Dallas Clark's versatility makes him dangerous...

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Recalling his roots as a walk-on linebacker at the University of Iowa in 1999 from Twin Rivers high school, Dallas Clark acknowledged that, at that fledgling stage of his football career, he never could have imagined the level of scrutiny which accompanies a Super Bowl game.
But if the Indianapolis Colts' tight end was taken aback by the crowds circling his podium during the daily interview sessions this week, he likely would be shocked by the degree of attention he has drawn in the Chicago Bears' defensive game-plan meetings.

nfl_g_clark_275.jpg

Doug Benc/Getty Images
Dallas Clark has become the go-to guy for the Colts in the postseason.


"He's become kind of the X-factor in their passing game, a guy they've really focused on in the playoffs, and someone who has had a big impact on what they've done," said Bears' defensive coordinator Ron Rivera. "You expect to spend time worrying about the two wide receivers, but Clark has made most of the big plays. He presents a pretty big challenge. They are certainly looking to him more and more."
And Clark, who went from being a walk-on linebacker nearly eight years ago to a first-round tight end in the 2003 draft, has delivered.
In the Colts' three playoff victories, Clark has registered a team-best 17 receptions, and his 281 receiving yards are tops among all players who have participated in the postseason. Of those 17 catches, all but three have produced first downs and six of them moved the chains in third-down situations. Included was a 21-yard grab on third-and-18 against Kansas City in a wild card victory and a 14-yard reception on third-and-five in the divisional-round win at Baltimore that helped the Colts chew up the clock on their final, 13-play possession.
Averaging a heady 16.5 yards per catch, Clark has five receptions of 20 yards or more and three of 25-plus yards. His 52-yard reception in the AFC championship was one of the key plays in Indianapolis' comeback victory over the New England Patriots.
Not bad for a player who has never posted more than 37 catches in a season and who was held to 30 receptions during the 2006 regular season because of a knee injury that limited him to a dozen appearances.
"He's always been an important part of what we do," said wide receiver Reggie Wayne, "but because of the way defenses are playing us now, he's got more opportunities. The things he is doing now, really, he's always done them. He's always been an important part of our passing game. But, you know, everything is magnified in the playoffs."
And right now, Clark, who has three of the 11 games in franchise playoff history in which a Colts player had 100 receiving yards, is huge for the Indianapolis offense.
He's a huge headache, too, for Rivera and the Chicago defense because his versatility presents a difficult matchup. Clark can align as a conventional, in-line tight end, but because the season-ending Achilles injury suffered by Brandon Stokley has left the Colts without a consistently effective No. 3 wideout to team with Wayne and Marvin Harrison, the offense has essentially functioned in the playoffs with Clark as the third receiver.
On slightly more than 65 percent of the Colts' postseason snaps, Clark has been aligned in the slot. There also have been occasions on which he has flanked far to the sideline, like a wide receiver, with Wayne moving to the slot.
In either of those formations, Clark mandates a tough decision by opposing defenses, which must react to his alignment. Trying to check Clark with a strongside linebacker in coverage can be disastrous for a defense because he is too quick. That means defenses must move a safety out in coverage or use a nickel cornerback on him. And in some cases, Clark's size (6-feet-3, 252 pounds) allows him to muscle through smaller defensive backs.
Clark is at his best working the seam areas between the hashes, where his combination of size and speed make him a formidable interior presence. But if opponents overplay him and squeeze the middle of the field, Clark will run out patterns or go to the short flat. He is a clever receiver who, coupled with the braininess of quarterback Peyton Manning, just seems to find a way to uncover himself in the secondary.
Because he is so flexible and can line up in so many different spots, Indianapolis basically can morph from a two- to a three-wide receiver set without substituting. And that often means a defense is caught with its base personnel on the field. The rare vertical dimension he lends the Colts cannot be underestimated.
And neither can he.
The suspicion this week is that Chicago will rely heavily on a nickel cover alignment, with No. 3 cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. drawing Clark. Manning is undersized, but feisty, and if that is the matchup on which the Bears' defensive brain trust settles, it should be a pretty intriguing one.
"I think I've seen just about every kind of coverage possible lately," Clark said earlier this week. "So I'm sure they're going to have something up their sleeves. And, frankly, no one sticks with the same thing all the way through the game. They're a great defense. They'll mix it up. They've had two weeks to get ready, so we're not going to surprise them with anything that we do."
On the subject of surprises, it's mildly shocking that Clark, 27, is even playing in the postseason, let alone excelling. In a Nov. 26 victory over Philadelphia, he suffered a partial tear to the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee and Indianapolis officials, already scrambling because of injuries to the receiver corps, feared he might be lost for the balance of the year.
But team orthopedist Dr. Arthur Rettig, upon examining Clark's knee, recommended to club officials that they hold off moving the tight end to injured reserve, which would have ended his year. The Colts took Rettig's advice and gambled that Clark might be recovered in time for the playoffs.
"The Lord just works in strange ways," Clark said. "When I hurt my knee, I thought that was it, that I was done. But it got stronger over the weeks of (rehabilitation), I was able to get back on the field and play well, and now here I am with this crowd in front of me."
It's an existence to which Clark might want to become quickly accustomed. Because he's apt to draw a pretty big crowd on Sunday night, too.
 
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Home Sweet Home
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two words

Brian Urlacher


Two more words

Ricky Manning Junior


THe Bears have the best coverage linebacker and the best nickel back in the game...

So think Dallas is shut down today
 

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Dallas Clark very similar to Dan Boyle in recent years..........both playing in the shadows of two greats.

Dallas Clark---------Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison
Dan Boyle----------Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis


I expect the BEARS gameplan to possibly over compensate today for Clarks whereabouts on passing routes.........and precisely why I believe you may see MARVIN have a rather huge game tonight.

Hopefully both will have very good statistical games and both be known as SUPERBOWL Champions after tonight.
 

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Marvin is not the same as he was and never will be and I believe he will have a very very quiet game. Reggie Wayne is the guy that worries me the most.

Regardless, Bernard Berrian is the guy that steals the show with a couple of bomb catches for TD's.

I got Marvin NO TD at +125....like stealing.
 

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Expecting a huge post SUPERBOWL parade/beer bash in Livermore/Bode, Iowa early next week.............hope I can snare a good flight.


:dancefool :dancefool
 

ball dont lie
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took a couple dallas clark props:

over 52.5 receiving yards +115

to score a receiving td +217

bears cover 2 will leave clark open down the middle for potential big gashes of yardage and hopefully even a score. any linebacker trying to stay with this guy in man coverage is most times unsuccssesful.
 

Home Sweet Home
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???

u do no the cover two that the Bears run drops Urlacher deep down the middle to prevent from big passes down the middle right... and that he is arguably the best coverage linebacker of all time? and u need to beat the bears on the sidelines and not up the middle...?
 

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I hope all the Colts get their yards as the Bears will be playing Prevent the whole 4th quarter. :thumbsup:
 

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Fishhead said:
Expecting a huge post SUPERBOWL parade/beer bash in Livermore/Bode, Iowa early next week.............hope I can snare a good flight.


:dancefool :dancefool

lifestyles of the rich and famous
 

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Fishhead said:
Expecting a huge post SUPERBOWL parade/beer bash in Livermore/Bode, Iowa early next week.............hope I can snare a good flight.


:dancefool :dancefool
We'll make our own party. Get your ass back here. High of -5 degrees today with about a 20 mph wind. Be sure to pack your shorts.
 

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cy1981 said:
We'll make our own party. Get your ass back here. High of -5 degrees today with about a 20 mph wind. Be sure to pack your shorts.

WOW!

Thought for sure you were in Miami.....................whats your take on the game?

I think the COLTS get the job done.
 

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You and fish have a hard on for this guy, don't you?
 

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Fishhead said:
WOW!

Thought for sure you were in Miami.....................whats your take on the game?

I think the COLTS get the job done.
Had too much fun at the playoff games and didn't want to spend the big bucks, plus a little too busy here. Personally I think the Colts will win easily but I don't like to bet when I have too much emotional attachment. I must not be a true gambler. If I was to bet on anything it would be the over. Too many of these super bowls the refs just let the offensive line do whatever they want. With Manning, if he is not pressured, he can pick any defense apart. I think the Bears will really come after him which could make big plays, both long TDs and turnovers. I think the Colts will score in the 30s but I am a little biased.
 

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CY--Couldn't agree more with you.


By the way, not sure if you caught this article..........




Colts' Dallas Clark Finds His Place in the Big Time

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<NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">By CLIFTON BROWN
</NYT_BYLINE>Published: February 1, 2007

<!--NYT_INLINE_IMAGE_POSITION1 --><NYT_TEXT>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 31 — Something inside Dallas Clark has always driven him to accept challenges, to persevere, to overcome long odds and tough times. When Clark was a senior in high school, his mother, Jan, died of a heart attack at 49. A few days later, stricken with grief, Clark competed in a district track meet for Twin River Valley High School in Bode, Iowa.
Skip to next paragraph Dallas Clark has become Peyton Manning’s top receiver during the postseason, catching a team-high 17 receptions for 281 yard“It was a terrible time for that family, but Dallas showed up,” Eldon McKimmey, Clark’s high school football coach, said Wednesday during a telephone interview. “He set the school record that day in both the high hurdles and the low hurdles. It was an emotional day. I think he was just looking for somewhere to escape.



“Everybody around here admires Dallas. He’s a person you’re really happy to see succeed in whatever he wants to do. He just works so darn hard. It’s pretty amazing that a guy from a school with about 25 kids in each grade, a walk-on player in college, ended up where he did.”
From the town of Livermore, Iowa (population: 431), Clark has reached the big time as the starting tight end for the Indianapolis Colts and quarterback Peyton Manning’s favorite target during the playoffs. With opposing defenses rotating their coverages to stop wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, Clark has team highs of 17 catches and 281 yards in three postseason games.
While Clark’s focus is on defeating the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl on Sunday, he is determined to savor the entire week, soaking up the atmosphere as a small-town kid who made good. He walked on as a freshman linebacker at the University of Iowa and was not awarded a scholarship until his junior year.
Clark was buried on the depth chart as a third-string linebacker until Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz suggested that he switch to tight end as a sophomore. Clark blossomed into an all-American performer, and his path to a professional career was paved when the Colts made him a first-round draft choice in 2003.
“I thank Coach Ferentz about every time I see him,” Clark, 27, said this week during an interview. “I’d have been a third-string linebacker the rest of my life. He told me that he saw a lot of natural ability and instincts. I thought he was full of it. But from the first few days of playing tight end, running pass routes just felt natural.”
With reliable hands and a knack for finding open spaces in the secondary, Clark is a dependable third-down receiver, someone Manning looks for in key situations. In the American Football Conference championship game against New England, Clark caught 6 passes for 137 yards, repeatedly finding open seams in the middle of the field.
Ferentz saw the same qualities in Clark in college, a superb athlete who just needed to find the right spot. He found it at Iowa, and he has found it with the Colts.
“He gives us too much credit for his success,” Ferentz said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “You could see he had ability in linebacker, but he just wasn’t reacting to plays as quickly as you’d expect a superb athlete would. It wasn’t instinctive. You can’t guarantee that a position switch is going to work, but for him, it worked right away.
“Dallas is a special guy, a grown man who in some ways still has some innocence about him. He just wants to help you win.”
Clark’s talent will be tested during the Super Bowl, because on certain pass patterns, he is likely to be defended by Brian Urlacher or Lance Briggs, Chicago’s All-Pro linebackers. After studying Urlacher for hours on videotape, Clark came away impressed.
“He’s a great football player, great athlete, huge,” Clark said. “You love facing guys like that. It’s going to be a challenge.”
Though Clark contributed immediately as a rookie with the Colts, he struggled to master the team’s complicated offense. Manning changes plays at the line of scrimmage more than any other quarterback, and Clark said it took several years to feel confident that he would not miss an assignment.
“There is no other offense, especially in college, that can prepare you for this,” Clark said. “My rookie year, I remember saying to myself many times that there is no way I’m going to learn this offense. I would just learn one section of it. You realize how hard it is, and how many hours you spent falling asleep in your playbook, just trying to memorize all these plays and protections.
“You have to go out there and make your mistakes on the field and learn from it. I’m fortunate they have been pretty patient with me early in my career, and gave me this opportunity.”
Clark and his wife, Karen, live in Iowa City, but they visit Livermore often, where Clark is a local hero.
“There’s a street there named after him” said McKimmey, the high school coach.
A jeans and T-shirt kind of guy, Clark took some ribbing from his teammates on the flight to Miami, when he boarded the plane wearing a cream-colored suit with a mock turtleneck. Some of the Colts started calling him Crockett, referring to the character Sonny Crockett from the television show and movie, “Miami Vice.”
“I figured we were coming to Miami, this is how they dress,” Clark said with a sheepish grin.
McKimmey said that some students at Twin River Valley had made their own fashion statement this week by wearing Dallas Clark Colts jerseys to support their local star. And when Clark takes the field Sunday, he said a part of him would think about his mother, his family and friends in Iowa, and the journey that has taken him from a small town to the Super Bowl.
“This is great,” Clark said. “We’ve all made it to the biggest stage.”
<NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_TEXT>
 

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