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A-Dub’s hit, Part II

I’ll admit, it was the first thing that went through my mind right after the play late in the second quarter in Jacksonville, when Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis hauled in an 18-yard pass from David Garrard before Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson ran up and hit Lewis — but certainly didn’t explode on him, like he often does. Did Wilson hold up, just a bit, after he was nailed for a 10,000 fine the week before for just such a hit on 49ers tight end Vernon Davis? Wilson obviously wasn’t suspended but maybe it got into his head, even though Wilson had said the flags and fines wouldn’t change him.

So I asked Wilson. And he insisted it wasn’t a case of holding up or previous plays sticking in his mind.

“I didn’t have a good angle,” Wilson said. “I saw the play coming, but always in practice coach is telling me not to jump, so I was hesitant to jump it. He threw it kind of back shoulder so I didn’t really have a good angle to do what I needed to do. It was a good ball.”

Wilson could understand why it may have looked like he let up a bit, but “his body was in the way so I couldn’t get around to the other side, so I tried to get my body on him.”

After going back and looking at the play (after talking to Wilson), I see where Wilson was coming from. He never really was in the right position to land a hard hit and hopefully separate Lewis from the ball. And I probably shouldn’t doubt that Wilson would have still tried to do so if he could have.