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Top 5 Defensive Plays vs The Vikings - London Fletcher Special!

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It's usually tough to pick out our top 5 plays after a loss in which we conceded 33 points, but London Fletcher was all over the field making plays. Having somehow missed out on the Pro Bowl (seriously, how the F@#K does that happen?!) I thought we'd have a Fletcher special today. Here's London Fletcher's top 5 plays against the Vikings.

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This is Fletcher in his element. Play recognition is a big part of the reason why he's such a good player and gets so many tackles. He starts to run inside, but picks up on the leading blocker (The fullback, circled in red) change direction to go outside.

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Fletcher takes the outside angle on Gerhart, forcing him to go back inside where there's a lot of traffic.

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He gets low and stops Gerhart in his tracks as he only gains 1 yard on the play.

In this next play, you'll see Fletcher take on the lead blocker and peal off him to make the play on 3rd down.

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The Vikings motion Percy Harvin into the backfield to take a hand off, Fletcher is lined up on the line of scrimmage.

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Fletcher is much too good for this fullback, manipulating him so that he could make the play inside if Harvin continued inside.

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But Harvin bounces outside. Fletcher disengages the fullback quickly to make the play on Harvin, tackling him for just a 2 yard gain on what could have been potentially very dangerous if Harvin had gotten to open field.

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Now we have a 1st and goal from the 1. For the Vikings that means Adrian Peterson is getting the ball.

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Fletcher meats Peterson in the hole and just walls off the end zone. It's amazing to watch a running back on the goal line run full speed into Fletcher and just get stopped or even pushed back.

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Fletcher gets a little help from Rocky McIntosh to bring down Peterson after the initial contact, but Peterson fails to get in.

Here we have another red zone play.

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The amount of space Fletcher closes so quickly is amazing. He's 4 yards off the line of scrimmage here.

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He makes contact with the runner a yard behind the line, meaning he made up 5 yards in the time the running back made just 3.

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Needless to say, London wraps him up and brings him down behind the line for a 1 yard loss.

We finish on a massive hit from Fletcher on Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder, getting Fletcher credited with a half sack.

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Ponder is trying to escape Adam Carriker's tackle after the pocket collapsed. But Fletcher isn't going to let that happen.

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Fletcher gets low, leads with his shoulder and delivers a hit that quaterbacks have nightmares about.

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The hit is so hard the ball actually came loose but Ponder just fell on top of it. It was never credited as a forced fumble, but perhaps should have been.

We all love London Fletcher and it's an absolute shambles that he didn't make the Pro Bowl this year. It'll truly be a sad day when he retires, but lets hope he resigns here and retires a Redskin.

Out of interest, what do you guys think Fletcher would get in free agency now if he was 10 years younger?

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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