Cory Undlin on Derrick Henry Stiff-Arm: Alex Myres 'Deserved' It
It was the stiff-arm heard 'round the world.
In Detroit's contest with the Tennessee Titans Sunday, superstar Titans running back Derrick Henry, using the great power and force afforded to him by his 6-foot-3, 247-pound frame, stiff-armed Lions defensive back Alexander Myres, playing in his first career NFL game, into another universe.
It came on a first-and-10 play with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter.
As Henry, who finished with 147 yards and a touchdown in the Week 15 matchup, was running to his left and heading out of bounds, he threw Myres to the turf with a vicious straight-arm to the face.
© George Walker IV / Tennessean.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC
It provided quite the "welcome-to-the-league" moment for the former Detroit practice squad player.
And, according to Lions defensive coordinator Cory Undlin, who addressed the play in his weekly media session Monday, Myres "deserved" what happened to him.
"I told him yesterday on the bench when he came off, I told him he deserved that," Undlin said. "And I was telling him you come up with the wrong leverage on that guy and the ball shows up on the edge -- we talked about it all week, showed it to him -- and you end up having to run sideways with this guy, you're going to take a stiff-arm in the temple. It's what's going to happen."
It certainly was a lesson to be learned for the 24-year-old Myres, who finished the contest with five tackles and a pass defensed.
"You've said it's happened to people this year. Just put the tape on. Showed him a clip against Jacksonville last year. Almost the same play. When you come up there like that and you don't have proper leverage and he (Henry) gets going sideways, it just doesn't work," Undlin explained. "I was half joking with him. Obviously, I care about the kid. The kid comes up, and shows up every day to practice and gives everything he's got. But, on that play, he ended up too thick, too tight to the formation and ended up bouncing and got sideways."
And, he ended up as the latest victim of a Henry stiff-arm.
Welcome to the league.
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