Brian Branch has hilarious reaction when asked about Emil Ekiyor's pancake block
Alabama‘s 30-24 win over Ole Miss was filled with highlight plays, which typically feature skill players. But offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor took the spotlight this weekend following a viral pancake block he made on a Rebel’s defensive back when he was pulling on a run play. Crimson Tide defensive back Brian Branch gave some commentary on Ekiyor’s big block, and was asked if he’s ever pancaked him in practice before.
“Emil has tried to do that to me in practice, but it doesn’t go like that,” Branch smiled and said.
Ekiyor’s block came as no surprise to Branch, as he spoke more on his teammate’s ability to execute on plays where he pulls not only against defensive backs, but on any defender.
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“Seeing that, I’ve seen it happen before and Emil is a strong offensive lineman and that would be scary for any defensive player to see an offensive lineman pull, especially a DB,” Branch said. “You can’t avoid it, you got to go meet him.”
An offensive guard blocking a defensive back is a clear physical mismatch that sometimes occurs on certain designed run schemes, but Branch gave some advice from his own experience as a defensive back on how to make the most of the difficult situation when it does occur.
“Like I said, you’ve just gotta go get him before he gets you and that’s the best way to put it. It’s football so stuff like that’s going to happen and you work out for a reason,” Branch said.
Branch was lastly asked if he had any commissaries for the Ole Miss defender that was the victim on the receiving end of Ekiyor’s vicious block, which he kept short and sweet.
“Hey, thats Emil for you,” Branch said.
Nick Saban discusses trying to stop QuinShon Judkins in Ole Miss scheme
Alabama bounced back this week on the road, defeating Ole Miss in Oxford in a close contest 30-24. The Crimson Tide may have pulled out the win, but not without the Rebel’s freshman phenom running back QuinShon Judkins running for his seventh 100-plus yard rushing performance of the season. The Alabama native ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns against the Crimson Tide, and after the game Alabama head coach Nick Saban spoke on the challenge of stopping him and Ole Miss’ offensive scheme.
“He’s a good player, and they’re tough when they spread you out with four wide receivers and they run the ball so well and they have such good backs and he’s an outstanding player,” Saban said. “Fast, physical, can make you miss, hard to tackle, and you got to try to stay in nickel.”
Judkins turned 19 years old this season but has been playing like a veteran, as he currently leads the SEC in rushing yards with 1,171 and touchdowns with 15 in his debut season.
His running style combined with Ole Miss’ ability to spread out defenses has been giving defenses fits all season, including Saban’s in the first half of their ballgame. Saban elaborated on the second half success of his defense and their ability to add another defensive back on the field in certain situations after slowing down Judkins and the Rebels on first and second downs.
“You can’t play dime because you can’t stop the runs and you can’t really match up on the passes,” Saban explained. “So one of the things that happened in the second half that helped us when we got some third down stops is we stopped the run a few times, we got third and long so we could play dime so we could match up on passes and got a couple sacks and got off the field on third down which was huge in the game.”