this team.
"It put a lot of pressure," White said. "He was the anchor of the linebacker group. We're still comfortable with the guys we have and we're confident in our linebackers. Once he went down, we weren't really too fazed with it because we have guys just as good who can step up behind him."
-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 11:27 a.m., August 23
