Hot spot: over the middle is the danger zone, where prey and predator meet, where the tough are distinguished from the semi-tough. Receivers had better not enter without intense concentration, knowledge of where opponents are lurking—and a big dose of courage

Sporting News, The, August 5, 2005 by Michael Bradley

The first thing wideout Laveranues Coles could think about after Cowboys strong safety Roy Williams blasted him in the first quarter of a Monday night clash last season was his hand. Redskins teammate Rod Gardner didn't quite understand that. "Forget your hand," Gardner said to Coles. "What about your head?"

It was a good question. Even though Coles had hurt his fingers a few plays before, Williams' hit--which came after Coles failed to catch up to a Mark Brunell pass and earned Williams a fine from the NFL---was the type of marble-rattler that makes going over the middle the most dangerous thing wide receivers do. And when they get hammered and don't catch the ball? "That magnifies it by 10," Coles says.

But Coles bounced up---just as he's supposed to. No matter how hard the hit, Coles never wants to let the defender know he has been hurt. He might go back to the huddle a little "cuckoo," as Coles puts it, and need someone to help him with his assignment on the next play, but toughness is the code. You take a quick inventory of body parts, and if they're all in place, get on your feet. "Even when you're not feeling too hot," Coles says, "you have to get up and go back to the huddle."

The NFL is loaded with quality wide receivers. It is not, however, stocked with hardy souls who will zip through a defense's midsection in search of wide-open spaces and big gains, all the while giving defensive backs and linebackers the opportunity to break them in half. Going over the middle gives a wideout street cred with other receivers, grudging respect from defenders and eternal gratitude from offensive coordinators. It also can produce concussions, separated shoulders and much worse--thanks to high-speed collisions with predatory defenders looking for opportunities to play windshield to a receiver's bug.

"I want them out of the game," says free-agent safety Cory Hall, barely disguising his delight at the thought of ripping through a receiver. "If he's a receiving threat and a guy who makes plays, I want to hurt him to get him out of the game."

Coles, who was traded from Washington back to the Jets in the offseason, already has established a reputation as someone willing to risk close contact with heavy hitters such as Hall and Williams. So have Torry Holt, Keyshawn Johnson, Chad Johnson, Hines Ward, Terrell Owens, Eric Moulds, Anquan Boldin, Brandon Stokley and Brian Finneran. There are others--but not many. "I'd say less than 30 percent of the receivers like to go over the middle," Buccaneers cornerback Brian Kelly says. Those brave souls understand that taking a slant or skinny post on the dead run in the territory between the linebackers and safeties can produce big plays and sometimes six points. Conversely, without a receiver willing to troll the middle limits, a team's play-calling is limited and defenses can concentrate on dominating the two-thirds of the field outside the hash marks.

"Most of the big gains come across the middle," the Bengals' Chad Johnson says. "The deep ball is the lowest-percentage pass in the NFL. When you go over the middle, you can pick up 20 to 30 yards, but it is a gamble.

"When you make those catches on third down, they're backbreakers for the defense--complete backbreakers. When it's third-and-10 or third-and-15 and you get that first down over the middle, you look at everybody's face on the defense, and you can tell their spirits are down."

Chad Johnson reports that he has not yet been blasted by a heat-seeking defender--even in college--though he did have a near miss two years ago against the Ravens, when strong safety Ed Reed had him lined up. "Somebody will get me eventually," Johnson says. Though luck will play a role in how soon that happens, he protects himself by reading defenses before the snap. Johnson works in spaces where big hitters have difficulty getting to him and gets to the turf quickly if an opponent does get a missile lock on him. "You have to know where everybody is before the catch," he says. "That's just knowing the game."

Players on both sides of the ball crave that knowledge. Receivers try to discern coverages while paying close attention to which defenders will try to intimidate them with big hits. "You know the guys who are going to go after you," Boldin says. "That's part of my job."

Moreover, it's important that coaches do their part to protect receivers. When they send wideouts on crossing patterns, they also like to send someone deep to occupy the safety and prevent him from stalking prey in the middle. Most coaches, anyway. Coles says he was more protected in his first stint in New York than he was with the Redskins last season. "There's no one to make the safety clear out," he says of the Washington offense. "(The safety is) looking at you the whole time. You almost feel it at the line of scrimmage."

Coaches also teach receivers to look for open spaces in zones and to stay under control rather than running blindly in those areas. And quarterbacks are coached to hit receivers from the numbers down, limiting the need to stretch for passes.